evolve

(Originally posted August 28, 2008)
As children, at least in my case, we were taught that humans are mammals and that we too are part of the animal kingdom.  Obviously, we’re not exactly like the other animals…as no two animals are exactly alike, but there is a difference between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom.  I don’t agree that humans are better or worse than any other animal and vice versa.   Everything is unique and is as important as everything else when it comes to maintaining a balance here on Earth. One specific difference that I want to discuss is that of evolution.  For centuries our ancestors lived in what many call “the hands of god.”  We were a nomadic creature that followed its food sources around the world, thus why we’re so spread across the Earth.  Having to travel great distances at a time, we evolved into the creatures  we are today.  This all changed with the first agricultural revolution in the neolithic age of man.   Hence forth we started removing ourselves from the “hands of god” and started to become masters of our own destinies.  Animals, on the other hand, kept living the same way they have since the dawning of time (excluding human intervention).  This means that animals will continue to evolve within the limits of the “hands of god” while humans, who are constantly distancing themselves from this, are evolving or have advanced far enough to evolve as we wish.  Sure, I do know that there are natural events that still play a major part in our evolution, for example diseases and what not, but for the most part we no longer evolve in accordance to nature like we used to.  What does this all mean?  That humans have given themselves the ability to evolve in whatever way they wish.  I don’t mean to make it seem like “hey, lets make it so that the humans of the future have wings,” but rather something along those lines.  Look at our life span.  I would say that’s human evolution because of human ingenuity.   Because of our advances in science and in medicine, the average lifespan for a human has increased dramatically compared to those just a few centuries ago.  We have also allowed certain humans to exist with disabilities, that if we had to still abide by the evolutionary laws of the hands of god, would have probably not survived. My question now is, where do we go from here?  With great power comes great responsibilty and if this is not considered to be a great power then I don’t know what is.  To be able to pave our own paths in evolution, I think, is amazing.  Another question that should be asked is, how is it that we should evolve? Should we try to evolve in a way that we can become peaceful sentient beings, perhaps peace keepers of our known universe? Or shall we keep on with the same trajectory and end up being a selfish kind of earth creature that only thinks in terms of “me me me” and “want want want.”  Can we evolve out of such primitive feelings such as greed and hate? Anger? Are feelings not something that we have also evolved? I know it sounds pretty far-fetched, as if the idea was taken our of a sci-fi book, but it makes sense and seems to hold some ground.  Everything around us, including ourselves, is constantly changing; constantly evolving.  Who knows which way we’ll decide to go, but hopefully we all see that in order for there to be a better future we must start acting now. We must learn from the past in order to establish a better present so that we can provide ourselves with a hopeful future.