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Friday 30 May 2014

WATER ON EARTH




The other day, we were talking about water. I don’t remember very well how our conversation began, but it was because somebody said water is infinite. I replied ‘No, it’s not’. It’s one of this things I remember from the school, because my memory is strange and some things, which they taught me in school, I’ve retained in my mind -although I remember much more from TV, film and books-. I remembered a curious detail: that water may be vast but it is finite. That is, the same amount of water exists in the planet since Earth, at the moment of its formation, cooled down and steam became water. That’s why water follows its cycle, from the ocean to the clouds, rain, land, rivers and again to the ocean, but always the same water eternally recycled. The thing is that water must be a lot to seem endless. But if it is indeed finite, then there has to be a figure, so promptly we googled it and there it was. So easy, so quick.




Who was the first one to ask how much water was on Earth? After that one many more, but no one could google it before. How lucky we are! We can know anything in an instant. This is something truly revolutionary. We are not conscious but we are living a revolution, something which changes everything. Why do we want to go school in order to accumulate the maximum information possible which we might need one day? -it’s something quite random-. It’s not needed because the moment we need it, in case we need it, we’ll get it instantly, because there is the internet and smart phones. I know there are people to whom this idea feels horrible. We’re wasting time in schools!! Especially in a moment like now when free school and its value are questionable. But this value is old and obsolete. Public, free and compulsory education had value when the information was a scarce good which only few people retained and could communicate. But nowadays information is everywhere and belongs to all of us –by the way, nothing more social or socialist-. Actually, today anyone can learn what he or she wants if they invest enough time. Time is the only valuable good now. Then, going back to school, I imagine what great pianist I could be if, instead of studying maths or economy -the subjects I used to hate the most-, I would have spent all that time studying music and playing piano. Basically I would have invested all my time in something I was really interested in, instead of feeling frustrated trying to learn what all of us had to learn in the same way and the same level –marks- even though I would never need that information in my adult life. I ask the question here. Do we need schools? Colleges? Titles? I think it’s a great debate. Yes, I think we do, but they should be presented in a very different way.

By the way, there are more than 326 millions of trillions of gallons of water on Earth. One gallon is 3.785 litres. Can you do the calculation?

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