This evening a full solar eclipse will be viewable from the spanish mainland. I have travelled with my family to a beach town 2 hours south of Barcelona to be within the area of totality for the eclipse that will occur near sunset at 20:29 local time tonight. We have our eclipse glasses ready to stare at the sun.
The last time Spain had a full eclipse visible from the mainland was in August 1905, 121 years ago. No one alive today has seen a total eclipse from the spanish peninsula. Incredibly there will be 3 eclipse events in the next 3 years for Spain, another total eclipse next year, and then an annular “ring of fire” eclipse in January 2028.
I am thinking about how far we have come as humanity since 1905.
In 1905, the aeroplane was 18 months old and nobody had seen one. There were no antibiotics. No one had reached either pole. The atom was thought to be indivisible and Einstein was just beginning to question Newton’s Physics.
In those 121 years, technology has transformed what is possible – how we live, how we travel, how we imagine, how we calculate, how we meet… but in those 121 years the actual human being has not changed.
“The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.” E.O. Wilson
I am imagining 121 years into our future. What new technologies will exist? What new possibilities will that create? Where will humanity have reached?
In my own teaching and research – which is about the psychology of humans – will we have improved education and human decision making in order to play well with that “godlike technology”?
It is not easy to be a human. We come out of prey genetics, rather than apex predator genetics. A lion can lie in the sun on the savannah completely relaxed and at peace. A prey creature is incredibly sensitised for risks and dangers. We have removed all of the original dangers of the savannah – you are very unlikely to be eaten or to die of hunger – but your mind is set up to worry incessantly about these threats. We are the genetic descendents of the most worried and least brave humans of the last 100,000 years. Will we learn to cope in a world where it is not hunger, nor violent predators – but ourselves that are our own worst enemies.
I believe we are making good progress. I spend a lot of time around high integrity leaders who wish to generously contribute to a better world. I think we are getting better and better at bringing up people ever less traumatized than their parents, or their parent’s parents. There are challenges – mobile phones, social media, AI are impacting our young before we have really had a chance to realise the long term impact on being a healthly, well-adjusted human being. We have work to do.
Now for that eclipse…
If you liked this post you will also like How to Stay Sane in Uncertainty and Carl Jung’s 5 Pillars of a Happy Life.