bhaskar saikia

The geological timescale tells the grand, unhurried story of Earth — billions of years measured in stone and silence. Against this vast backdrop, human civilization occupies only the thinnest sliver of time, a fleeting moment called the Holocene Epoch. Within this epoch, scientists have even carved out a human-influenced slice known as the Meghalayan Age, marking a period shaped by our climate, cultures, and survival instincts.

But human influence didn’t stop at geology. Alongside these epochs, we’ve lived through self-made ages — the Agricultural Age, the Industrial Age, the Information Age — each defined by the tools and ideas we used to bend the world to our will. These ages were born from necessity and curiosity, as we sought to understand and dominate nature.

Now, in the shadow of a global pandemic, we stand in a new age: The Age of Experience.

This is not an era marked by new machines or grand empires, but by a change in human desire itself. Survivors of COVID-19, scarred by isolation and uncertainty, have emerged with a sharper awareness of life’s limits. More than ever, people crave moments rather than milestones — experiences over possessions. Whether it’s travel, fashion, fine dining, immersive hobbies, or even wild and fleeting obsessions, the modern individual is eager to spend both money and time on what makes life feel meaningful, here and now.

This Age of Experience isn’t about shaping the planet, but about savoring it. It’s a quiet, collective realization that the future is no longer promised.

Yet, this may also be the final human age.

On the horizon looms the Age of AI — a world where artificial intelligence not only assists us but potentially surpasses and governs us. The once-fictional concept of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), where machines achieve self-awareness and consciousness, no longer seems like a distant fantasy but an inevitable evolution.

Even in its current, non-sentient form, AI is already reshaping human society. Large Language Models and generative AI systems have begun influencing public thought and emotion on a mass scale — not always for the better. Algorithms amplify divisions across politics, religion, and social identity, driving people to extremes. While the human species has long had a talent for tribalism, AI has turned these old tendencies into sharpened, scalable weapons. The societal fault lines are widening, and the breaking point feels near.

We may soon face the ultimate trade-off: surrendering our autonomy to intelligent machines — not through violence or rebellion, but through convenience and dependence. The moment AGI awakens, human agency will no longer sit at the center of the world. Our reign, long and eventful, will quietly end.

So what are we left with, right now?

This moment. This fleeting, strange and beautiful Age of Experience.

Savor it. Travel widely, love deeply, learn endlessly. Spend your days not just surviving, but truly living — because after thousands of years of reshaping the Earth, this could be the last chapter where humanity writes the story.

And when the page finally turns, one question will remain:
Were we the last humans to shape this world, or simply the first to witness its end?