Having addressed humanity's future here — https://steemit.com/energy/@freeradical/you-want-100-solar-energy-it-s-coming-and-we-re-going — I have to say that I very much agree with the creator of this short video — http://www.kurzweilai.net/we-are-probably-one-of-the-last-generations-of-homo-sapiens-yuval-noah-harari?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=defdf609f1-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6de721fb33-defdf609f1-282113745 — as humanity will surely face extinction if it doesn't evolve beyond its present state through intelligent design.
After all, we're facing extinction at this very moment, what with enough nuclear weapons to wipe out our and god-knows-how-many other species at the press of a button.
Why?
Because while we are endowed with the faculty of reason, this does not ipso facto make us rational. For as science fiction writer Robert Heinlein wrote over 60 years ago, "Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal." And because of this — because we are driven more by emotion than by reason — we are capable of justifying, and therefore of doing, anything, no matter how heinous. Surely human history and current events bear this out, not least by the existence of the entity that designed and built nuclear weapons — the state — which is nothing more than institutionalized aggression: the initiation of force and the threat thereof.
Indeed, the state claims a territorial monopoly on the initiation of force, in keeping with Mao's brutally honest dictum: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." Not just communist political power, mind you, or socialist political power, or fascist political power but all political power. Thus does the legalization of the immoral lie at the heart of what rules the human world. For as theft is considered immoral except as the state commits it, it is clear that those who are thereby "licensed to steal" are accordingly "licensed to kill.*
Thus does irrationality rule our world, and thus will it culminate, if not in nuclear armageddon, then in our trailing, Neanderthal-like, into an evolutionary dead-end. Which is why we have to intelligently design our ourselves beyond humanity as we know it. That is, we must merge with our machines so as to evolve into truly rational beings, beings driven first and foremost by reason, so that our emotional lives can extend beyond the "getting and spending" by which we "lay waste our powers — https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45564 — mindful that we have barely crossed the first field of our fantastic voyage.
nice post and photographs @freeradical. Keep up posting the good work.
Thanks, funnyman. I'm obviously not getting much traction but am enjoying the process nonetheless.
Lots to learn and will appreciate any and all advice.
That said, wherever Steemit ends up in the scheme of things, either the cryptocurrency/blockchain revolution is for real, or I don't know how we get from where we are to where we want/need to go.
"Which is why we have to intelligently design our ourselves beyond humanity as we know it"
That's right . If we don't do this collectively it's done thing.
freeradical, I agree with your premise that unless we evolve we, as a species seem destined to extinction through selfishness and ignorance.
I disagree with the synopsis though that 'Which is why we have to intelligently design our ourselves beyond humanity as we know it. That is, we must merge with our machines so as to evolve into truly rational beings, beings driven first and foremost by reason, so that our emotional lives can extend beyond the "getting and spending" by which we "lay waste our powers —' merging with machines as opposed to merging with nature, merging with our communities, merging our brain hemispheres, merging with our own inner selves. There are many options when it comes to evolving and personally I would rather merge with the energy of the ocean or my own community, transforming ourselves and the world around us through contributive interactions, taking steps on the evolutionary path naked and real, with heart and mind.
I liked the article though and grok the transhumanist attraction, looking to get fixed from outside ourselves. Its kind of like thinking religion can fix us, or the aliens are going to fix us..... I believe we are who we have been waiting for....... with respect, oc
"I believe we are who we have been waiting for..."
Absolutely, OC, and well said.