The reason why we are the most advanced human species ever is simple. We just are! Simple like that! We can look back to all other types of humans there were and simply compare your lifestyle and realize just how advanced we really are.
You may say that this that is being stated is obvious as hell! And there really is no point in writing about it with such intensity and glory. And I would agree if I didn’t know that there is still more to be said about it. Be patient, he he he.
I also am talking about the other generations of humans. I mean, I am talking about the different homo sapiens generations we’ve been having on the planet. The generations that preceded us. I’m even talking about your father and mother. Mine.
We are much more advanced than them! Our generation, the people of today, the young people of today. The ones that are most in contact with this new globalized society, we are number one! We are the most advanced people ever to walk this planet!
We have the best of the best, firstly. Best healthcare ever, best nutritional understanding ever, best living conditions ever to be experienced by anyone. Maybe not the cleanest times, sure, but technology definitely makes up for this small loss. We maybe don’t have that classic little crystal-clear creek at the end of the wheat field, or the stone well with spring water. But we do have medical care. Back then, one appendicitis was the end of you, for sure. Here we can go beyond that. Way beyond that.
Here you can last a good long time, fixing yourself. Replacing your parts. Diagnosing with great detail the littlest of problems. Here you own yourself. Here you can sit back and relax, knowing with great likelihood of guessing pretty much everything that goes around you. Even the smallest virus or bacteria that lurks around you. We know that by now. We have that information.
Science has fed us with so much knowledge that we have reached a point never before experienced by any of these animals that inhabit our planet. Sure, we are animals too, just like them. But have come to a point that no other specie has ever dreamed of!
We can duplicate the planet. We can make another one. On a computer, of course, but we can. We can create alternate realities. We can simulate different times of the past. We can project different futures. We are in control.
Sure, the other animals have their own realities, with different understanding of the world around them. But they can’t begin to understand ours. Or anybody else’s for that matter. It would be too much for their little brains. Our brains aren’t anything special by the way. I’m talking about the computers we have created.
The computers that were brought to inhabit the planets by us. Are aliens. They are monstrous creatures. With parts completely renewable and in constant development. These creatures have immense brain space. And their brains is the source of all the power that has recently been given to the human race. Think about it!
Until well recently, I don’t know, less than 100 years ago. If aliens had landed here and given us shit, we probably would have been extinct very easily. Then we developed the atomic bomb. Then we developed computers. We now are a bigger threat to the aliens around, aren’t we?
Maybe not, we can’t be sure. Maybe it’s the same difference to an alien as three cockroaches instead of two to be killed. No big deal. But for us it made the world of difference. All the other animals on our planet now bow to us. Up until very recently some species still had their domain, as men approached with little technology and just a lot of bravery.
Immense packs of Buffalos still roamed threateningly free, the countryside was filled with mysteries and legends and the sea was still a wild obscure frontier. Now those boundaries can’t hold the human spirit. We have conquered all those evils, we have made the world a much brighter and simplified place. Think about it, before us it was everything, the universe was this place. To very recent generations, the world was the universe was this place. Beyond those dark forests there was evil, before our little village it was all evil, and when it comes our time to go there will be evil.
We are the ones who came forth and announced: the world is a tiny blue ball. It flies around like a bug, circling a light bulb in the corner of a dark alley. That’s our world. Isn’t it beautiful now? Maybe we can still find some evil around, but in this scene just described isn’t the little bright blue bug the most beautiful thing around? I believe it is.
And funny enough, our fight now is not to conquer the other species around us, that’s been won. We now fight against the planet! We hurt him, he hurts us back. Maybe the planet itself doesn’t realize what’s going on. George Carlin said that and I believe (in) him. The planet is fine. He doesn’t know what’s going on. For him this is only taking a minute of his ever lasting life. It’s like that evening when you finished the full bowl of chili con carne extra picante. You felt a little stomachache. And then it was gone.
What you didn’t know is that stomachache, instead of simply accepting its reality and going away, has developed machines inside of you, to make sure it would last forever. Maybe it doesn’t want to hurt you, but it is mainly concerned with its own development, for sure.
And that’s what we are. The guys who have the machine at their disposal.
We didn’t create the machines, I mean us, you and me. We were the first ones to be born after the machines. So the machines don’t make us feel strange. Maybe you still have somebody you know who doesn’t like the machines. But just look around you, little by little, everyone is getting used to the machines. Even animals are stimulated to play with the machines. Our cars and means of transportation, we don’t make them ourselves, the machines make them. Adjust them, tune them to perfection.
And we have also invented the personal machine. It comes in different sizes and it can serve different purposes, but everyone now has personal machines. Everybody walks around carrying some sort of personal machine. Machines that can locate you, trace your steps, ask you something, interrupt you, distract you, keep you company and take care of you. Sometimes when we are bored and lonely, even in a place full of people around us, we decide to turn to the machines for comfort. We turn on the machines to make us feel less alone. Even in a crowded bus, coming back for work. A packed subway, everybody interacting with their machines. Nobody looking around, nobody caring for anybody else but their own machines.
But it’s alright. Because from those machines we have art. And isn’t art the most noble and precious of human creations? If it is, then our generation is the first one to ever have free, instant access to every single art form ever to be conceived by man. From our personal machines we can reach pretty much every work of art ever created in this blue ball. And that’s a first! Nobody else before has had this much access to different ideas at the same time.
So the question is, what are you gonna do about it? With so much to choose from, with so many options, what are you gonna put together? What will be your art?
I don't really have time to sit down and write. But when I think of a melody, I call up my answering machine and sing it, so I won't forget it.
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If you don't want to be replaced by a machine, don't try to act like one!
ReplyDeleteArno Penzias