the dark glass
You see, I think the current state of the situation is this - humanity has turned its back on evolution.
Or do I mean advancement?
The idea of evolution, of natural selection, and slowly adapting to our environment, no longer really applies to us in the same way. We have taken ourselves out of our natural environment, and created a new one. We stockpile food, we build walls to keep us safe from predators, we even use medicine to treat people who once would have died, preserving their conditions in our gene pool where once they would have vanished.
Or to put it another way, we have taken our lives out of the hands of the Gods, and are now making all the decisions ourselves - which is a problem, because we're not that smart. We're inventive though - our toolmaking ability has flourished, to the point where it can significantly effect our environment. When Archimedes said "give me a place to stand and a lever long enough, and I will move the Earth", he wasn't kidding.
So where does that leave us? In an environment we have crafted for ourselves, trying to desperately speed up evolution, before it all melts down. This is the blipvert generation - attention span down, need for immediate gratification high. Lunch comes from a drive-thru, computers double in speed every 18 months. Why should we wait for our webbed fingers, our gills, our cyberports?
But at this point we can only evolve within the structures we have created for ourselves - so we must keep trying to improve and expand those structures.
Or give up.
Let's face it, it's a lot of effort - and a strange effort at that, for all us strung out little chimps. More and more, people just want to turn it all off, sit back, and enjoy a banana. Turn off the higher brain, and let the animal loose. That's what I'm tring to say here, that's what I've been observing.
Masses, choose your opiate. I see you finally turning off the effort, turning off the struggle. Going too far though, and becoming zombies. We're never going to advance fast enough to satisfy our human desire to advance, which leaves us unsatisfied. We yearn and yearn and eventually we must fail; where is the other choice for us? Where lies satisfaction? Where lies peace?
We've lost something, and it's something we each have to find for ourselves. Perhaps it's time to get to know ourselves again, instead of all the things we feel we could or should be.
If you're reading this on a screen, try something for me. Turn it off. Lean in and peer at the murky reflection in the dark glass.
That's humanity, right there.
Or do I mean advancement?
The idea of evolution, of natural selection, and slowly adapting to our environment, no longer really applies to us in the same way. We have taken ourselves out of our natural environment, and created a new one. We stockpile food, we build walls to keep us safe from predators, we even use medicine to treat people who once would have died, preserving their conditions in our gene pool where once they would have vanished.
Or to put it another way, we have taken our lives out of the hands of the Gods, and are now making all the decisions ourselves - which is a problem, because we're not that smart. We're inventive though - our toolmaking ability has flourished, to the point where it can significantly effect our environment. When Archimedes said "give me a place to stand and a lever long enough, and I will move the Earth", he wasn't kidding.
So where does that leave us? In an environment we have crafted for ourselves, trying to desperately speed up evolution, before it all melts down. This is the blipvert generation - attention span down, need for immediate gratification high. Lunch comes from a drive-thru, computers double in speed every 18 months. Why should we wait for our webbed fingers, our gills, our cyberports?
But at this point we can only evolve within the structures we have created for ourselves - so we must keep trying to improve and expand those structures.
Or give up.
Let's face it, it's a lot of effort - and a strange effort at that, for all us strung out little chimps. More and more, people just want to turn it all off, sit back, and enjoy a banana. Turn off the higher brain, and let the animal loose. That's what I'm tring to say here, that's what I've been observing.
Masses, choose your opiate. I see you finally turning off the effort, turning off the struggle. Going too far though, and becoming zombies. We're never going to advance fast enough to satisfy our human desire to advance, which leaves us unsatisfied. We yearn and yearn and eventually we must fail; where is the other choice for us? Where lies satisfaction? Where lies peace?
We've lost something, and it's something we each have to find for ourselves. Perhaps it's time to get to know ourselves again, instead of all the things we feel we could or should be.
If you're reading this on a screen, try something for me. Turn it off. Lean in and peer at the murky reflection in the dark glass.
That's humanity, right there.