Immediacy or Temporal Myopia
Much of how we view our world is
filtered – by time, by previous experiences, by others’ reactions. This is one
reason why scientists keep careful records of their observations and
experiments. Otherwise, we would be subjected to the most strongly held,
no-basis-in-scientific-fact opinions of those around us. Sort of like the
Internet.
Q: There seems to be alot of Earthquake and Volcano
activity going on lately within the pacific ring of fire. Is there more
earthquakes and active volcanos this year then there has been in a while? Seems
rather worrying :( Thank you!
- Jessica M
A: Not to worry - it has always been this way - there is
nothing particularly unusual going on. Please understand that earthquakes and
volcanic eruptions do NOT occur in a steady rhythm*. If you average over a
10-year cycle it evens out and looks similar from cycle to cycle. From a much
larger window of time - something research seismologists can see because they
have decades-long databases to work with - you can see the synoptic view. The
larger picture shows these apparent surges in events are just the Earth system
puttering along as usual.
* There is a tendency among human beings that for lack of
a better expression I call temporal myopia. We tend to remember only the most
recent attention-grabbing events, and focus on them. We also tend NOT to
remember as well older similar events, nor the periods of quiescence between
them. Immediacy might be another word for this tendency.
