The Deep Time Question

“Deep time doesn’t start at 2,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 years ago. My use of deep time is about creating perspective and differentiating between the shallowness of human timescales and the depth of natural, geologic, and cosmic timescales. It’s really meant as a way of shifting our perspective so that we’re not talking about what happened five minutes ago, or 100 years ago, or even 500 years ago — but to really place yourself in a timescale where you are disoriented; where you can visit, but aren’t meant to reside. Physiologically, humans are not comfortable with deep time. We don’t process it because it’s biologically so different from our internal clocks.”