Thinking at a cosmic scale: alienated from humanity Pt. 2

Andrew Wu

February 23, 2023

Humanity is indifferent to change since the new generation is used to the odd present and creates the new normal. Once we realize how warped human cognition and its limitations are, we begin to let go of human perception and view everything from a larger picture without judgment. If I were to put it into terms it would be like viewing the world as if you were a “God” in a Western religious sense. An eternal being that views all and lives forever, silently watching everything.

Alienated from Humanity’s Sustainable

If I were to view humanity from a “God” perspective, I’d notice that Earth is 5 billion years old, but humans have existed for only one million years- entirely colonizing the Earth through rapid acceleration. The length of time is almost a blink of an eye in Earth’s geological timeline. Almost all the lands in this world have been touched or altered by humanity in some way. Our footprint as a species cannot be underscored, the towns and cities built by humanity are a sore thumb compared to the eternal equilibrium of nature. These forests have been staying in the lands for hundreds of thousands of years, yet civilizations and nations fall only within a couple hundred years. How can humans demand that the lands continue to be sustainable when the rate of our development is so destructive? A short-term apex of growth, with humans unable to comprehend or predict the long-term echoes of the future. The cement roads will long forever stay in our rock layers, the plastic will take millions of years to decompose; yet, we continue to believe that humans can be sustainable. Even the smallest impacts cannot be underscored, nonrenewable resources, even the most recycled items such as aluminum will inevitably run out. The rock cycle and aluminum takes millions of years, but humans quickly go through products within a couple of days and trash will continue to pile up for thousands of years. There will be a point where there is no more aluminum, no more natural gas, and no more steel, none of these resources will exist. The only rate to continue this development on Earth is to not be on Earth itself, colonize the solar system, and then the galaxies for more resources. Development will only continue and cannot be hindered as regulations and nations will inevitably fall.

Alienated from Humanity’s Progress

The difference between us and the beast (animals) is our communication and cumulative culture. The idea that a singular organism could spread its idea to others is humanity’s superpower. Even as individual humans, we are incredibly smart with our ability to reason (although very much flawed), but we are immensely smart as our ideas collectively accumulate. We are standing atop of giants- our progress continues since we continually learn and progress with every coming generation. There is no need to “rethink” everything and discover something. Scientists do not need to rediscover all the work made possible to make new discoveries. 

Animals can learn behaviors, but overall they stay static. In fact, it is not that we are social creatures that we are successful. For instance, ant societies communicate often and are complex, they can change and adapt to their environment. However, they are not as smart as humans. We can logically reason and use abstract complex language, while ants only use simple pheromones. Their societies don’t have culture or have innovations that are across generations. They are more focused on social utility and “what should I do to survive,” rather than writing and philosophizing about how awe-inspiring humanity is in a cafe (reference to me).

This culture creates a sort of exponential growth for human success. As the human population expands, innovations occur with more minds to grow humanity’s collective culture.