When I think of the destruction, suffering, and death that Vladimir Putin has caused by invading Ukraine, my mind jumps to the topic of cosmology. It also reflects on the lives of all conquerors and would-be conquerers.
Why cosmology and conquest history? The hypothesized lifespan of the universe is—give or take a week—100 trillion years. Since a trillion is a thousand billion, the current age of Everything, which is 13.7 or 13.8 billion years, is young. The current lifespan of humans averages less than a hundred years. To put the temporal significance of conquerors in perspective, consider that Atilla the Hun’s 19-year reign was a mere 0.0000000013866861 % of Earth history. Are you getting the point, Vlad? You turn 70 this year. The land you are currently attempting to conquer covers 603,550 km^2 (233,032 mi^2), or about 0.0004% of Earth’s total land area. Unverified but reasonable estimates suggest that for this percentage of Earth’s surface you have already sacrificed the lives of more than 20,000 Russians, maybe as many as 30,000. Of course, my thinking “large” on a cosmological scale isn’t the perspective of a conqueror. No, the conqueror sees the universe in more immediate terms like those 603,550 square kilometers rich in mineral resources and arable land.
Putin wants to make Ukraine a Russian province, but in his attempt, he is currently laying waste to what he desires. “What,” one might ask Vladimir, “will you conquer other than broken cities and a century or more of hatred of your entire nation by the people you conquer?” The Ukrainians have already shown that they treasure those 603.550 square kilometers they have shaped since the fall of the Soviet Union. “In your attempt to conquer, Vlad, you have created enmity among a family of Slavs whose genetic relationships go back a long way. How long will it take to restore what you have destroyed? And it just isn’t the families of the dead Ukrainians that will generate loathing for you; those relatives of dead Russian soldiers will, upon realizing the nature of your motivation, come to despise you for the needless deaths among your own people. Let’s hypothesize, Vlad, that you have thirty more years of life. Given a lifespan of 100 years, you will have lived a mere 0.00000002 % of Earth’s 4.5 billion years, and your years in power as a new Russian Tsar, maybe 30, will be less than a third of that. All Czars, all Caesars, even the Great Augustus Caesar, have had a very short existence.”
But trillions of years, nay hundreds of years, even, aren’t the focus of conquerors. They live in the eternal Now.
I remember a professor of mine saying that his wife is concerned with bread, milk, and eggs while he ponders cosmology. It is true that all humans must think in immediate terms; such is the nature of our finite and risky lives. But a lesson in cosmology, taught early on, might influence some would be conquerors to consider the ramifications of temporary conquest, be that conquest an inner city block controlled by a gang leader or a country controlled by a Czar. What if, for example, Vlad had been taught that all is temporary and that even the universe at large is temporary in that 100 trillion years is, as Carl Sagan once said, precisely as far from infinity as is the the number 1?
Nah! It probably would not have made a difference, but here’s something would be conquerors might consider: Ghengis Khan lived 65 years, so Vlad has already outlived him. And of course, Alexander the Great, arguably the most efficient of conquerors, lived only 33 years. Ruthless Timur the Lame, aka Tamerlane, died at Vlad’s current age. If Vlad lives as long as Ashoka the Great, he has a couple of years left. Or, maybe he might compare himself to Ch'in Shih Huang, whose short life was capped by a burial with 8,000 terracotta soldiers. Will Vlad be so “honored”? Will Vlad be “Vlad the Great?
Check back in one hundred trillion years.
Why cosmology and conquest history? The hypothesized lifespan of the universe is—give or take a week—100 trillion years. Since a trillion is a thousand billion, the current age of Everything, which is 13.7 or 13.8 billion years, is young. The current lifespan of humans averages less than a hundred years. To put the temporal significance of conquerors in perspective, consider that Atilla the Hun’s 19-year reign was a mere 0.0000000013866861 % of Earth history. Are you getting the point, Vlad? You turn 70 this year. The land you are currently attempting to conquer covers 603,550 km^2 (233,032 mi^2), or about 0.0004% of Earth’s total land area. Unverified but reasonable estimates suggest that for this percentage of Earth’s surface you have already sacrificed the lives of more than 20,000 Russians, maybe as many as 30,000. Of course, my thinking “large” on a cosmological scale isn’t the perspective of a conqueror. No, the conqueror sees the universe in more immediate terms like those 603,550 square kilometers rich in mineral resources and arable land.
Putin wants to make Ukraine a Russian province, but in his attempt, he is currently laying waste to what he desires. “What,” one might ask Vladimir, “will you conquer other than broken cities and a century or more of hatred of your entire nation by the people you conquer?” The Ukrainians have already shown that they treasure those 603.550 square kilometers they have shaped since the fall of the Soviet Union. “In your attempt to conquer, Vlad, you have created enmity among a family of Slavs whose genetic relationships go back a long way. How long will it take to restore what you have destroyed? And it just isn’t the families of the dead Ukrainians that will generate loathing for you; those relatives of dead Russian soldiers will, upon realizing the nature of your motivation, come to despise you for the needless deaths among your own people. Let’s hypothesize, Vlad, that you have thirty more years of life. Given a lifespan of 100 years, you will have lived a mere 0.00000002 % of Earth’s 4.5 billion years, and your years in power as a new Russian Tsar, maybe 30, will be less than a third of that. All Czars, all Caesars, even the Great Augustus Caesar, have had a very short existence.”
But trillions of years, nay hundreds of years, even, aren’t the focus of conquerors. They live in the eternal Now.
I remember a professor of mine saying that his wife is concerned with bread, milk, and eggs while he ponders cosmology. It is true that all humans must think in immediate terms; such is the nature of our finite and risky lives. But a lesson in cosmology, taught early on, might influence some would be conquerors to consider the ramifications of temporary conquest, be that conquest an inner city block controlled by a gang leader or a country controlled by a Czar. What if, for example, Vlad had been taught that all is temporary and that even the universe at large is temporary in that 100 trillion years is, as Carl Sagan once said, precisely as far from infinity as is the the number 1?
Nah! It probably would not have made a difference, but here’s something would be conquerors might consider: Ghengis Khan lived 65 years, so Vlad has already outlived him. And of course, Alexander the Great, arguably the most efficient of conquerors, lived only 33 years. Ruthless Timur the Lame, aka Tamerlane, died at Vlad’s current age. If Vlad lives as long as Ashoka the Great, he has a couple of years left. Or, maybe he might compare himself to Ch'in Shih Huang, whose short life was capped by a burial with 8,000 terracotta soldiers. Will Vlad be so “honored”? Will Vlad be “Vlad the Great?
Check back in one hundred trillion years.
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