The Pale Blue Dot, But Time

On this page, every vertical pixel is equivalent to 100,000 years of time. The top of the page is the Big Bang. The letter "z" in this sentence is about a million years tall.

Get scrolling.

That's us.
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During those 100,000 years, all of human history occurred.

This sentence is several million years after humans. We're gone now. We'll never be back. The universe continues.

Discussion (15)

2024-11-18 15:01:30 by Comodo:

2024-11-18 15:23:36 by rpresser:

Is there a particular monitor resolution I need to use to make this accurate? And what does the entire page represent? big bang to heat death?

2024-11-18 18:43:01 by helen:

why is the date on this page listed as 2021-06-23?

The scale is accurate at any monitor resolution. The whole page is twice the current age of the universe... I'm in two minds about how much further to go. If it actually went to the heat death of the universe you would be literally scrolling until the heat death of the universe. The 2021 date is because this has sat in my drafts for a while.

2024-11-18 23:13:18 by Pixel:

I'll be honest, I fully expected a blue pixel somewhere... I always found the current age of the universe awfully short. 14 billion years seem like not very much at all.

2024-11-22 17:22:38 by Andrew:

This assumes humanity will die out in a few thousand years at most, and nothing will be left. Where's the science fiction future you promised me in Fine Structure?!

2024-11-22 17:23:39 by qntm:

Fine Structure was not a promise.

2024-11-27 15:56:40 by JFarceur:

@Andrew: I think that "a few thousand years" is optimistic. I fear even I will watch the beginning of the end in my lifetime.

2024-12-12 16:13:50 by Saphroneth:

The claim is that a 100,000 year layer contains "all of human history". Not all of human existence. I take that as an estimate we might last up to another 95,000 years!

2024-12-17 10:49:22 by bikko:

waw! that is sick but i feel useless now

2024-12-25 07:34:30 by rainy:

hi! (saw an article-story from this site shared by someone on an smbc-comics discussion. yay/sorry in whatever corresponding amounts are due.) thank you for this experience-visualization! the scroll of blank space helps a lot. here's a link or a few for others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_universe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_timeline_from_Big_Bang_to_Heat_Death (remember this is on a freaking double-log scale) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future this mentioned, i cannot help but yap that we should probably be careful with our climate, if only for our own quality of life (and even economic efficiency) for the short-term future.

2025-01-15 19:18:16 by EightRoundsRapid:

I wonder what it will be like to be one of those last humans, and what kind of remnants our civilisation will leave behind? I like to think we'll leave this planet / solar system full of bizarre artifacts that some other species might one day be interested to stumble upon.

2025-01-23 18:54:33 by Lachdanan:

I've heard grumblings that Keir Starmer has not been the savior that you Brits have hoped for, but dang!

2025-05-07 04:04:59 by Xib:

Hard disagree Now is the start of the Human era. We've planned too many wonders for one little star.

2025-07-21 21:26:04 by Liam I.:

That's a hell of a lot of future for the claiming, assuming you're wrong about the “We're gone now” prediction