Das Rad – Rockmen On The Evolution of Humans

This is a cute short animation, nominated for an Oscar (and winner of 8 other international awards) in 2003:

Rockmen with lichen

The short follows the conversation between two rockmen as they watch the evolution of humans ~10,000 years ago. The film does a great job illustrating what some geologists refer to as “deep time” – i.e. the ability of humans to think about timescales longer than we experience ourselves (or can put into context, like “my Grandmother’s generation”) is inherently limited, so thinking about thousands, millions, or billions of years, without an aid, is futile. (the same could be said about “deep space”, of course – how big is a galaxy, anyways, and how much “empty” space is there?”

Anyways, check out the video here, and see for yourself – it also has a bit of a “don’t worry, be happy” attitude to our perceived (well, some of our perceptions anyways) impending doom.

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Dave Semeniuk spends hours locked up in his office, thinking about the role the oceans play in controlling global climate, and unique ways of studying it. He'd also like to shamelessly plug his art practice: davidsemeniuk.com