Friday, July 30, 2010

Dooms Day is coming!!

Almost every species known to us survives and prospers by way of adapting itself to changes in its environment. For example, when there is less grass, the deer adapts by evolving to survive on less or survive on foliage that is more in abundance or it simply decreases its own numbers. This is true for all species, except for one - Man. Man, through the ingenuity of his highly evolved, audaciously oversized brain, will only seek to satisfy his voracious appetite by inventing new technologies to grow more crops and breed more edible animals. Never, never will he adapt himself to eat less or eat something else or to decrease his own outrageously high numbers. This strategy of squeezing the environment to survive, is effective in the short-run, but is doomed for failure in the longer term. Understand that there is only so much paste that you can squeeze out of the last toothpaste tube in the world, no matter what technology you use. The other and a much smarter option is to learn to use less toothpaste or no toothpaste at all by either getting used to painful rotten teeth or by evolving super-teeth that do not need to be brushed or by evolving completely new ways of feeding - such as, first regurgitating on the food to digest it and then sipping it with a straw (yes, just like the humble housefly). This would make having teeth somewhat boring or downright old-fashioned. But as always, the human mind wallows in a cesspool of fixed ideas that’s as comfortable as a hot bath with suds. There is always this overwhelming propensity to argue that the human species has prospered for many millennia now, using this strategy of “kindly squeeze if you need something and if you need more squeeze harder”, and hence, there can’t be anything wrong with this strategy. However, one must remember that humans have been around only for a few thousand years and that a few thousand years is but a microscopic flash in the pan that is the time since life first took root on earth. Almost all of the other species on earth that we co-exist with or have co-existed with, have survived and prospered much longer than the human race has. All was fine until the human species came along, with its much acclaimed “Squeeze until you get” strategy which by any standard is a rather clumsy, ham-handed approach to survival, and has seriously depleted its environment and consequently killed off many of the hitherto successful species. Moreover, it is stupid enough that one day, it will inadvertently add itself to the now very long ‘extinct species’ list. This will be the culmination of the mounting complexity involved in adapting an increasingly recalcitrant environment to the idiosyncrasies of the human species. We, the humans, are doomed to eat our way to extinction. The law of diminishing returns is real, make no mistake about it, it will get us sooner than later.

3 comments:

  1. "We, the humans, are doomed to eat our way to extinction." - hmmm... can i get an order of pizza, fries and a large coke! :D

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  2. Becoming extinct is too kind for the human race. Nice write-up, I like the style and the compactness!

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  3. @Chandrika - thanks! I really value the compliment coming from you!
    @Divya - you are doomed!

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