One Lifetime

For the past few months my creative energies have really been focused on graduate school applications. I’m ready to take that next big step out into my life and I’m hoping that step will land in another country. I’ve been putting out my tentacles, feeling out where life will pull me next.  I was contemplating this process while editing my essays the other day (for a program application) when it dawned on my just how much life I have already lived up until now. I mean, for a woman of 27, I have gotten to do nearly as much as some people get to do in an entire lifetime. I have had immense privilege in my life to be able to have accomplished so much; and there are other people in the world who have accomplished even more feats that I have by this age.

As much as this truth is relevant today, in a world where privilege is spread unequally among humanity, it has even more relevance when we think about our modern life as compared to someone who lived 100 years ago.  Life was much slower back then, one generally accomplished much less in one lifetime then that we do now.  Modern technology has allowed productivity to flourish; there is always something to do. We are doing much more in the same amount of time, which has a tangible effect on the way our brains process information as well.

The kids I work with have an extremely high capability for understanding technology. To them it is completely normal; after all, they have grown up with it around them their entire lives.  Therefore, for children, it is no more difficult for them to operate modern technology then it is for them to learn how to solve a puzzle; for – it is the same thing.  It is all relative to them; it is simply a matter of perspective.

On that same note, looking from an alien perspective upon our Earth, one might notice how in a matter of 100 years our time; we have become n% more productive. And our productivity, along with our population, is also rising exponentially.  From an alien perspective, one could even conclude that a modern human technically lives longer than a historical human simply based on the fact that the modern human accomplishes more in their lifetime than a historical human. After all, isn’t that why historical human’s wanted a longer life? To accomplish more?

With that frame of reference, it is easy to see how as we evolve we will continue to process more and more information. We will – in a sense – be living longer and longer, as we will have the ability to accomplish more in one lifetime. As the mind is able to process more, the very concept of "lifetime" could change as well.  The notion of one lifetime could have a completely different meaning in 100 years than it does now. “One lifetime” certainly has a slightly different meaning now than it did then.  It’s conceptually the same idea, but it has a different connotation.

Just like raising a child, it is sometimes difficult to see one’s growth until you step out of the picture and look at the whole from “beginning” to “end.” (Where does anything ever really begin or end anyways?).  For humanity, it can be difficult for us to witness our own evolution in the present; retrospect is much easier.  I personally see this heightened ability to process at faster and faster rates as a huge signifier of our current evolution.  If our brain can process more, it is because it has begun to perceive more. And perception is everything – it creates our reality. So, if we are able to perceive more, who knows what that could mean in terms of our reality, and our abilities as human beings.  The possibilities are endless.