Shakeel writes:
> Nevertheless I'm totally sold on the premise that learning is the only
> route to survival of >our species not just our business.
Which got me thinking...
A common pattern I detect in these pages is the naive reliance on logic,
common sense, experience, and undeniable truth as the basis for humans to
change traditional behavior. This typically leads to frustration when
"they" just don't get it. It occurred to me that sociological tools may
not address what I believe is biological in origin, namely that a general
lack of understanding, sharing, systems thinking, optimism, and
farsightedness on the part of humans is due to the nature of our
evolutionary journey as a species.
I base this on an historical perspective that greed, short-sightedness,
pessimism, and strife are human behavioral norms despite ample historical
models which show the benefits of the alternatives. We return to these
behaviors almost as if they were a default mechanism. Let's assume for a
moment that they are.
The logical conclusion for someone concerned with human development
therefore would be to control or affect our genetic pre-dispositions.
What does such a future suggest? Well, here are three draft scenarios
from the year 3000.
1. Human development is controlled through strict adherence to genetic
standards. No divergent human life forms are allowed to develop.
Evolution of the human species stops and so does our ability to increase
our understanding and mastery of the universe around us. Senator Jesse
(Clone) Helms is elected for his 4000th term.
2. Human development is accelerated through the widespread use of genetic
enhancement. Divergent life forms are encouraged. Humans evolve into 234
separate species, each of which masters a different environment on a
different world. At least one war between species is always in progress,
although, on the bright side, there are no more ethnic jokes and at least
two of the new species have agreed not to spam each other on the
intergalaxynet.
3. We still argue about good and evil, encourage actions without
understanding the consequences, and pretty much muddle through our days
just like people did in 2000. We have limited but not yet conquered
disease, crime, hunger, and pollution, but TV shows are still bad and
sadly we still have neckties. About 10% of the people now understand what
it means to be human (up from 9.8% in 2000), and in 10,000 more years we
hope to raise that figure to at least 15%. Following the successful Rick
Karash memorial Artificial Intelligence project, the LO org list now
includes over 1 billion active participants and 98 billion lurkers. Most
importantly, it is a recognized fact that it will take some time before we
are perfect, but we'll keep at it. In the meantime, our primary
responsibility as humans is still to widen our perception of possibilities
and select the best ones.
-- Lon Badgett lonbadgett@aol.com The future need not arrive like an unannounced and unwelcome visitor. However, it is still prudent to keep extra towels and sheets. Emil GobersnekeLearning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>