Quotes from Martin Jones

James Hutton, peering at the fine detail of geological stratigraphy, newly exposed by eighteenth century industrial works. Realizing a simple story was illusory, he instead inferred a world in which 'we find no vestige of a beginning—no prospect of an end'.

Some hominid species may persist for more than a million years, but not forever, and the same will probably be true of us. We are not part of an ongoing and unique surge towards human progress; we are finite components of a natural world that is changing and ephemeral.

Space, time and context all impose limits on what is possible.

At one end of the spectrum was the view that humans were on a path of improvement by historical action and unique invention. At the other end was the view that we, as much as other species in nature, were subject to the rough and tumble of global fluctuation and natural selection.