Note: Playing a bit: here are a few thoughts that arose as I grappled with the concept of deep time. I could not begin to answer these on my own, without very large amounts of research. I certainly have read on these topics for decades, but not with a view to actually writing about the issues. Each topic could take a book, and many books have been written on such material.
I did run these past ChatGPT 3.5 Large Language Model Artificial Intelligence and read its responses. I have not included them here, since I think that they were inadequte. However, science is also inadequate to provide answers on this material; certainly not definitive answers. I may run this by ChatGPT a section at a time, since it is limited in the amount that it can process at one go.
Still it is worth considering deep time to gain perspective on our current concerns. — Ephektikoi
I. Concept of Deep Time
Who came up with the term "deep time" in the past and in the present?
What time spans was the originator talking about?
Is a span of 10,000 years considered "deep time"? What about 100,000 years? What about 1,000,000 years?
II. Age of the Cosmos and Earth
What is the current thought on the age of the cosmos?
What is the current thought on the age of the Earth?
III. Emergence of Life and Panspermia Hypothesis
What is the idea of panspermia?
Is this a possibility for the origin of life on earth?
Does it not just put us into an infinite regress as to origins?
IV. Origin and Definition of Species
What is the current thought on the time when life arose?
What is a species? What about viruses? What about asexual organisms?
V. Geographic and Temporal Clines
Discuss the notion of geographic variation creating a cline.
Discuss the notion of temporal variation creating a cline.
VI. Evolutionary Dynamics and Temporal Variations
What are the temporal variations as species grade into other species, with or without punctuated equilibrium?
VII. Extinct Species Estimates
What are the lower and upper bound estimates for the total number of animal species that have existed?
What are the lower and upper bounds for the duration of a given species, taking into account that species grade into successor species, without clear boundaries?
How often do species vanish with no progeny?
VIII. Extant Species Estimates
What are the lower and upper bounds for the number of extant species? Break this down for animals, plants, bacteria, and virus varieties.
IX. Geological Transformations and Geomorphology
Explain the dance of the continents - changes in continental shape over deep time.
Explain this vast transformations on the planet over geological time with respect to geomorphology, continents, and continental drift.
Discuss continental drift and transformations.
Discuss changes in continental shape.
X. Climate Changes Over Deep Time
Explain the vast changes in climate over deep time, including snowball Earth, ice ages, and ice coverage.
XI. Fluctuations in Sea Level
Explain large changes in sea level over time, sometimes deep time,
Explain large chages in sea level in more historical times.
XII. Episodes of Earth Subsidence and Rise
Discuss episodes of Earth subsidence and rise and the magnitued or scale of such events.
XIII. Sudden Cataclysmic Events
Discuss the evidence for destructive asteroid and comet impact and its impact on climate and life, both in deep time and more historical times.
Discuss the evidence for massive and explosive volcanism and its impact on life, both in deep time and more historical times.
Discuss the evidence for cataclysmic inundation from the geological record in deep time and more historical times.