AoL is us?

[Angel of Death]

Anajon's ter'angreal board made me think of this.

 

Does any one see the AoL (from companion guide) as being very much like our current world. (technology wise i mean). The have jo`cars (cars) sho'wings(airplanes) and TV's(can't remember what they were called.)

[Thor]

they also had teleporters, floating domes, people living to high 200s, very effective contraception.

[Guest Egwene]

more like the utopian us though....

[Davian]

More like a utopian society with Star Wars technology in my opinion.

[Guest cwestervelt]

A couple of problems with the Age of Legends being our Age. We have never known "Universal Peace" for one. A little more conclusive is this quote from the Question of the Week:

Week 18 Question: Who were the first channelers, and how did they learn? By trial and error? Are there any Ages where channeling does not exist?

 

Robert Jordan Answers: The first people to discover the ability to channel learned through trial and error, with fairly high casualty rates until they learned enough not to kill themselves accidentally. Their appearance marked the beginning of the previous Age to that of the books, or at least the end of the Age before that one.

 

Yes, as I have set things up, there are Ages when no one has any idea of how to channel or even that the One Power exists. Our own, for one. (The Wheel of Time turns.)

[Jellybelly]

The AoL can hardly be our age, since there are no channelers here. As RJ points out explicitly.

[LonGunmn49]

Yeah, I think of it more like we're the first age, then something happens to bring about the ability to channel, and the utopian AoL develops, and so on until it loops about again, with the ability to channel lost at some point.

[the dude]

i think in terms of our Age being one of the latter ones; 5, 6, or 7. probably 7. we'd be the guys who brought it all down, and it would all have to start up again.

[Jellybelly]

Well, when we see how far our society has progressed toward the utopia of the AoL in six thousand years, I would think it more likely that we are the first age. All we need is for the ability to channel to be rediscovered.

[SinisterDeath]

The main thing you all have to remember, is that the ages don't necissary follow a pattern like. 1 = world created, 2 = channeling starts, 3 = society falls, 4 =society picks up again, 5, fall, 6 rise, 7 fall, 8 destroyed universe, and back to 1 again...

Within each age, anything could happen, the worlds civilization could rise/fall 300 times and not see the end of an "age", nor does it mean that 1 is the begining, nor 8 is the ending.. There are no beginings, or endings in the wheel!

[Jellybelly]

Not nowadays no, but when the universe was created, there was a beginning.

[SinisterDeath]

Your assuming it was created! :P

Or, if you believe the bigbang theory... it would eventually compact itsself back into its orginal shape.. but that would basically say "there is a begining and an ending that lead into an endless loop."

 

However in wot, there is no beginning or an end.And just because age 1-8 happens, doesnt mean when age 1 comes again, the universe/world has to be destroyed in the process. :P

And hey, rj uses the wheel as a refrence to a um.. that thing they used to make string from wool on... And each Age produces an "age lace", and each cycle of the wheel makes a pattern on the bigger "quilt", or better yet, each "cycle of the wheel" prodcues one "quilt" :P

And what does this quilt look like? Obviously bela.

[Jellybelly]

Can't really argue with that!

 

Anyway, I am not discussing the real world here, merely wanted to point out that since RJ states that the Dark One was sealed away at the moment of creation, then there was a creation. That constitutes a beginning, in my book. :P

[Angel of Death]

Yeah, good ideas. Thats why I said tech wise. But yes they are a bit further than us. If you read my Third Age = First Age, theory, i give my ideas of us being the first in there.

[thetopgun]

2 theories, i cant decide which i like better.

Us = First Age, all we need is channeling to be discovered (hopefully soon ;) ) It would fit in very well, currently the DO (satan) is pretty much a myth. And when channeling is discovered it will nullify religon as channeling doesnt fit in with any religon (correct me if im wrong). So with christianity etc... not being around, the Myth of the DO will disappear, which is why the AoL folk dont know about the DO and end up drilling the bore.

 

Or we are the 5th age. The DO is fact in 3rd age, then due to Rands actions, he becomes legend in the 4th age, where the OP is lost (dont know how this fits in the fact/legend/myth progression). The disappearance of the OP signals the 5th age, but the loss of the OP causes some kind of catacysmic event, where we loose technology and have to start from scratch, hence why we go through the caveman era. And seeing as we are the 5th age, the DO has become myth to us, and we develop religion to replace the Creator and OP.

 

What you think?

[Cybertrolloc]

I think your metaphor fails on the religion side. The big 3 western religions all have the creator taking an active part in the world at least in their dogma if not in what followers tend to believe (Jordan's creator made the world but doesn't interfere or take part, except for maybe the EotW voice which could be DO, but doesn't make sense if it's him). WoT also has predestination, which I don't think any modern religions preach (how boring).

 

You can pick pieces of the characters/events out of myths from all over, but I'm not sure about the cosmology as a whole.

[algspkr]

Focusing on the main topic.

 

In TSR when Elayne Thom Nynaeve and Julian are on the Seafolk ship Thom says that the stories of Mosk and Merk, two giants with spears of fire that reached around the world were from the first age. He also mentions Anlan, Queen Elsbet, and Lenn who flew to the moon in the belly of an egeal made of fire as being from that age. Those stories are obviously bastardized from our history.

[cannon]

I definitely think we are the first age. When you look at the quote that begins each book, you see that each section is an age:

 

"The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the age that gave its birth comes again."

 

So memories becoming legend is the difference between the current Age and the Age of Legends. Therefore, the legend fading into Myth means that myths of the current Age are from two ages ago (in this case the third age).

 

The myths that algspkr mention like Mosk and Merc are clearly us, so we are the first age.

 

1st: Us

2nd: Age of Legends

3rd: current

4th: ?

5th: ?

6th: ?

7th: ?

[Angel of Death]

Yeah, I changed my views to this a while ago, the tech of AoL was better than us, and it was said in the companion guide that, the first age was a time of war and fighting - not much else known. We are defenitly in a time like that.

[Musenge]

I reckon it's more like

 

1st: Barbarism. Age ended by People learning to channel.

2nd: Age of Legends

3rd: current 1000NE

4th: Technological age (from Rand's schools) mixed with one power. Age ended by loss of ability to channel.

5th: ???

6th: Men running with wolves medieval mythology age. Portal stones from this age.

7th: Us to our furture of techno stuff. Age ended by nuclear catastrophe.