Saturday, July 09, 2005
You know about the Darwin theory of evolution? Well I think that as long as its applied to us, as a species, it inadequately explains our behaviour and our interaction with the environment. His idea of a dog-eat-dog society, where the fittest survives and all else are banished to extinction captured the imagination of many (although its interesting to note that most of these are terms not invented by the man himself).
Human beings on the other hand are somewhat of a quagmire in this large jigsaw puzzle. On one hand we are part of the environment and thus should be subjected like all other creatures, however our mastery over it is completely unprecedented in the 4 billion years or so of life on Earth. From controlling the temperature via the use of air-cons and heaters, to entertainment via the TV, to the extraction of billions of barrels of crude oil to fuel plants to supply the electricity for the air-cons, heaters and TV, all goes to show that our interaction with the environment is no longer one of balance.
In many movies, its contented that aliens are superior humanoid creatures. However, if life on earth is any indicator, evolution will stop when an intelligent creature evolves on a planet, ie humans. There is simply no need to evolve after that, since we will be able to control the environment to our whim and fancy. There will be no need to grow fur in the harshest winter, no need to evolve poison sting to deter predators or catch prey, since they will not cause our extinction. Quite on the contrary, the only organism that can kill us is ourselves (notice the wars, global warming and such).
Thus as a sole specie that has mastery of the planet, we are shown to be surprisingly irresponsible for it. Our supposed super-power the USA do not wish to reduce its green house emissions so that it can produce more cars to pollute the air. Rogue states and terrorist are trying to create nuclear weapons to ensure a nuclear fallout and in the depths of the Pacific lie the debris of the Cold War that can blow the Earth up ten times over. If only we were more well evolved in the guilt department as we are in the intelligence. What the world needs now is not another economic boom, not another agreement in the G8 to curb world population, not another miracle drug. We need all of that of course, but what we need most is the realisation that we are the final products of evolution, that we are ulitmately responsible for the preservation of life on Earth. We have a right to be arrogant, but it must be tampered, and quickly so.
11:46 PM
