In the fossil record, we find what has been called the Cambrian Explosion. It is marked by a dramatic burst of animal and plant forms, indicating a rapid diversification of life, with many new species emerging and competing for survival.
It seems we live in a similar period of rapid and diverse innovation. Our tool landscape is emerging and morphing at a fast pace. Many new tools seem to last only one or a few generations before being cast into the dustbin of has-beens.
What forms of tools will still be around in a hundred or a thousand years from now? The geological record will maintain the echo of our tools long after all our bones are no longer detectable.
Consider just one example: the Voyager spacecrafts, now well past the edge of the solar system. These two tools will probably not encounter another object for billions of years and may not degrade into unrecognizable dust for many billions after that. Meanwhile, our bones may last only a couple of billion years before plate tectonics buries them in entropic chaos.
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