Quote by William Irwin Thompson
With the emergence of civilization, the rate of change shifted from hundreds of thousands of years to millennia. With the emergence of science as a way of knowing the universe, the rate of change shifted to centuries.
Summary
This quote highlights the shift in the rate of change that occurred with the development of civilization and the emergence of science. It suggests that prior to civilization, change took place over incredibly long periods of time, measured in hundreds of thousands of years. However, with the rise of civilization, the pace of change accelerated, taking place over thousands of years. Furthermore, the quote posits that science as a tool for understanding the world further accelerated the rate of change, compressing it into centuries. This highlights the transformative effect that civilization and scientific knowledge have had on the pace at which humanity evolves and progresses.