The Paradox of the Super Ape: Are Our Flaws Nature's Fail-Safe?

"in 'life, love, and destruction: the paradox of our existence,' i closed with a somewhat flippant remark about humans destroying life because it arrived on our planet without asking permission, you know, 'my land, my rules' kind of thing.

while it was intended as a joke, to be honest, i've been thinking about that from time to time. and the more i realize how incredible life and nature are, the more i start to wonder, maybe this whole 'nature isn’t adapting fast enough' thing, is that really true? i mean, sure, in a small-scale experiment, like with plants or bacteria, it might seem that way. but they're not as complex, or let’s say, as sophisticated as we are. and even then, it's just an experiment.

speaking of experiments, specifically with rats and other small rodents. when they talk about those tests with lab rats, i always picture them living in a tiny white plastic box, barely enough room to turn around, basically just being a lab rat. and, for example, to keep it on theme, those cocaine experiments, where they had a choice, and all that. or that they couldn’t stop using it. do you see my point? it's a rat, living in a freaking prison, of course, it’s going to overdose on coke if you give it an unlimited supply. sorry about that, i just never thought about it from their perspective.

so, while life has taken the weirdest forms and the wildest variety, we also emerged, the super ape. and if we're that, the best version of nature, the magnum opus of nature, so to speak, wouldn’t it be pretty stupid to include such fundamental flaws? maybe it did include them, but maybe it also included countermeasures. after all, "we" are just highly advanced justification modules trying our best to sell that to people. some with more, some with less success.

something like global warming, for example, causes more refugees since they won’t be able to get enough food from their fields and livestock. that 0.5°c increase in temperature means nothing to us, but to them, it can be the difference between life and death. but in a way, it’s self-regulating. i really hope nature is as wise as i imagine.

and i think it kind of is. i mean, just think about space, and how much we're drawn to it, how much we want to explore the hell out of it. is that rational? we always come up with the lie, yeah, we need a second home, in case this one goes. bullshit, you want to go there because it's freaking awesome. the second home aspect is just a welcome bonus.

humanity has always been fascinated with space. and nowadays, yes, we currently think that’s where life comes from. but back then, when they thought it was the place of gods or something, they wouldn't have said no to going to space if you asked them.

so, the be-all and end-all of it? what did we conclude?

maybe life is self-regulating and adapting quicker than we can imagine, or maybe in a way we wouldn’t even dream of. we'll see, i guess. or rather, we'll only see if it isn't. so, we'll never really know, will we? but i’m pretty sure we’re going to ride this wave until that hydrogen atom in the water the wave is made of just says, 'screw this, i’m out.' in that sense, i'm out too.

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Eight Legs, Two Hearts: A Story of Unexpected Connection