In 2003 British science fiction author Stephen Baxter published his long (592 pages) novel “Evolution.” It is named for its central character. In addition to the Prologue and Epilogue it consists of 19 novella-length chapters in three sections: Ancestors, Humans, and Descendants. The novel covers a period of some 165 million years. Each chapter deals with a different time period, the first one in the farthest reaches of the past, the last in the far distant future.
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At the centerpoint of the novel, a few years from now, Life As We Know It is at its peak. Civilization is brought down by a perfect storm of pestilence and terrorism. Those few who survive retreat into the forest.

Until that point, the novel had celebrated the increasing complexity of the mind, the growth of intelligence, the creation of civilization. A success story.

​        But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near . . .
 
Or so said Andrew Marvell back in the 17th century. Given my present age and the present pestilential crisis, I find the words just as pertinent for today. One wonders who is driving that chariot and one suspects it is someone one would rather not meet late at night in a dark alley.

Marvell is addressing a woman whom he wishes to seduce. He states that right up front:

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.