The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
We're addicted to this concept of civilization - we can't imagine living outside of it because we've had it for 10,000 years, all of what we call history. But according to archaeologists, humanity has been on this planet for millions of years in indigenous form.
Civilization in its present form hasn't got long.
The greatest events of history are those which affect the greatest number for the longest periods.
I think really, China, Chinese, I think they really have a long history of civilization, rich culture.
Planet Earth is estimated to have a lifetime of nine billion years. And we're right smack in the middle of our lifetime. We've been in the universe for 4.5 billion years. So, that should mean something. We should sort of take a look at where we came from and where we are going.
It would be wonderful if I could see the end of civilization during my lifetime.
Stone Age. Bronze Age. Iron Age. We define entire epics of humanity by the technology they use.
It will take a long time, and certainly the West will remain the dominant civilization well into the next century, but the decline is occurring.
If the lives of men can be measured in terms of years, ideologies in decades, and nations in centuries, then the unit measuring civilizations, born of the interaction among peoples, would be the millennium.
Humans have lived for much, much longer than the approximately 10,000 years of settled agricultural civilization.