A Note on the Bright Side

A Note on the Bright Side
A different view of the current acceleration of technology and its consequent depletion of minerals, extinction of species, general using up of the planet. Something it seems we are cognitively able to either recognise or care about. Another perspective is that with space travel becoming a reality and talk of habitation projects on other planets in the near future, the host fruit body is being used up to propel the seed. In using up resources to reach a point of propulsion off to other planets to inhabit is as natural as any action of any animal. The illusion that we control our actions or can manage our environment is becoming apparent. In realising just like all other animals our 'decisions' are no more conscious than our choosing to breathe or beat our hearts. To my mind we are only different to animals in the illusion of self and an imagined free will. We are unaware and have no control over the electrical chemical processes happening in our brain that result in our ideas and decisions. The germ of the thoughts we experience as choices made as free agents can be measured as taking place considerably well prior to our apparent free will. Up to ten seconds in some instances. No major life decision, that of partner, vocation etc is considered, these crucial selections are taking place in our unconscious. The perception we have control over global warming seems daft as denialists still don't even accept our responsibility. We got in to the mess before we had a clue what we were doing. So too as individuals we react then construct a narrative of reason. Life takes place too quickly for it to be any other way. It isn't possible to ride a bicycle or any vehicle at any speed through rational and considered movements. Just as other animals our unconscious is the only system quick enough to accommodate the steady flow of unpredictable variables. I play football with my dog in the graveyard and marvel at the complexity of computation it must take for him to negotiate the variety of differing objects. Sports team coaches, frustrated with their performance shout at half time to the players, "think about what you are doing!" Of course it is the opposite that is required. To react and inter react instinctually. Consciousness is way too slow.
In all probability we won't crash our bike. Despite the seemingly impossible negotiation of our current predicament I believe we'll get by. It may not sit easy with our conscience the vast extinction we are currently causing. But early man when he spread out of Africa where the bigger beasts had evolved alongside humans and developed systems to avoid being killed, in to Australasia and the Americas caused immediate extinction of all big animals. Within under a thousand years a large herbivore variety of species, just as big and varied as we see the remnants of in Africa now, existed in the continents we colonised. Having evolved free of predators like us, all these larger species were not afraid of humans, not geared up to run or hide. And we quickly hunted them all to extinction. It's in our nature.
So this seeming headlong blind dive into over population, growth and the consequent destruction of the planet may be a spring board. A system of using up the fruiting body to propel the seed, just like an apple. Our vast consumption of all resources is in all likelihood beyond our conscious control. It may appear a very tight gamble at present, but so does negotiating a town centre on a bike. I don't think we have any choice. It is hubris and over valuation of consciousness aligned to the illusion of free will that supports our pursuit of an unattainable sustainable cyclic system. Secluded hunter gatherer societies, reclusive tribal peoples can, but we took the wrong step years ago. Or the only step in our nature.


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