How do you feel about the Evolution of mankind . . . consider our direct impact on the environmental pressures, and the technological advancements we put in place to Help, Create, and Prolong our species life?

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dragonfly forty-six Profile

I worry about what will become of us. I worry about running through our resources and becoming so advanced that we forget our basic humanity. I think we have evolved in such a way that our advances are out weighing our common sense. I think we are on that delicate threshold, one that if we don't continue mindfully and with caution, we could go places that we are not quite prepared for.

During the Olympics a scientist who specializes in human physiology said that we are at our physical ability maximum. The records we see being broken will eventually slow because we cannot go any faster, have much more stamina or do much more than we are doing. Is that a good thing?

As a species will we start hitting other walls? Are we really going to want to find ways to break through those walls? Should we? Can we handle what we find? I just don't know...

Pepper pot Profile
Pepper pot answered

Well, there are some lives it hasn't made an impact on, take for example the third world.  It's strange because I remember when Bob Geldof first spoke about the starvation in Africa, it was in the 1980s.  We are now in 2017, in our country alone we still have at least 3 big fund raises throughout the year to raise money for Africa, where millions of pounds are raised, we donate money to Unicef, and yet the problem still exists, so are we successful if not everyone is receiving the basics of food and clean water? Sadly, I don't think all our money makes it, I think there is corruption in between. It is all rather crazy when people spend 14,000 a night to stay at a hotel, I can't get my head around that.

Families rarely spend time together anymore, we've lost many traditions of family value,  people do not say "Hello" to one another or help each other as much.  All we see on TV is sex and violence. Children are in too much of a hurry to grow up, no surprise because of what they are watching on the TV and online, and listening to in music.

Manly P Hall said that those who were trusted with science were always permitted to take an oath, they had to be trusted that what they were doing was beneficial. I would say that such an oath has been cast aside.  Pharmaceutical companies are mainly out to make money. Science only asked the whys of things but never asks if they should? We can make it so we will, but should they? With no boundary it could and will become destructive as history shows.  People have become dependent on technology, I think it's a dependency the government want.  We are living in a Big Brother society, it's hard to go anywhere  without being watched.  Humans in this western society are not as concerned with cultivating there own character or altruistic behaviour, but are intent on vanity, pride, greed and lust we are losing something...

We may live longer, in more hygienic conditions than medieval times, we can clone animals, we can send signals so that we can pick our mobiles up and talk to each other, we can cook food in less than 10 minutes in a microwave, we can be the star of our own lives on facebook, but everything comes at a price... Are we better people for it? Are we free? Or doesn't it matter?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqFKjz4l9u0

Do you think our leaders really care about the planet? Why not use vegetable oil as a petrol substitute or hydrogen? Why do world leaders say the planets in peril, and persistently raise taxes and make low emissions zones and then continue to fly on private jets to the summits, and build more run ways?

Funny, Nicola Tesla is responsible for 80% of our technology today, and it was said that he invented free energy, however he died alone in a hotel and penniless. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NyJUoCSAfg


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Darik Majoren
Darik Majoren commented
I can honestly listen to you and "Z" for hours . . . .
Such a great read for me this morning . . . despite the over all tone of the message, I am smiling because open communication we share.
I will be checking out your YouTube URLs.
Great point -
"Families rarely spend time together anymore, we've lost many traditions of family value, people do not say "Hello" to one another or help each other as much. All we see on TV is sex and violence. Children are in too much of a hurry to grow up, no surprise because of what they are watching on the TV and online, and listening to in music. "

I made it a point for our family to create our own traditions, eat supper at a big table to discuss our day, and have designated family time where electronics are discouraged. I found that by giving my children a great childhood, they weren't in such a hurry to become adults . . . they seem to be going along at a decent expected pace. My oldest had many nice things to say to me and my wife, once he had been exposed to college friends who's family life left much to be desired.
Ancient Hippy Profile
Ancient Hippy answered

Mankind has created, invented and cured his way to a longer and more comfortable life, but he's also created many ways to eliminate the human race and other species, with the quickest way being a simple push of a button.

I think the American Indians of a few hundred years ago had it right. Use what you need, kill what you'll eat and take what you need, NOT what you WANT.

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Darik Majoren
Darik Majoren commented
I often ponder the Native American's plight, and the impact of what our founding fathers did to this once great nation.
They understood the balance of an existing eco-system . . . I would say they were most likely one of the first of our human species to fully grasp this concept . . .
Thank you for your input my friend.
Call me Z Profile
Call me Z answered

I would say we have become the first species to be able to direct its own evolution. What happens from here will largely rely on our decisions. Therein lies our continued rise or our eventual doom.

Our accelerating technology is outpacing our collective competence to utilize it and assimilate it effectively and sanely into the public domain. Face it, while our collective knowledge and capabilities are greater than has ever been, the percentage of humanity willing and able to wield them is not. It is an uneven progression we've thrust on the world, and mostly at the expense of those benefitting the least.

Despite our obvious progress in nearly every realm of human endeavor, we are still hamstrung by the scourge and division of primitive superstitions, masquerading as conscience, by which (as I concur with Mr Hitchens) "we can only begin to see the human race stand to something resembling its full height once we have been emancipated from these stagnant fantasies".  We owe ourselves better, IMO.

I see our young people being spellbound by the allure of the vain and superficial, slaves to the trends of social media, yet closed off from direct interpersonal interactions, all attributable to the mass fixation with electronic devices. Since when was "gaming", a lifestyle? This is a trend that portends social disaster, in my view.

Lastly, the earth. The science is settled: we humans, in all our progress, are systematically strangling our planet, befouling and wasting the environment with sinister efficiency; while our ruling classes hem and haw, and talk of wars, partisanship and economies. Meanwhile countless children starve, breathe smog or drink tainted water.

Then, adding insult to the growing conflagration all around us, is meandering talk of colonizing distant worlds, at colossal expense, tapping resources which may better serve the future on this one. We are lost if our brightest minds are resigned to this. 

I suggest that with our growing technologies, our future actions can clear a path to enduring prosperity, but the impediments are also of our own making.

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Darik Majoren
Darik Majoren commented
Not entirely sure WHY my comment was removed . . . I though it was appropriate at the very least.

Regardless of that, I have oftener wondered how even though we are transitional evolutionary life forms, the normal pressures of random genetic mutations that help us to either fail to or adapt to environmental pressures, aren't really allowed to work in the "Micro-Evolutionary" sense. Oh sure there are little things here are there (Less and less people have wisdom teeth, our adaptation to Bovine Milk, resisting diseases . . . http://mentalfloss.com/article/30795/5-signs-humans-are-still-evolving), but we are moving towards making large leaps, by proposing genetic alterations. We already do this with domesticated and farm animals, plants for food . . .
The problem is, things evolve to be in balance with their current environment . . . these great strides might look great on the surface, but I have seen pharmaceuticals keep people alive that now have no reason to go on living . . .
Call me Z
Call me Z commented
Not to overly simplify it, but there we go screwing with nature again.
When we started figuring out healthy nutrition, our control of our evolution took its first steps. We have since built control into so much of our daily life environment (offices, houses, malls) that I ponder if we'll evolve away from being outdoors...separated from nature.

On the whole, what I see of nature's balance is an awfully crooked line of rise and fall that may or may not even out in the longer view. A case can be made that one of those anomalies is ongoing, depending on which side of progress you stand, IMO.

I thought perhaps you could be one who'd have appreciated my invoking Hitchens. I still hold that beliefs stifle our advancement, I mean, the middle ages were a failure. We evolved more in the last century and a half than we did for the two millenia previous.
Darik Majoren
Darik Majoren commented
I did love the Hitchens reference and I also note that Dawkins and Krauss view religion as stagnation of our countries educational system that would result in the same outcome.

I totally agree with your comments on nature, and would add, that I find it ironic that our species was forced to adapt to our environment to survive, and now have the greatest impact in CHANGING that environment . . . never for the good.

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