The Constantly Receding Peak of Evolution

I just reread last night’s blog and realized that not only didn’t I wind  up saying what I intended to say, but what I did say didn’t really amount to much.  Perhaps that’s because I only use 10% of my brain and, at 11:30 p.m. after another brutally hot, stifling dense summer day, considerably less.

Allow me to try again.

Nature, i.e. all the energy and matter which makes up the universe, plus the physical laws that govern their inter-reactions, is not terribly efficient.  The vast majority of existence is empty space.  Matter is only a matter of tiny points here and there.  Of that matter, only a  tiny percent has the magic property of life.  Of all that living matter, only a teeny-tiny percent has enough self-awareness to be called intelligent.  (grass  is not intelligent.  fungi are not intelligent.)

So, inefficiency all around.  Human beings tend to think, because we are the dominant species of this planet, that we are at the peak of evolution.  We are not even close.  We could be smarter either by using a greater portion of our brains or by evolving bigger  brains.

We could  also become more intelligent by designing  better brains, and linking ours to them.

Or, we could become more intelligent overnight, instantly, just by deciding not to be so pro-actively stupid.  I’m not holding my breath, but it could happen.

Our eyes do  not  see as sharply at a distance as the Eagle’s, nor as well at night as a cats, but soon, blind people will be fitted with replacement eyes that do just that.  Also, we have external eyes in the form of telescopes, microscopes and google glasses.  All that information gets fed back into the hive mind, so we are still evolving.

Dogs have a sharper sense of smell,  but we understand pheromones, and have invented perfume.  Cheetahs, and even horses, are faster, but not if the person is in a car.

So, we are not at the peak of evolution.  That’s O.K.  That’s a good thing.  That means there is still some of the mountain to climb.  And it’s just going to get more and more interesting the higher we get.