A couple of days ago there was a scheduled power outage in our neighborhood. PG&E were replacing a power pole up the street, and they indicated that our power might be out for up to eight hours. To ensure our fridge stayed cool without power, we froze a couple of large bowls of water the previous night, then left them in the fridge in the morning.
After the power came back on, we dumped the blocks of ice in the sink, and it got me thinking. It’s August, in Santa Cruz, and I’ve got a big block of ice that I’m just letting melt in my sink. One hundred years ago I would have put it into my icebox, to save me having to buy it from the local iceman. Two hundred years ago I would have been surprised to have a block of ice at this time of year. In theory, a sailing ship coming down from Alaska may have brought some. Or maybe someone carried winter ice from the Sierras into local underground storage; unlikely but possible. Three hundred years ago, the existence of ice here at this time of year would have been a miracle.
There are different ways of measuring the length of human history. I’ll use the Neolithic Revolution, which marks the development of agriculture, as the starting point of human civilization. This occurred about 10,000 BCE, or 120 centuries ago.
| Centuries ago | Reaction to block of ice in August in Santa Cruz |
| 120 | Inconceivable |
| 119 | Inconceivable |
| 118 | Inconceivable |
| 117 – 5 | Inconceivable |
| 4 | Inconceivable |
| 3 | Inconceivable |
| 2 | Extremely unlikely |
| 1 | Unsurprising, but useful |
| 0 | Meh, let it melt |
Of course, there are hundreds of examples of how humans adapt to change and then take it for granted, many at a much faster rate than this. This one just struck me because it was physically tangible.
