The human species has done bloody well

 

I think the human species has done bloody well. Our roots is a messy violent evolutionary path. We were little scurrying fearful animals like merkats back whenever. Now we have laws, and morality, and care. Got to think of the good that we have. 2,000 years ago we lived until 40.

You had a good run, America.

 

You had a good run, America. No need to be melancholy about the downfall.

Interesting that money, which vaulted the US into the consumer capital of the world and created the gazillion of billionaires, is the thing that will bring down your country. Can't have your cake and eat it too, you know.

You had a good go with your profit-based healthcare, and your profit-based prison system, and your profit-based asset-forfeiture-loving police forces, and your profit-based labour laws, and your profit-based hate of 'socialistic' programs unless they are for the rich. You only lasted this long because of FDR.

But your idolised founding fathers (aka founding white supremacists) didn't want democracy, so what can you do?

The dilemma of killing animals

We are getting to the point of a real dilemma. On the one hand, we have 8 billion people on the planet to feed and every single day, 240,000 new mouths to feed.

On the other hand, we are gaining compassion about the other species and we understand more every day about their unique intelligent and sentience. We protect and care for some species like this whale and slaughter others.

We now have classed octopus and squids as sentient creatures. Do sentient creatures have rights? Perhaps the most basic of them; the right to live?

As we continue to research the animals, we will understand that we are not on the top of the evolutionary pyramid. Such a concept will be absurd. What it will look like is not a pyramid but a mountain range. With the various species all occupying their own unique mountain of consciousness, sentience, and intelligence. One mountain being no more privileged than another. Why is our bigger brains more privileged than the ability to migrate thousands of kilometres every year, or the ability to regrow an appendage?

For example, birds. Birds do not come from an evolutionary path of fear like mammals. At the end of the dinosaur period, mammals were small fearful animals like today's merkats. Always fearful, always vigilant, and we have kept this fear in our evolutionary path as an important factor in our survival. Birds did not start this way. Birds evolved from dinosaurs and upon having the ability to fly away from danger, became less reliant on fear as a positive evolutionary factor. Of course, they need to recognise danger but their ability to fly away from danger means that fear is much less a part of their genetic makeup as humans who have little natural defences. In this respect, birds have the ability to evolve much faster then humans when the evolutionary requirement for fear is less. Their mountain may become higher than the human's.

So we have a dilemma, and this dilemma will grow in importance as we gain more understanding of sentience, and also gain compassion as we transform to a less tribal species.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/17/entangled-humpback-whales-sad-fate-has-researchers-calling-for-action-on-fishing-nets

Djokovic loves the rules of the rich

 

Well, isn't this dandy. Just more evidence that there are two sets of rules in this society. One for the rich, one for everyone else.

I can certainly imagine that a tennis player ranked (say) 100 in the world would, of course, be given the same exemption. Because the rules apply to everyone equally, right?

And it creates a terrible message for the measures that we Australians have had to do in the previous months to try to mitigate the damage of the virus here. But hey. So long as Djokovic can get his $2 million prize for winning, makes it all worthwhile for me.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/04/novak-djokovic-secures-medical-exemption-to-play-in-australian-open-tennis

My thoughts on Brian Cox's wise words

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

Brian Cox talks of the the movie Don't Look Up, a satire (hopefully!) about the struggles astrophysicists have to convince everyone of an impending comet strike. And I think there is some wisdom in what he says which may be applicable to this sub. Please delete this if not.

1st, he talks that the universe is a violent place. And a corollary to this, it is a fragile place. It is not fine-tuned for anything other than an existence based on it's physical laws. And we know this. Amongst the sheer number of events which could harm us, an asteroid or comet could wipe us out as it did for the dinosaurs. We only have to look at the Moon with it's millions of impact craters to know the power of nature and the absolute certainty of long probabilities.

2nd, he talks of 'meaning'. And I love how he phrases it that "we may be the only ones in the galaxy that can think about meaning". So we need to be humble and truthful about what actually constitutes meaning for us. In other words, 'meaning' may be a very precious thing and we need to think deeply on what it truly is.

3rd, he talks of his concern with all the 'noise' which is a central part of the movie. How do we make people pay attention to what is real amongst this increasing noise. So we owe it to ourselves and the long evolutionary progression of our species to be inquisitive about what is the truth. And we know full well what this truth is. And we all know that this truth is what is important for our species to continue to move forward. Cox is right; people spend more time on their favourite footballer than the things that truly matter.

Lastly, it's a poignant moment at the end when DiCarpio says "we really did have it all". And I agree. We have won the cosmic lottery by being born sentient creatures on this gorgeous planet. We should be respectful and appreciative of this fact. We should come at life based on a sense of gratitude rather than we are damaged souls in a damaged world.