An advanced species?

Post Reply New Topic

Just how advanced are we? Consider human nature. It is entirely natural to consume resources. All life does it. It is entirely natural to compete for resources. All life does it. If humans step outside the natural order anywhere in this, it is that our waste products these days are not so easily absorbed back into that natural order. Stepping away from my intended topic for a moment, that gives rise to an interesting possibility. Unused organic resources don't stay unused. I think we may eventually see adaptions allowing some other creatures to make efficient use of many of our waste products.

However, back to the topic. Using resources and competing for resources is natural. Rule number one in the game of Life is "Survive". Everything else comes after that. But as I recently posted in another thread, it is natural to kill your neighbour so your own kids get the local resources. And we don't do that, because it is not (for now) necessary to do so. We consider this lack of necessity and the resulting social agreements to be "advanced". It means we're a developed species, right? No longer clubbing each other over the head for access to the watering hole.

But consider this. The universe is a zero-sum game. The matter and energy - the fuel - out there is limited, finite. There's only so much to go around. Ultimately, if we survive long enough, our species will be left with two options, which are unavoidable given that there is indeed a finite amount of matter and energy:

1. Everyone can live in peace and harmony until the resources run out and we all die.
2. We can return to clubbing our neighbours over the head for control of the watering hole.

The second option really only pushes the first option further into the future. Regardless of how many people there are, the resources will run out. However, life demands survival, and that makes the second option the preferable choice.

We can ignore the reality and pretend we're "above" the basic physical reqiurements of the universe. We can hope that we're all completely wrong, that the universe isn't a zero-sum game. We can pretend it won't happen, and leave all such concerns for some distant future generation.

What do you think?

I think we're only advanced in that, we can control our own evolution. Which would really make "our" descendants an advanced race instead, but whatever...