So I was playing Minecraft last night, and as I was mindlessly
breaking apart cobblestone I like to have the Minecraft IRC on my other
moniter to talk about the game with other players or just chat about
random stuff. Eventually the conversation flowed into evolution as it
always seems to do in chat rooms at one time or another. I am not a big
fan of discussing philosophy. I've spent too many days wasting my time
on stupid theories with "intelligent" stoners. Ones who think they are
helping the planet by discussing the existence of intelligent design, or
how gravity affects the bong they are smoking out of, without basing
any of it on scientific fact. Regardless, I can't help but voice my
opinion in chat rooms, or in games when these topics come up, simply
because the internet (and how uninhibited people are on it) fascinates
me.
One of the users brought up that it's the "fittest"
that are eventually going to survive. I made the quick assumption he
meant physically and replied that I think the intelligent and innovative
are the only hope we have of progressing as a species. He shot back
that it could go either way.
I find it a little hard to
believe I am wrong. I feel it can't really be argued that technological
innovation (or lack thereof) will not have one of the greatest roles in
our future. I believe their are a few things holding us back from that
innovation. Mainly greed and not sharing the same beliefs/values. But
before I get into that, I wanted to mention "luck".
Another
user amidst this conversation brought up that "luck" will play a large
part in our evolution. My obvious first response was to tell him "luck"
is just a human facade. A fancy word for CHANCE. I think it's safe to
say that anyone who thinks their are external forces that will change
the outcome of a situation with 50/50 odds is a moron. Now obviously
their are things that we can try to predict by watching patterns. In
weather, the movement of tectonic plates, ect. We also have sensors to
detect planets and their movements, and warn us of meteors and other
threats, ect. So of course their is a "chance" that some things will
happen and some things wont, and we should try to allocate our resources
in certain areas to try to work it to our advantage.
But
onto what I think it probably the biggest detriment to us progressing as
a race. Greed. And I don't want greed to be confused with
survivability. Obviously people do what they need to survive, and
selfishness sometimes goes with that hand in hand. If you've seen "A
Beautiful Mind" or know anything about the Nash Equilibrium, what I'm
getting at is to do not what is best for you, but best for you AND
everyone else.
Greed is the staple of how our societies
are run. It's one of the most notable and pronounced of human traits,
seen from children on the playground, to relationships, to our world
leaders. Everyone wants to live comfortably, which is fine. Where the
problem lies, I believe, is how people think they should achieve that.
People are so intent that what they think is "the right way" and
everyone else should agree. Greed and difference are what is causing our
wars, our conflicts , a lot of our poverty, and prejudices. Obviously
money is one of the largest factors in this greed. But it's also control
of the people, land, resources, technology, religion. Everyone thinks
their way is right, and they do whatever it takes to prove it, and get
things the way they want. They will kill, they will steal, they will
violate rights. Whatever it takes.
Now I'm not entirely
sure what the solution to this is. Of course this isn't going to change
overnight. Their is a lot going wrong in the world. A lot of bad people,
doing very bad things. And mostly, it's for selfish gain. If all the
people that actually control our world realize that the best way to
thrive as a race is cooperation, or even if all the citizens who blindly
follow them realize this, we will be much better off. Maybe an external
threat has a hope. I discuss this a lot with my brother. If something
is threatening our world SO gravely, that as a race we MUST work
together to survive it a lot of eyes might be opened. And I mean a CLEAR
threat. An invading species would be the first I think of. Something
telling us our ENTIRE earth and it's survival depend solely on us
setting aside our differences for the time being, and struggling
together, with everyone having the same goals in mind.
It
infuriates me to think what we are doing with our world. If we took a
quarter of the resources we put into fighting each other and put it into
technological advancement we could be so much further along. Spent it
on science, medicine. On space exploration. Biodomes. Self-sustaining
environments. Reducing fossil fuels. Renewable resources. We could have
been living on the damn moon YEARS ago. We have been fighting each other
for so long over money, beliefs, values, traditions, morals. I wonder
if we are ever gonna see a time when, at least as a world in general, we
are working together.
Anyways, I realize I'm not treading
new ground here. People have been talking about this for ages it's just
that lately it seems to be in my mind a lot and I needed to get it out.
I have lots of other stuff on my mind but it's a little scattered.
I encourage you to tell me how you feel about this, or if you'd like to add/argue anything. I could use some provoking.
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