In under one million years we went from hominids that begged mercy from the sun, the moon and the brutality of the darkness they fought over, to surveyors of countless suns, explorers of the moon, and conquerors of the darkness. One billion years is an inconsequential threat, let alone four and a quarter. We are not faultless beings, but on the cosmic scales of time we have only just been born, still growing and learning.