The biggest story in human history? Like I said it's not an easy question. Good amount of candidates. Obviously, humans beings coming into existence is the easy answer. But that's way more of a gradual progression. Not really a single story. Same thing with the computer. I'm sure when it gets done with what it's doing, it will have revolutionized society more than maybe anything before it. But again, this is gradual, and it's not even done yet. Oh, and before we go any further, let's count out so called miraculous events. Don't tell me Jesus resurrecting, or Noah building an ark is the biggest story in human history. Because these events did not actually happen, they cannot be considered.
The Holocaust was a pretty big story. Couple that with WWII and you got a pretty good candidate I'd say. 9/11 was huge. But I can't see these things being the biggest stories/events in all of human history. The birth and life of Jesus has to be considered a top candidate. Or Mohamed. Or whatever other prophets there were.
But I think I'm gonna go with the discovery of the New World. The Vikings, Columbus, whoever. Whenever it happened, that's my pick. For all intensive purposes, the world doubled in size. New land, new people, new resources, new everything. Am I way off here?
As for the question of of what will be the biggest story in human history when it's all said and done with, that's easy. If it ever happens. But if and when life is discovered somewhere other than Earth, that will be the biggest story in human history. It will mean so much to how we think of ourselves, the universe, whatever god people believe in. It'll be awesome. And it could happen in the next 50 years. And that's conservative. Scientists are pretty much certain that on Jupiter's moon, Europa, there is liquid water below it's icy surface. And as far as I know, there's no reason life could not exist there. All it takes is a mission to get there, melt through the ice, and check for life. This is not too far off. See here and here. If life is discovered there...oh man. One day, life on Earth is unique. Then NASA or someone makes an announcement, and life on Earth is literally commonplace in the Universe. Because if there are two places life exists in one solar system, you know life has got to be all over the place. Furthermore, it's not out of the question that Mars used to have life on it. And then there's Saturn's moon, Titan, which is a possibility. But the real challenge will be getting to life outside the solar system. Because interstellar travel is still a long long way away for us. See? Science is cool. Please watch "The Universe" on the History Channel. Tuesdays at 9. Real good stuff.
Now, the biggest sports story of all time. I think that one is pretty easy too. It's gotta be Jackie Robinson. Right? What else? The first Superbowl? That was bound to happen. The '98 (and '61) home run chase was pretty huge, but no way that that's bigger than Jackie Robinson. I myself am probably biased towards baseball, so if there's something I'm missing, let me know.
As for the cheesy ending to the last post (what will be the biggest story of your life when it's all said and done?): I dont know what it will be. But other than some sort of marriage or birth of a child, I hope the biggest story of my life comes in one of those space control rooms where something is accomplished and then everyone claps, like in the movies. I want to be in one of those rooms real bad. Definitely on my "things to do before I die" list. So that's my story.
Oh, actually, the invention/discovery of fire might be the biggest event in human history. I don't know.
3 comments:
this is full of wrong. first, the answer was WWII, not discovery of the new world. the most important thing about the discovery of the new world was the development and eventual unthinkable success of the US by the ex-british. if it weren't for the rev. war, the western hemisphere would just have been a place for empirical countries to make money and eventually pull out when slavery became unfashionable, leaving a shitload of poor uneducated mofos a la latin america. and "new people"? yeah theyve really contributed a whole lot to current civilization. the natives were just a problem and/or source of slavery for the euro's
and if youre gonna criticize something for being too gradual, the 150 years the us needed to establish and conquer is definitely too long to qualify as an event, or as you put it, "single story".
also, the computer took about as much time (and you could argue much less time or vice versa) to develop as WWII did. if it hadnt been for germany's defeat in WWone, hitler wouldn't have had the impact he did. and the shit going on in the asian theatre had been going on for decades also.
i pretty much agree about the life on other planets... but the stuff on europa's gonna be, best case scenario, microscopic. or so ive heard.
finally, it's "for all intents and purposes"
Are you sure it's "for all intents and purposes"? Cuz they would pretty much mean the same thing.
Secondly, your comment is full of wrong. Just because the discovery of the new world led to bad things (genocides, slavery, and the like), doesn't mean it's not a big story. The question was not "what is the most feel-good story in human history". The discovery of the New World had a profound effect on human history. Just as WWII did. Just as the computer did/is doing.
I can respect your gradualness argument, but still, all the stuff that happened happened as a result of some European on a boat one day saying "land ho".
And you are right. At best, microscopic. But I like the idea that if this one star produces life on two planets, you've gotta figure the universe is littered with it. Billions of galaxies, each one with billions of stars. Science is cool.
"Just because the discovery of the new world led to bad things (genocides, slavery, and the like), doesn't mean it's not a big story."
i never said that! i said the actual discovery didn't do much, it was the actions of the Brits who established the US that made the new world so significant, which is a different event than the discovery.
yeah if there are two sources of life in one solar system... think how many are in the galaxy... and then in the universe! but there's a good chance that if there's intelligent life, it will be conscious on a different level, and we wouldn't even be able to tell they exist. we could even be surrounded by them right now!! think of an ant crawling on a log, and then crawling on a cell phone. the ant can't tell the cell phone has been created my a higher level of intelligence, it just can tell whether the phone is edible, or digable, or movable, etc
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