Evolve or Die
Posted on: August 24, 2010 - 9:16pm
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Evolve or Die
As I was unpacking my older books and magazines,I came across a article in "Mother Jones" magazine,titled Evolve or Die and when I was rereading it I thought to myself - YES we need logic and rational thinking if we are to continue the human race and many other species,there is imperial scientific proof that we as a thinking species are causing global warming and other nasty things like Nuclear Warfare,but people that are religious seems to doubt the evidence that is there for all to see and to understand our dilemma concerning our problems.This article reminded me of a book I read "The Age of Unreason" by Susan Jacoby. must we all Evolve ? What do you think ? 
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The other day I was wondering to myself whether, a bit like those fruitfly in a jar experiments, evolution up to this point, has equipped us poorly for the situation of global success in which we find ourselves. It's like the things that served us so well in our perilous past are now working against us.
Our memories are too short and our relentless aspirationalism is a burden on resources. How much do we need? What will make us happy? Must we move around all over the place expending CO2 just scratch our migration itch? Then there's our tribalism, our defensiveness, our craving for kids, our cultural resistance to change, our longing for personal victories. All our selfish, self-serving tendencies - played out across 6-plus billion people - have the potential to ultimately doom the planet.
I think I've mentioned this elsewhere but for mine, humans are at their best in conditions of extreme trial. I imagine we won't start making an effort to save ourselves and our fellow passengers on the Earth until it's a matter of life and death. When we are faced with a ticking clock and growing cabbage in our own backyards and watering it with filtered spit is heroic, we'll suddenly decide to make changes.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
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I am hoping that the present trend of knee jerk politics, and fear driven ignorance is cyclical…and that eventually people will tire of having their hopes betrayed whenever they put their faith in someone, or something else….
For our part, I think all we can do is to keep blogging, interacting, and presenting the case for reasonability without being needlessly confrontational (although, sometimes intellectually bludgeoning one imbecile can open the eyes of other potentially easily led followers)… In this age of media, and overexposure to information, both accurate and otherwise, it’s difficult to gauge which direction the prevailing winds will blow… historically, this dynamic is unprecedented….
If we don’t blow ourselves up first, Eventually, there will be a charismatic person who will come along at the right time to spark an “Critical thinking” enlightenment …Science is doing some amazing things… Let’s just hope that over time, religion isn’t going to be able to withstand discovery, and actuality…
www.RichWoodsBlog.com
I don't know...is gross evolution even applicable to modern humans, especially on the time scales we interact with?
Our technology seems to eliminate most selection pressure, and we're seemingly on the cusp of taking control of our own genetic legacy.
I agree with you though, as a race, we accomplish the most while under stress. I'm with Hawking though, I think the thing that kills off humanity probably won't give enough warning for us to do anything meaningful about it...if I were the ruler of the word I'd be putting a significant bit of change towards underground and oceanic expansion, then aiming to get human stock off of the planet and eventually out of the system.
Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.