Twenty-Five Years Is a Long Time

Abstract

The environment itself is full of free and nonteleological energies-trade winds and storms, oceans streaming over three-fourths of the planet, drifting continental plates, cordilleras of the deep that erupt in volcanic explosions, and miles-deep glaciers piled up on Antarctica that flow into the sea and break off in bobbling icemountains. How can the passions of penguins, albatrosses, jaguars, and humans not lift their eyes beyond the nests and the lairs and the horizons? How can these passions not sink into volcanic rock and the oceanic deserts?-Alphonso Lingis 1 Twenty-five years is a long time. Long enough for a book to sediment and fossilize. Long enough to assess its seismic impact on the discipline. Long enough to absorb the aftershocks. 2 That's 25 years in human time. In geologic time, it's only the slightest breath. 3 The vastness of geologic time is simultaneously incomprehensible and banal. When I began writing about stone, I imagined the relation between geologic and human time as a question of scale. But now, after a year's immersion in stone's vibration, I'm more attuned to the movements of minerals, protons, and photons, to the build-and-decay-and-uplift-and-assimilation, and realize that what preoccupied me occupies me too. Scale is only a small question in this question.

Shifting temporal frames in children’s common worlds in the Anthropocene

“…There is a boulder we think has been there for millions of years (a span that is incomprehensible to our human timescale), connecting us to this forest’s past and present. Hugh Raffles (2012b) reminds us that because stones are objects of long duration, they tell us a lot about life and deep time, and can generate fascinating inquiries. These are ‘situated’ inquiries: ‘particular stones in particular situations provoke particular considerations for particular people’ (Raffles, 2012b).…”

“…Hugh Raffles (2012b) reminds us that because stones are objects of long duration, they tell us a lot about life and deep time, and can generate fascinating inquiries. These are ‘situated’ inquiries: ‘particular stones in particular situations provoke particular considerations for particular people’ (Raffles, 2012b). The children add to the myriad of stories this rock already holds – many games, many movements, many laughs, many tears.…”

“…They have learned that after a rain is a good time to search for deer tracks near the creek; that when the berries are ripe, the deer are more abundant; and that at the end of the day, when the children leave the centre, they are more likely to encounter a deer in the parking lot. The children encounter another time in the forest that is neither human nor animal: the vastness of geologic time (Raffles, 2012a). There is a boulder we think has been there for millions of years (a span that is incomprehensible to our human timescale), connecting us to this forest’s past and present.…”

Anthropocene anthropology: reconceptualizing contemporary global change

“…Tsing refers to these networks as interspecies relations, but I call them ‘earthly relations’, as a reminder that there are ‘non‐living’ components to consider when thinking about life (e.g. planetary geophysical processes, the ‘resonance’ of stones, and the movement of water [Ingold ; Kohn ; Raffles ]).…”

Conceptualizing Difference in SETI: Xenoanthropological Theory and Methods

“…Anthropologists are now studying topics as varied as: telescopes, particle physics, cyborgs, futures, minerals, plants, insects, fungi, microbes, molecules, waves, oceans, and possible forms of extraterrestrial life [e.g. 1,6,11,14,15,19,22,23,28,29,30,32,33,34,37]. These recent moves to de-center the human from anthropology offer models for further shifts away from anthropocentrism that may be necessary in the next generation of SETI research.…”