Sunday, November 24, 2024
Extreme Weather for Extreme Egos
Alert: This essay contains the word evolution. If you believe [evolution] implies you are not special and there is no afterlife, or learning about [evolution] is somehow immoral — you have been misled. Evolution is both the cause and the solution to most world problems. I will write more on this topic in future essays.
Global warming appears to be causing weather patterns to evolve from moderate to extreme. In places where it’s normally a little dry, we're now in a drought. Where winter usually brings snow, now it brings blizzards. Tornadoes, hurricanes, and lightning are becoming more intense. At least for now, moderation is disappearing.
In a 1953 educational video I saw on TED.com a few years ago [sorry, I couldn't find the video; you will have to search for it], scientists warned the public that automobile exhaust gas emissions would cause global warming. That's right! Way back in 1953, long before politics got involved, scientists knew global warming would be a thing, and they had a pretty good idea of its cause. Most people back then probably didn't care, since it would not affect them in their lifetime. Their immediate needs were more important.
In the 1990s, I watched a PBS NOVA documentary about the planet Venus. Venus is the second planet from the sun, just after Mercury. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system. If the planets held a contest for the most hellish place in the solar system, Venus would easily win. It is an uninhabitable 860° Fahrenheit (460° C) caused by a runaway green house effect (an advanced case of global warming).
Because of what scientists have learned about Venus, they are concerned that the earth's atmospheric balance could have a tipping point of no return and that Earth could one day end up like Venus.
Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, not because of its proximity to the sun but because it has a thick atmosphere made of carbon dioxide that traps the sun's radiation. Venus only receives 25% of the sun's radiation, as does the nearest planet to the sun, Mercury, yet it has double the average temperature.
Russia is the only country that has attempted to land a spacecraft on the surface of the Venusian landscape and take photos. They succeeded on the 10th try. Why 10, you ask? Because the previous nine spacecraft kept melting. Lander number 10 only managed to capture a photo of the spacecraft's foot before it too began to disintegrate in the heat. What the rest of the Venusian landscape looks like remains a mystery.
Back on Earth, the emotional extremes of the weather seem to reflect the emotional extremes of a certain percentage of society. Around 2004, I had a conversation with a co-worker who was a devout Mormon (Christian). One of many Mormons I worked with through the years. No amount of reasoning could help this person understand that society needed to work together to stop global warming (now referred to as climate change). He said, "So the earth gets a little warmer; that just means we don't have to wear jackets." He apparently doesn't want to help the earth, because that would conflict with his belief that we are in "End Times" (the earth will be destroyed and Jesus will rescue the believers).
He also believed it was possible: that right now, people are inhabiting other planets in the universe. The general concept here is that if a Mormon follows everything he is taught, he may be promoted to god of his own planet and populate that planet with spirit children by way of a celestial marriage to an opposite-sex partner.
Leaving the earth in ruin for a chance at becoming a god gives a whole new meaning to the word social superiority.
Becoming a god is a tempting belief, and you might be tempted to blame his parents for getting him hooked on these beliefs as a child before he could grow into a free-thinking adult. But what you should really blame is evolution. I am sure most people wouldn't mind being a God; the need for social status (to feel important, special, or powerful) is innate in all of us. Evolution gave us that gift, but that gift can also be a curse. The fulfillment of this need can grow a person's confidence. If left unchecked, however, confidence can balloon into an ego the size of Jupiter, resulting in a life detached from reality. A person's innate self-control and education will prevent this from happening.
A solution to this problem might be to create a new organization similar to the Mormon organization, only non-religious. This organization will help to provide for the fulfillment of people's needs, but instead of rewarding its followers for environmental neglect, it will reward them for contributing to the world's good.
What's important to understand here is that there is no escaping evolution's influence. The scarcity of sexual resources drives men to religion. This young man was unknowingly following evolution's plan. Those men who are born with the traits of strong self-control and the ability to think independently, are more likely to be aware of reality, however, they're also less likely to attract women, because men with strong self-control are too difficult for women to manipulate.
In addition, women are frightened by men who can think. Women seek safety in numbers and are therefore attracted to men who have been socialized to follow social trends (integrate into the currently popular culture). Men who follow, more so than they think, are more likely to have children, thus proliferating those social genes. This is why humans are a social species, like dogs, as opposed to an independent species, like cats.
When only a minority of voters are thinkers, a polarized (locked in perpetual disagreement) democracy is the result, Democracy becomes what some people from other countries, such as Russia, already think it is: an allusion. Throughout the first 200 years of democracy, the world was a simpler place (the voting issues were more easily comprehended by the average person). Today, however, the world has grown technologically and socially complex. Without thinkers making decisions, the world is a dangerous place, leaving the future uncertain.
Adjusting democracy to accommodate the different intellectual capacities of voters might be one solution, but really, the problem is deeper than democracy. For there to be equality and a secure future for everyone, the genes responsible for the intelligence, health, and looks of every person born need to be raised and held to a higher standard. Only that will make true equality and a secure and happy future possible.
END
Global warming appears to be causing weather patterns to evolve from moderate to extreme. In places where it’s normally a little dry, we're now in a drought. Where winter usually brings snow, now it brings blizzards. Tornadoes, hurricanes, and lightning are becoming more intense. At least for now, moderation is disappearing.
In a 1953 educational video I saw on TED.com a few years ago [sorry, I couldn't find the video; you will have to search for it], scientists warned the public that automobile exhaust gas emissions would cause global warming. That's right! Way back in 1953, long before politics got involved, scientists knew global warming would be a thing, and they had a pretty good idea of its cause. Most people back then probably didn't care, since it would not affect them in their lifetime. Their immediate needs were more important.
In the 1990s, I watched a PBS NOVA documentary about the planet Venus. Venus is the second planet from the sun, just after Mercury. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system. If the planets held a contest for the most hellish place in the solar system, Venus would easily win. It is an uninhabitable 860° Fahrenheit (460° C) caused by a runaway green house effect (an advanced case of global warming).
Because of what scientists have learned about Venus, they are concerned that the earth's atmospheric balance could have a tipping point of no return and that Earth could one day end up like Venus.
Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, not because of its proximity to the sun but because it has a thick atmosphere made of carbon dioxide that traps the sun's radiation. Venus only receives 25% of the sun's radiation, as does the nearest planet to the sun, Mercury, yet it has double the average temperature.
© NASA
Russia is the only country that has attempted to land a spacecraft on the surface of the Venusian landscape and take photos. They succeeded on the 10th try. Why 10, you ask? Because the previous nine spacecraft kept melting. Lander number 10 only managed to capture a photo of the spacecraft's foot before it too began to disintegrate in the heat. What the rest of the Venusian landscape looks like remains a mystery.
© USSR / Preserved by the NASA National Space Science Data Center.
Back on Earth, the emotional extremes of the weather seem to reflect the emotional extremes of a certain percentage of society. Around 2004, I had a conversation with a co-worker who was a devout Mormon (Christian). One of many Mormons I worked with through the years. No amount of reasoning could help this person understand that society needed to work together to stop global warming (now referred to as climate change). He said, "So the earth gets a little warmer; that just means we don't have to wear jackets." He apparently doesn't want to help the earth, because that would conflict with his belief that we are in "End Times" (the earth will be destroyed and Jesus will rescue the believers).
He also believed it was possible: that right now, people are inhabiting other planets in the universe. The general concept here is that if a Mormon follows everything he is taught, he may be promoted to god of his own planet and populate that planet with spirit children by way of a celestial marriage to an opposite-sex partner.
Leaving the earth in ruin for a chance at becoming a god gives a whole new meaning to the word social superiority.
Becoming a god is a tempting belief, and you might be tempted to blame his parents for getting him hooked on these beliefs as a child before he could grow into a free-thinking adult. But what you should really blame is evolution. I am sure most people wouldn't mind being a God; the need for social status (to feel important, special, or powerful) is innate in all of us. Evolution gave us that gift, but that gift can also be a curse. The fulfillment of this need can grow a person's confidence. If left unchecked, however, confidence can balloon into an ego the size of Jupiter, resulting in a life detached from reality. A person's innate self-control and education will prevent this from happening.
A solution to this problem might be to create a new organization similar to the Mormon organization, only non-religious. This organization will help to provide for the fulfillment of people's needs, but instead of rewarding its followers for environmental neglect, it will reward them for contributing to the world's good.
What's important to understand here is that there is no escaping evolution's influence. The scarcity of sexual resources drives men to religion. This young man was unknowingly following evolution's plan. Those men who are born with the traits of strong self-control and the ability to think independently, are more likely to be aware of reality, however, they're also less likely to attract women, because men with strong self-control are too difficult for women to manipulate.
In addition, women are frightened by men who can think. Women seek safety in numbers and are therefore attracted to men who have been socialized to follow social trends (integrate into the currently popular culture). Men who follow, more so than they think, are more likely to have children, thus proliferating those social genes. This is why humans are a social species, like dogs, as opposed to an independent species, like cats.
When only a minority of voters are thinkers, a polarized (locked in perpetual disagreement) democracy is the result, Democracy becomes what some people from other countries, such as Russia, already think it is: an allusion. Throughout the first 200 years of democracy, the world was a simpler place (the voting issues were more easily comprehended by the average person). Today, however, the world has grown technologically and socially complex. Without thinkers making decisions, the world is a dangerous place, leaving the future uncertain.
Adjusting democracy to accommodate the different intellectual capacities of voters might be one solution, but really, the problem is deeper than democracy. For there to be equality and a secure future for everyone, the genes responsible for the intelligence, health, and looks of every person born need to be raised and held to a higher standard. Only that will make true equality and a secure and happy future possible.
END