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Talk about lucky, the Earth will only be habitable by most life for another 500 million years. We showed up in the last 10% of Earth's (habitable) life. If evolution would have zigged instead zagging, we'd never have been at all.

> ”We showed up in the last 10% of Earth's (habitable) life.”

While the Earth has hosted microbial life for about 3.7 billion years, it was only about 2.3 billion years ago (the GOE) that free oxygen started to accumulate in the ocean and atmosphere, making complex multicellular life possible.

So we’re probably in more like the last 20% or 25% of the habitable period.

It doesn't seem all that likely that we're just too early. The planet was stuck with dinosaurs for hundreds of millions of years.

Well paradoxically, it having taken so long for us might mean that it simply takes a long time, which would imply that we are, in fact, early. The truth is though that we just don't know. I think we are early.

Maybe someone did write "Don't be a cunt" using a bunch of stars and we just can't read it :D