1995 Series 1 Number 15 Page 21
Dr. Nicole Morgan explained how the 19th century saw a change in perceptions of space. She believed the 20th century and the early 21st century are seeing a change in the perception of time, the 4th dimension.
By the end of the 19th century, humans had occupied virtually the entire land surface of Earth, thus completing the space enclosure. Europeans confronted the end of their capacity to expand spatially into other parts of the world. It was the end of the Age of Empires and the end of the Frontier for Americans. Optimistic expansionism was undaunted, however. [In the 20th century we started exploring the rest of the solar system, though the costs of doing so are, well, astronomical. Ed.]
The 20th century opened with a new version: a future paradise based on a combination of technology with social science and political-economic nostrums. As the century was closing, humanity was facing the exhaustion of that world view. The frontier of time was closing. By the end of the 20th century, jet engines, rockets, and computer chips were beginning to define our time enclosure.
The 21st century was dawning on the end of the future. It had become the time and place to confront the limits of humanity’s growth.
Link to | The Contraction of Time
[Arguably, the politics of many previous centuries were about expansion into the territories of others as local resources became exhausted through exploitation. Ed.]
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