Yo. Long time no see.
SO I'm just stopping by my old hangout, my creative writing profile, to solicit some, plain and simple, mental masturbation. That's always fun, isn't it? Lying in bed at night or showering and thinking deeply about the meaning of the universe. We've all had those moments, correct? Well, when you haven't had sleep for 27 hours and watch a nature documentary in order to avoid the nightmares, sometimes you come across a "revelation" that may or may not make sense.
Now, accompanying David Attenborough's silky sweet voice, I watched the documentary on the waters of The Gulf, watching the complex underwater and aviary ecosystem at work, and I noticed something very interesting. All of these fish and birds, who are thriving in an area originally not intended to be quite as heavily habitable as it is (or was, who knows with planetary destruction and all that) have all found a place in which they can live, despite the fact that so many of them are constantly dying of sand inhalation, being eating as babies, starving to the point of cannibalism etc. they still return, or remain, year after year. This is very obviously profoundly different from a human mindset, or at the very least a privileged human's such as ourself. I mean myself. More and more people are finding themselves with difficulties that are resultant of their lifestyle, the place that they fit in world, their little niche, be it an overweight physique, eating two minute ramen for breakfast lunch and supper or having the most parasitic degenerate superiors in the world telling you to wipe your ass every half an hour. Humans are animals too, right? We have the same evolutionary background as all other animals, and if God (or whatever maintains or established an order to this world) had made a natural order of things, why have humans strayed so far?
Let me start at the beginning (no not dinosaurs or the Big Bang [not television either], we'll get to that later). Since the dawn of life on earth, nature has imbued all plants and animals with the instinct to perceive a gap that will allow them to survive and proliferate, no matter the dangers, pain, suffering and risk.They weren't put there as a part of some heavenly puzzle, they inserted themselves. Creatures and plants consistently found an opening, no matter how small, with which they had the tools to deal with, to a lesser or greater extent, and once surviving in that opening, sharpened those specific tools in order to become more and more successful in it. This is natural selection. If you can't survive in an opening, that means that you didn't have the tools for it; it isn't your place. You will die, and the traits that led you to consider that place in the ecosystem to begin with will not be spread, because simply they weren't good enough. It sounds incredibly simple on paper (or on pixel, rather), but the implications of this are far-reaching. How many basic tool remnants does a creature need in order to become a viably adaptable part of the ecosystem, for example? Take felines. All of them have a very distinguishable set of tools: flexibility, the teeth for meat, brilliant eyesight and night vision etc. Those are their tools of their trade. However, they also have other trace tools: fur patterning, whiskers, padded feet, a wet nose etc. Every characteristic you can think of (go ahead, pick up your local/nearest cat right now. Scrutinise it. Make "um" and "aw" noises, maybe throw in a few "fascinating"s. Hold it up to the light and slowly spin it around. Will weird the shit out of the cat, let me tell you that) is simply the remnant of, or trace amount of, a survival tool that could potentially allow them to fulfill an opening in the ecosystem. No opening is left unoccupied. The whisker could potentially be the key to hunting moles in their own burrows if birds are in short supply, giving birth to new underground cats as the sensory capabilities of their whiskers strengthen. That sort of thing. It's all driven by the will to live, prosper and procreate. Where does this will come from? Who knows. I've never been in any real danger, so it is a rather foreign concept to me. Why aren't animals able to commit mass suicide? Who knows what keeps them going. One thing is certain, however: This will is probably the essential component that characterises Earth life as we know it. Conceivably there are other ways for life to function, perhaps... honestly, the notion is there, but I just can't picture life without the will to live. The will to kill yourself? Sure. But the will to just... not live? I think that if we ever find an alien species, a simple difference in the way we operate such as that can make a universe of difference.
Anyways, off topic.
What you can see that I'm saying is that life can actually be fairly simple. Sure, it might be painful and bloody and deadly, but simple nonetheless. So many other, relatively modern humans have done it. Native Americans filled a place, and judging by their "lack" of "technological advancement" they followed the natural order of things. They built their own tools in order to fill an opening. This brings me to my next point.
Humans seem to be very unique in the greater scheme of things. Why? Because, even though, like other animals, we have traces of tools (nails, hair, fingers etc.) we have the most versatile tool of all: the brain. The ability to create and utilise tools that we don't have in order to fill an opening. This isn't something new, of course. Our evolutionary ancestors, the primates, had a few instances of this, where they were able to overcome years of evolutionary growth and conditioning in order to create new tools or enhance existing ones, using the tool of their thinking. Humankind, however, seem to have taken the success and evolutionary advantage of this tool WAY out of natural proportions (this leads to the question: is there [or was there] a global natural proportioning to the evolutionary process?). It was more successful than the natural order of things expected. Suspiciously so. If we look beyond the seemingly obvious answer of alien intervention for a moment, I may have a contributing factor in mind.
Millions (or Billions perhaps, I don't know my wall isn't big enough to hold a calendar that large. Thank you Mayans) of years ago a global phenomenon occurred in which planetary conditions were drastically changed, leading to the extinction of countless species: The extinction of the dinosaurs (with the whole meteorite thing and the volcano thing and ugh I'm glad that real-estate was able to recover from that one). This mass changed caused many species who didn't have the tools to cope to cease existence. It would seem, however, that animals with half a functioning brain could survive (That's more than I can say for many people). This event basically caused a streamlining of successful genetic traits, and perhaps this is exactly the prelude to which the huge success of the development and emphasis on the brain came from. Extremely early humans and other animals that had this capability probably found a huge advantage in being able to surpass centuries of the process of evolution, which had already been stirred up enough, in order to find their places in a relatively new ecosystem quickly and effectively, giving them the advantage when it came to the maximisation of their successful traits. Things which supported the power and versatility of the brain, such as precise limbs and appendages and later a specialised cooling system for the cranium.
Soon, a certain set of late and heavily evolved humans started developing a culture (which is debatable as a survival necessity or by-product) in which the balance and dependence on the Earth no longer took priority in order to easily maintain their spot in the ecosystem, but rather a culture which brought about a new way of thinking: With the creation of tools and greater consumption of resources made available by their use, there is always a "better" and easier place in the ecosystem to occupy. It is in this way that technology evolved, and with their consumption of resources, humanity gave themselves the tools to adopt a parasitic relationship with the world around them. Humans no longer used their evolutionary traits to fill an opening, they created the openings by force, and then dominated them.
This is the culture that modern global society is based off of. Intelligence is more and more considered a greater genetic trait. Brains have become sexy. The entire structuring of the world: the economy, consumerism etc. It all caters to the human mindset of "there is always a better place to be". You can always have more money, more sex, more happiness. Am I saying that the pursuit of happiness is wrong? Yes. Intrinsically so. It goes against the natural order of things. We aren't supposed to be happy. Hell we aren't even supposed to be sad, although some pain and hardship is arguably required in order to propagate growth. We are supposed to be content with the lot that we have in life. The thing is, it's hard not to. When the entire system is built around the requirement that everybody thinks like this, how are you supposed to still stay alive in the system? Workers are motivated by potentially better prospects. To say that you are humble and work solely for your family or loved ones or whatever is a flat out lie. You work for the notion of the potential that they, as well as you, can have a better place in the "ecosystem". The conveniences provided by consumerism that have become a necessity in modern life in a shining example of this.
The thing is, this might not last forever. Humans, if the old anecdote "history repeats itself" serves, may not continue to be the dominant species on Earth.
Remember that planetary upset i talked about, that wiped out the dinosaurs? The one that may or may not have set the stage for human supremacy? Well, in my view those very conditions are being proliferated by humanity itself. With all the huge planetary changes brought about by human consumption, already species are going extinct. Although it may seem slow now, humankind shows no sign of stopping. In fact, it threatens to keep increasing these changes until a breaking point. When this point comes, perhaps another, possibly currently inconceivable, evolutionary trait may come to the fore due to genetic streamlining of the strongest life forms, and one day wipe out humanity (or at least put us back in our place as animals of the Earth).
I'm sure that by now you must have noticed that I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. This is purely mental masturbation. Like the time when I was around four years old, I ended up spending 45 minutes explaining to my mom how mosquito bites get bigger because the heat caused by scratching stimulates the poison inserted under your skin, and if you scratch enough the bite will get bigger and bigger until there's too much poison and you die and then the mosquitoes are free to suck your blood until you're dry. I really hate mosquitoes.
I have never picked up a biology book. I have done zero research for this. Basically all this blog entry is, is me stringing together bits of information in my brain and filling in the blanks so that it all makes sense. It's a result of me lying in bed thinking about things for an hour with a sleep-deprived brain.I have no basis with which to say what's right or wrong, what are lies and what is the truth.
If anyone out there reading this actually knows what they're talking about, I'd be very interested to read your responses.
This is why I avoid thinking too much. 'Cause shit like this happens. This entire blog is every bit as creative as any story I could have written.
Anyways, that's it for me, another long-ass essay on stuff that nobody cares about. Please like, subscribe and share on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Tinder. I have none of this but it would be hilarious if someone would date an essay on Tinder.
Well, I'm off to outer space. I'll be back, and when I am you'll regret not changing that stupid lock and not making me leave my key. 10 points to whoever gets that joke.
Anyway, see you next time, I hope.
P.S. If you want to see more consistent creative writing from me, check out Crossed Fates. When it gets 100 views and 2 comments I'll be writing real works of fiction on this website. not that this wasn't one.
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