Survival: The Ultimate Mission. Robert M.D. Skaf

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СКАЧАТЬ us to learn skills, the greatest of them all being the skill of communication. But to deal with the ultimate challenge any species could face, one needs an ability to predict events well before they materialize. The danger to our survival on this planet has never reached this level. However, another civilization on another planet definitely must have had to face the prospect of total annihilation at least once and perhaps more than once. Nobody knows for sure how the end is going to be. However, one can be certain that such an event is going to be very gradual. As usual, people are going to react differently. Certainly though, a minority of them is going to be propelled to contemplate surviving beyond the doomed planet. By thinking ahead, they gave birth to the new ability we now call foresight or vision. Only this ultimate impending catastrophe could have triggered the brain to devise a mechanism as such. But, since this type of total destruction is not going to take place on this planet for a few billion years, and since no other earthly species has exhibited any signs of vision despite observing many of them demonstrating intelligent behaviour, one can safely state that our ability to predict events and envision solutions to deal with them was acquired on a planet on the verge of complete annihilation. In fact, I am going to support my theory about our origin by using this development in the capacity of our brain to prove that our origin is an alien planet. Only by contemplating tragic events as such, would the reader agree with my earlier statement with regard to Darwin’s theory of evolution as being too simplistic and narrow in scope. You see, the fittest may be able to survive on this planet as long as certain conditions remain unchanged, however, the whole theory will fall apart once drastic changes take place. As we have seen a drastic event caused the extinction of the dinosaurs which were believed to be the most powerful and fit. The introduction of a new species could also lead to the same consequences. In less than a century the new settlers of North America were able to wipe out several fit and powerful species such as the bison, the dodo and cod, later on -just to name a few. As one can see, it takes more than fitness to secure perpetual survival, it takes vision and creativity. In which case, survival would not belong to the fittest, however it would clearly belong to the creative inventive visionary, and as a result, the accurate theory to be coined would be survival of the visionary. This visionary ability we are talking about, could have only evolved or blossomed if you will, by a primordial biology that has experienced near total collapse on several occasions where it was compelled to alter its DNA structure to a new one that is able to produce the necessary genes required to give birth for a visionary species. Evolutionary biology on earth has not experienced anything remotely connected to total annihilation. Even when the dinosaurs disappeared, many species survived and thrived. As a layperson, this is the scenario that makes sense to me. Also as a common person, I am willing to theorize, that as individuals, we are not at will when it comes to choosing our own genes. It is clear to me that different genes are assigned to us the day we are conceived. It is all done at random. It is completely unfair, but it is the only way to ensure the survival of the species. This is why some of us are visionary and some are not. Hopefully, this will answer the question posed at the beginning of this paragraph. Not only are our visionary assigned their tasks, but they are also compelled to act upon it and impart their knowledge to the rest of us.

      Today more than ever a collective vision for our long term survival on this planet is urgently needed. For millennia past, humanity was caught in a vicious cycle of violence that had no respect for the miraculous and precious gift of life. The price for the foolish aggression of past tyrants and megalomaniacs was paid for by the blood of the innocents. Almost every country has had its share of these ruthless leaders who perpetrated these senseless atrocities. Our views on war and international violence have drastically changed after the end of the Second World War. We no longer admire nor praise warmongers - we actually despise them.

      Although this change in attitude is a credit to the accomplishments of an intelligent species, should we continue to squander the earth natural resources and fail to protect the environment, future generations would be justified to view us in the same way we presently judge previous power hungry leaders. What we may consider to be a civilized society in our time may be judged as barbaric in the future. Also in the future, every accomplishment, every invention and every discovery, would be measured by the amount it helped humanity survive. Intelligence alone will not suffice. It is hardly good enough for our self-preservation. All warriors of past and present happened to be intelligent. However, this intelligence is very similar to that of a band of criminals who are only interested in the narrow definition of self-preservation as individuals or a small group not as a fully developed human civilization. In a way, we all happen to evolve in the same fashion. To this date, rarely ever do we see a young person working for the survival of species. We all start our lives looking for ourselves, for our self-preservation. A higher degree of intelligence is required to think beyond a single individual or a single clan. This intelligence is called vision. By deciding to murder others, an intelligent person is making a dumb decision. Fighting may not be mentally or morally demanding, in fact it could be the easiest thing to do, most animals and even some humans can murder others without the benefit of any weapons. Yet, despite the relatively easy effort one needs to lead a violent life, this type of behaviour is near sighted. Look at it this way: a fighter may get away with killing one or several persons, however, chances are he or she will end being assailed at the hand of another warrior. Things are different with a visionary person. He or she will be able to somehow foresee the outcome of such an approach and try to avoid it by resorting to more creative ones. For instance, he or she can take up farming or fishing. A visionary and creative mind tells you that there is no need to fight. Furthermore, it somehow introduces you to something bigger than self-preservation, something called survival of the species. This empathy for other human beings which in general we develop as adult is the corner stone for the survival of the human race. Most individuals who harm humanity know nothing about it, even after they had matured. The reason warmongers of past and present have succeed in waging wars can be traced to the following facts. Most recruits are young and know nothing about their responsibility to the human cause. As young and immature, they have no trouble obeying orders that could lead to genocide. We have seen it throughout history; I mean who can forget the holocaust. Recently we have seen it happening in Rwanda and Darfur. Caring for humanity is not something which intelligence alone can provide. Any bright person is able to get ahead in life. But even the most intelligent individual, once the comfort zone is reached, is prone to become a prisoner to mechanical or robotic intelligence which hardly differs from mechanical biology. Discharging a professional duty is mentally very taxing, however, even accountants, lawyers and surgeons become limited to mechanical thinking. Regardless of the profession, the individual who is performing the same exercise day in, day out, and going through the same routine hour after hour, is bound to limit his or her mental activities to a very narrow scope of his or her intelligent capacity, which translates into mechanical intelligence - at least in the long run. Indirectly, these individual are helping humanity survive. They may even think about the survival of the species. However, it is the creative visionary who contributes most to the long term survival of our species.

      Thomas Edison once observed that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. But according to Einstein, imagination is more important than knowledge. How true! A vision is a spark of creativity, a burst of imagination that may last but an instant, but it is these rare occasions of pure creativity which have been enriching humanity over the centuries. One per cent may not sound like much but when it is added on perpetually over the years and the number of contributors is taken into consideration, these minute accomplishments, when their whole is accumulated, suddenly becomes much greater than the total of its sum. Intelligence, reason and logic may devise the best system in many disciplines; help create the best technicians; refine the craft and skills of the best artisans, however, without this compelling drive to invent and create, we would all be confined to mechanical intelligence. In fact, the goal of education should be set to encourage students to think beyond learning, for knowledge alone is also a form of mechanical intelligence. In some respect, such a mediocre goal would only be useful to breed a whole bunch of intelligent robots. Future generations must be made aware of the fact that it takes this one per cent of divine reflection to make things better; it takes this miraculous burst in creativity, this visionary spark of imagination to come up with new inventions. One per cent is not much until one realizes that this one per cent is the discovery that is akin to finding a diamond in the rough or the formation СКАЧАТЬ