Inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), I began making this short film in 1975. The soundtack is new. The original soundrack was very poor in quality.

R.W.Williams presents a few highlights of Earth's 4.6 billion year history. At a scale of 10 centimeters = 1 million years, the entire 4.6 billion year timeline is 460 meters long. All of human history since the advent of agriculture, written language and civilization, is only the last 0.6 millimeter (= 6 thousand years). Amazingly, out of 460 meters, it is this last 0.6 millimeter we Homo sapiens call "history".

Photo and editing: Neil Weisbrod and John Hall