200 Years Isn't Such a Long Time

I'm about 50 years old. So, I have a sense of the duration of 50 years. I can imagine twice that, so I think I have a sense of the duration of 100 years. When I was little, I didn't have a sense of time on this scale because I lacked the experience of it. I used to think that 100 years was an unfathomably long time. Now I don't. I used to think that things were so different 100 years ago because it was a long time ago. Now I realize that it's not because 100 years is a long time, but that the pace of change is fast (and also probably accelerating).

I also think I have a sense of a time span of  200 or 300 hundred years, which takes us back to colonial times. It's only about 5 times my age and I know what 10 years is like compared to 50. Let me tell you young folks, it's not that long ago. I think my maximum grasp of a time interval is about 2000 years, if I really concentrate. Let me tell you, it's not so long ago. Now billions of years, that's a pretty long time, but from my previous reasoning, if I was a 100 million years old, I might not think it's that long a time. If I could just get a grasp of that amount of time it might let me in on what's going on with time itself, which I wouldn't mind at all. Cause it seems to me sometimes that I've given time too much credit.