Will there be a day when humanity will live in equilibrium with the earth and its inhabitants, free of the worries of financial issues, health problems, war? Ill already say that i dont think theres any way. Humans are a part of nature, and thus we are ruled by nature. And nature has its own rules and systems that when disturbed, will change the entire system, and cause a ton of great problems, each of which we must solve independently. And everytime we solve it, there usually springs up another issue that we didnt forsee, that came about because of how we solved the last issue. This is seen most clearly with health. We found vaccines for the ancient diseases that plagued us for centuries, but then arose new diseases, many that came because we started living longer. Humans are designed to die when they get old, this is something that for some reason people dont accept, but its inevitable. Now we have antibiotics, which are creating stronger bacteria, creating a self perpetuating cycle of disease that keeps evolving. As we come closer to finding out the secrets of life, we come closer to finding the grand cure of disease, but its likely that will have consequences also. So health is one department where we probably wont ever completely solve things.
Then there is the progress of industry, infrastructure, technology, etc. Basically everything that requires materials to make, or processing. We know well what consequences these things carry, oil and gas are slowly being filtered out of the usable resource supply, same with all fossil fuels. Their damage to the environment continues to severely intensify this cycle, further hindering our progress. All of these issues came over time, after the industrial age, and people continue to ignore the obvious which is that this cycle will continue, because thats how nature works.
Nature works slowly, we dont understand this simple fact, which is why we move forward with haste without thinking about the consequences. We are coming upon a new frontier of technology that will likely solve most of our current problems, but the next round of problems are far worse than the past ones. Estimates on the sustainablity of the human race in general (with our current lifestyle) put us at under 100 years, before we are seriously handicapped by a lack of resources. And if we dont act in the right ways, we will incur consequences that could range from manageable to catastrophic.
With all of this in mind, we must go back to the beginning of everything, and ask ourselves, what is progress? Is it the search for happiness, or the search for understanding? Is it the pursuit of making humanity the ruler of all? Truthfully, i think its aimless, scientists are the curious, who study and create for the joy of it. It is then those in charge who decide to guide science towards this progress, which is really just the ability to better structure society. So progress is really the pursuit of enabling humanity to further pursue its curiosities, of course we believe its to make life easier, but both research and objective observation prove that we havent succeeded in that at all. So all these resources, the destruction of the ecosystems, well thats pretty much it but that is all being spent for curiousity and power. Not to make lives better. True progress would be attaining happiness, and we were closer to that well before the industrial age.
I dont suggest that we should just shut everything down and go back to tribal ages, this is just food for thought really, a change of perspective, and mostly my attempt at showing you all what real happiness is, not progress for material things, but simply understanding things and moreso deriving importance from those around us, the simple things we were provided with when we were created.
Then there is the progress of industry, infrastructure, technology, etc. Basically everything that requires materials to make, or processing. We know well what consequences these things carry, oil and gas are slowly being filtered out of the usable resource supply, same with all fossil fuels. Their damage to the environment continues to severely intensify this cycle, further hindering our progress. All of these issues came over time, after the industrial age, and people continue to ignore the obvious which is that this cycle will continue, because thats how nature works.
Nature works slowly, we dont understand this simple fact, which is why we move forward with haste without thinking about the consequences. We are coming upon a new frontier of technology that will likely solve most of our current problems, but the next round of problems are far worse than the past ones. Estimates on the sustainablity of the human race in general (with our current lifestyle) put us at under 100 years, before we are seriously handicapped by a lack of resources. And if we dont act in the right ways, we will incur consequences that could range from manageable to catastrophic.
With all of this in mind, we must go back to the beginning of everything, and ask ourselves, what is progress? Is it the search for happiness, or the search for understanding? Is it the pursuit of making humanity the ruler of all? Truthfully, i think its aimless, scientists are the curious, who study and create for the joy of it. It is then those in charge who decide to guide science towards this progress, which is really just the ability to better structure society. So progress is really the pursuit of enabling humanity to further pursue its curiosities, of course we believe its to make life easier, but both research and objective observation prove that we havent succeeded in that at all. So all these resources, the destruction of the ecosystems, well thats pretty much it but that is all being spent for curiousity and power. Not to make lives better. True progress would be attaining happiness, and we were closer to that well before the industrial age.
I dont suggest that we should just shut everything down and go back to tribal ages, this is just food for thought really, a change of perspective, and mostly my attempt at showing you all what real happiness is, not progress for material things, but simply understanding things and moreso deriving importance from those around us, the simple things we were provided with when we were created.
