I am rather accustomed to seeing degrading statements made about the human species, by.... none other than us humans.
Several of these are made by notable people, like Albert Einstein; and not so notable people, like me (Yes, me. And here I am talking about why we shouldn't do it)
We humans, as a species are simply remarkable. Its my believe that we are - by far - the most successful species ever walk the Earth. Think about it, sure the dinosaurs ruled the Earth for 160 million years, but they were still they weren't really a successful species were they, I mean - They were born, they lived, then they died.
Humans on the other hand, have literally changed the face of this world. Think about it, the scale of what we as a species have accomplished is near epic proportions. From some naked, hairy man-ape like thing from the plains of Africa, we have become this. We have harnessed nature itself. What is there to fault ourselves for. Sure, I admit that our selfish attempts to increase our quality of life is jeopardizing the environment, but this about what we have done. The amount of time we have been around ( a few hundred thousand years to a few million ) is near negligible when compared to the estimated 3.8 billion years of life on Earth.
One of the ways for you to get a reality check on the success of the human civilisation - albeit a small one - is to flip through a university prospectus.In fact, I got the idea for this post, from reading a university prospectus. The one I read was the Prospectus 2011 for the University of York.
We came up with all these, and all in like 5000 - 10 000 years. Archaeology, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Philosophy, Art, Music, Mathematics, Languages ( and thousand of unique ones too ) Psychology..... the lot.
None of this existed. Yes, Sciences did exist, but not in the form that we conceptualize them today. They were abstract. Dihydrogen monoxide (aka water) could have easily been "Bunga Zinga Mumba". Okay, apart from the comedy the point I am trying to drive is that whilst cells, chemicals and gravity have always (FINE!!!, almost always existed) they were defined by us. 1+1 = 2 -> by definition. Think about it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Similarly, our disciplines, be it physics or philosophy are also in the mind. My yellow could be your blue. But it could be that we accept it as green.
Lets say that the first person to define the colour green saw it as green. Then I came along and now I see that colour. To me its "green" but if the first man had saw it. It would have been his "yellow." If you are not getting this. Don't panic. Its okay. Move on. My world is not yours. So it is perfectly fine.
See the awesomeness (Yes! I am well aware of the fact that the word does not exist) of humans. We have managed to create a perfectly flawed world. Note here that I do not say "flawless" as that would be an absence of flaw i.e. perfect. But we are not striving for perfection here, are we? We are striving for perfect flaws. There is no such thing as conventional current. Electricity is the flow of electrons from the negative terminal to the positive terminal. Still, we vastly use conventional current for all types of calculations. It is flaw that works, it is a perfect flaw, but a flaw nevertheless.
This is a universe that thrives on chaos. It makes no sense to be flawless. Instead strive for perfect flaws. It is okay to be wrong. Sometimes being wrong is right.
What is a metre. What is a length. Think about it fellas. A metre is a metre because we want it to be a metre. If we do not want a metre to be a metre the metre ceases to exist. That is the power of humankind. Now if a cow wants a pile of rocks to become grass... Tough luck, rock is going to be rock. Sure! we can swap the meanings of "grass" and "rock" on every existing dicitionary. But a rock is a rock and grass is grass. Cows cannot live off rocks.
It is mankind's ability to give meaning to the world around it that makes it so remarkable. We shape the world and by induction, the universe. Your thoughts create.
So be thankful that you are human, you are one of the greatest creations ever.
Look, I am seventeen. I have only been here for a short time. And this is what I think now. But as I grow as a person, I may change. Because that is inevitable. Change is powerful and ubiquitous. Five years later, my views, opinions and beliefs might have completely changed. That is okay.
And if you O'reader have differing views or opinion. That is perfectly okay. Being unique is your birthright.
Joy be with you,
Bhalaji
