Just some random thoughts stuff...not sure if this will make sense (or even interest any of you) in the end given the wine I've consumed tonight... 
Humans are animals, and are the product not of human ingenuity, of course, but of the genetic mechanism self-preservation. I believe, quite firmly, that all animals, humans excepted, act according to this self-preservation mechanism, without fail.
Put another way, genes have a primary directive: "Save yourself, forget the rest". This genetic prime directive is selfish, and drives the process of natural selection. It's a really simple concept, Dawkins does a nice job at packaging the theory into his book "the selfish gene".
Anyway, humans are a tad bit different. Not special, we just happen to have a more complex nervous system. You see, self-conscience is merely a product of complexity: pack in enough neurons, and voila! instant self-reflective ability! It's something like recursion, but probably more like a program that can change its own code intelligently.
So here we are with this special gift (?) of self-conscience which gives us the ability to understand some of the mechanisms that drive the world. In particular, our awareness of the rule of self-preservation allows us to disobey it. Such awareness might be described as morality, or maybe rationalism, or spirituality; any of these would do fine, but the point is that we can now proactively choose to ignore the rule that has governed animals for millions of years.
And this is only because we are able to reflect on the decisions we make and therefore determine, before acting, whether or not our decisions are selfish or altruistic.
That being said, I think it is the greatest irony of humankind that when it matters most, we ignore this gift. That is why I am cynical. I believe that when it comes down to it, humans will submit to the powerful will of our genetic Prime Directive; we see this behaviour everywhere, throughout history.
My idealism comes from the dream that we should resist the temptation of the genetic Prime Directive, raise awareness of it and teach generosity and altruism. In the face of the greatest acts of selfishness, I believe that we should remain true to the ideals we'd like to achieve.
The third concept that I think ties into these ideas is "size". Size defeats us, I think Stephen King said it best in the first Dark Tower book, but more or less, I believe that size, fundamentally, restricts all "cooperating" entities throughout the universe. Some sort of mathematical equation where the nth derivative is deterministic and finite, yielding a limit beyond which the entire system collapses (not necessarily in on itself, but quite possibly). Where I'm going with this is that a connected global community is harming us more than it is achieving good.
Don't misunderstand that to mean that the Internet will be our doom, etc. What I mean is that trying to unite every individual, at every level in every way of life across the globe is an unassailable objective: the infrastructure that acts like a glue holding our communities together can only get so big, and then they fall. It's that simple. The mathematics is unimportant when you know the truth (so says Godel) and so we realize something...global government, united economies, dominant corporations, global military; these are all things which will destroy, not create.
Worried about over-population? Don't! Size defeats us. We'll fuck up that prediction soon enough....
As an idealist, I dream of the day when we realize that the need for united global government is unncecessary. Unavoidable? Absolutely not. But a new awareness, a self-conscious behaviour at the societal level is required...how can we achieve that if we haven't even properly realized our own self-conscience? That's why I'm cynical...some people tend to think this is edging toward Communism, but it isn't: communism fails because as I mentioned, humans inevitably revert back to the self-preservation Prime Directive, which is what destroyed communism.
So, I hold to idealism in the face of cynical realities, and I believe that size is what defeats all of these things in the end...self-destructive tendencies...we'll "eat ourselves to death" in the end...just look at the United States; a great example of over-consuming resources. Fat kids eating McDonalds, rich corporations raping other countries of their resources, governments accumulating unnecessary power, etc. We watch as skies get polluted and wildlife gets destroyed. But we've been given this gift of self-consciousness and where is it being used? How are its effects felt? The self-awareness gives us the ability to change these patterns of self-destructive behaviour--where the limit of this destructive behaviour is a function of size...so it's only a matter of time...I hope we change soon.
Humans are animals, and are the product not of human ingenuity, of course, but of the genetic mechanism self-preservation. I believe, quite firmly, that all animals, humans excepted, act according to this self-preservation mechanism, without fail.
Put another way, genes have a primary directive: "Save yourself, forget the rest". This genetic prime directive is selfish, and drives the process of natural selection. It's a really simple concept, Dawkins does a nice job at packaging the theory into his book "the selfish gene".
Anyway, humans are a tad bit different. Not special, we just happen to have a more complex nervous system. You see, self-conscience is merely a product of complexity: pack in enough neurons, and voila! instant self-reflective ability! It's something like recursion, but probably more like a program that can change its own code intelligently.
So here we are with this special gift (?) of self-conscience which gives us the ability to understand some of the mechanisms that drive the world. In particular, our awareness of the rule of self-preservation allows us to disobey it. Such awareness might be described as morality, or maybe rationalism, or spirituality; any of these would do fine, but the point is that we can now proactively choose to ignore the rule that has governed animals for millions of years.
And this is only because we are able to reflect on the decisions we make and therefore determine, before acting, whether or not our decisions are selfish or altruistic.
That being said, I think it is the greatest irony of humankind that when it matters most, we ignore this gift. That is why I am cynical. I believe that when it comes down to it, humans will submit to the powerful will of our genetic Prime Directive; we see this behaviour everywhere, throughout history.
My idealism comes from the dream that we should resist the temptation of the genetic Prime Directive, raise awareness of it and teach generosity and altruism. In the face of the greatest acts of selfishness, I believe that we should remain true to the ideals we'd like to achieve.
The third concept that I think ties into these ideas is "size". Size defeats us, I think Stephen King said it best in the first Dark Tower book, but more or less, I believe that size, fundamentally, restricts all "cooperating" entities throughout the universe. Some sort of mathematical equation where the nth derivative is deterministic and finite, yielding a limit beyond which the entire system collapses (not necessarily in on itself, but quite possibly). Where I'm going with this is that a connected global community is harming us more than it is achieving good.
Don't misunderstand that to mean that the Internet will be our doom, etc. What I mean is that trying to unite every individual, at every level in every way of life across the globe is an unassailable objective: the infrastructure that acts like a glue holding our communities together can only get so big, and then they fall. It's that simple. The mathematics is unimportant when you know the truth (so says Godel) and so we realize something...global government, united economies, dominant corporations, global military; these are all things which will destroy, not create.
Worried about over-population? Don't! Size defeats us. We'll fuck up that prediction soon enough....
As an idealist, I dream of the day when we realize that the need for united global government is unncecessary. Unavoidable? Absolutely not. But a new awareness, a self-conscious behaviour at the societal level is required...how can we achieve that if we haven't even properly realized our own self-conscience? That's why I'm cynical...some people tend to think this is edging toward Communism, but it isn't: communism fails because as I mentioned, humans inevitably revert back to the self-preservation Prime Directive, which is what destroyed communism.
So, I hold to idealism in the face of cynical realities, and I believe that size is what defeats all of these things in the end...self-destructive tendencies...we'll "eat ourselves to death" in the end...just look at the United States; a great example of over-consuming resources. Fat kids eating McDonalds, rich corporations raping other countries of their resources, governments accumulating unnecessary power, etc. We watch as skies get polluted and wildlife gets destroyed. But we've been given this gift of self-consciousness and where is it being used? How are its effects felt? The self-awareness gives us the ability to change these patterns of self-destructive behaviour--where the limit of this destructive behaviour is a function of size...so it's only a matter of time...I hope we change soon.
