(This is really more of a blog, but I am posting it here so the replies can be easier to follow, for those interested.)
We all know that the human body isn't perfect.
It is clear that we are still in development from natural selection instead of being the finished product of intentional design.
When we look at the negative impact humanity orchestrates, I can't help but think that maybe homo sapiens are going to be yet another pruned branch; a dead end. Really, there are only two ways for us to go.
In a few billion more years, we will have either developed into something unrecognizable (unlikely, given our urges for self destruction.) Or we are going to have wiped out our own species, and probable quite a few more that were unfortunate enough to share a planet with us. Sad? Yes. Catastrophic? No.
Let's face it. We have scientific evidence that the planet has been rebooting itself systematically long before we started to slime across its surface. How many dinosaurs are roaming over the great plains? How many extinctions on the small scale as well as the planetary took place long before we mastered fire?
It would take the total destruction of every single bug, bacteria, virus and well....EVERYTHING..and then, still...
The cosmos will still continue to spin, which means that whatever environment created the potential for universal life will still exist, and eventually start all over again. Existence as we know it is such a temporary thing. Survival of any species, let alone ours depends on the rules of simplicity.
Humanity is anything but simple.
The only thing that gives us an 'edge' in the over all predator/prey struggle is our ability to think and reason.
It seems that our logical mind is always at war with our base urges. We know we need to consume less, conserve more and reverse our environmentally destructive path to survive in this little window of reality.
But we don't.
And we won't.
Why?
There is no deity to blame for this failed blueprint. We don't have any omnipotent 'plan' for our future.
It is in our very genes to act out this play....but why?
At what point did we evolve into what we are now?
What was the turning point in our development that wrote the screen play for this monumental fuck up that we have since become?
I would say that it comes down to procreation.
When we gradually developed pleasurable sex, our species as we know it ended.
We started down the irreversible path of destroying ourselves and everything around us.
Take a look at other animals. How many of them actually enjoy the act of intercourse? How many gain physical pleasure from it?
This is my theory. Feel free to pick it apart at will.
<b>When the mating urge becomes linked to pleasure instead of reproduction, a hedonistic species arises. </b>
In some species, this is nothing more than the promise of reproduction and continuation of the line..
In ours, it has lead to over population and the lack of the ability to weigh costs and benefits in the long term.
Immediate pleasure supersedes future security.
Wait. No. Not just security, but future SURVIVAL.
We have adapted to go for immediate pleasure without weighing the future cost.
Procreation was the start.
We had sex because it felt good to rub our wet bits together, not because we wanted to risk agony and possible death for the continuation of our species.
We had sex because it felt good, despite the fact that the tribe couldn't really handle another member.
There is a correlation with environmental knowledge, too.
We eat what tastes yummy, despite the fact that it's literally killing our world.
We drive cars three miles to work and then complain when the air quality falls and our allergies and asthma act up.
Instead of asking 'where does it stop?'
I'm wondering where it started.
Thoughts? Opinions?