I think oftentimes, the perceptions people have are inconsistent with what we would call reality. We spend our entire lives trying to figure out what other people think of us, failing to realize that they are doing the exact same thing. We all suffer from the insecurity of not knowing our exact place in the world and most conscious individuals have (at one time or another) pondered the meaning of life.
I would like to think that the decisions we make can affect the course of our lives (for better or worse) and that we all have some special purpose, but most often, I just feel like an ant in a giant ant hill. Am I doing what I want or am I helping someone else fulfill their dream? Its hard to tell. Humans are selfish actors, each playing a role to fulfill some need or desire and that is the reality we often don’t want to believe. Dreams and the idea that we can live the life we want to if we work really hard is looking more and more like a croc of shit to me.
Reality is cold and harsh, some have and some have not. There is no rhyme or reason to it and there is no purpose, it just is. As depressing as that sounds, I feel that I must accept it as a rational person. I would prefer to see things for how they really are, rather than create my own alternate reality. However, forcing yourself to accept this truth leads to innevitable depression, so the only thing to do is delude yourself as little a possible while retaining enough hope to continue.
Six people would own 59% of the wealth, while 53 people would live off 2.00$(U.S.) a day or less. Thirteen people would be starving to death, and 43 people wouldn’t have basic sanitation. Most sad of all, we would spend over 100$ trying to kill a neighbor for every 1$ we spend trying to help.
If you stumbled on a village of small, blue people with these characteristics, what would you think? If you observed 6 Smurfanoids were hording most of the resources while 13 Smurfanoids were starving to death; you would probably conclude that people in this village are only worried about themselves. You would also conclude that they are irrationally violent, as 100 times more resources are spent trying to kill each other than trying to help each other.
I don’t think anyone would want to be a member of this village. In fact, you probably would want to stay far away from these villagers.
In many ways we are still an irrational world full of tribes fighting each other. We’ve definitely improved. The average person is better off than they’ve ever been. But, we still have a long ways to go.
What can be done?
Research from the human genome project suggests that genetically we are all 99.9% the same. We need to start looking at ourselves as a unified species, instead of only identifying ourselves with subgroups. I think much of the existent division exists because of political and religious organizations, which convince their members they are superior. This is done to the point where killing people who do not belong to your organization is justified. A broader and more humble view of things needs to be propagated.
We also need to be more charitiable. Society idolizes the most wealthy instead of the most generous. In the world’s current condition, having an excess of frivolous wealth centered around an individual should be viewed negatively.
Improvement requires more than knowledge and sympathy. We need to provide service that improves our condition and actively oppose harmful world-views.
“Electrically charged specks of interstellar dust organize into DNA-like double helixes and display properties normally attributed to living systems, such as evolving and reproducing, new computer simulations show.” (source)
Currently, many scientists believe that life evolved as a result of amino acids forming RNA. RNA has been successfully built in the lab with very basic components. Additionally, RNA can have the ability to self replicate. Self replication naturally leads to evolution. The RNA strands which are the most successful at propagating themselves would eventually out compete other RNA strands, causing the population to change or evolve.
Seeing an example of naturally occurring self replication outside of earth is a big deal. This offers a completely different path to evolution. Even if self-replicating gas would never lead to complex life, finding self-replication in such an unlikely environment, during the relatively brief period we’ve been able to look for such things, shows there are probably many ways for evolution to begin. This vastly increases the odds of alien life. It also has the potential to debunk the Drake Equation.
The Drake Equation is often used to calculate the number of civilizations in our galaxy which we might be able to communicate with. This equation takes many factors into account, including the number of planets that can sustain life. While the equation itself makes some sense, it’s hard to know which values to give to each of the factors. We have fairly good guesses for factors like R*(the rate of star formation). But the values for factors like Fi “the fraction of planets which have life that develop intelligent life” are pretty much shots in the dark.
The Drake Equation depends on the idea that life requires planets. If life can evolve outside of planets, the Drake Equation needs to be adjusted. The factors R*, fp, and ne all become irrelevant. The factor fl needs to be changed to something like: the number of lifeforms with independent origins. The remaining elements of the equation can remain untouched. Ironically, the remaining variables, fl, fi, fc, and L are the ones whose values we know the least about. It’s still not possible for us to calculate the odds, but seeing an example of self-replication in space sure makes it seem more likely.
If you haven’t seen Gattaca, it’s a near-future world where nearly everyone is genetically engineered. Those few who are not genetically engineered are social outcasts. Genetic testing is in depth, quick, cheap, and easy to do. As a result, everything is based on genes. Potential employers and even romantic partners will collect a dna sample from your hair, spit, fingernails, ect. Then they will pay a small fee to run the sample through a machine, and it will print a summary. This summary will include information about genetic defects like your chances of having heart failure; it even provides information about iq and physical fitness.
This type of genetic screening is already starting to be available. For under a $1000.00, you can buy a genetic testing kit. In fact, both 23andMe and deCODEme, let you can buy multiple kits. These tests work by both telling you which health problems are common among people with with a similar genotype, and by looking for specific genetic defects. There are no testing restrictions, so you could test that hot girl or guy you’ve started dating. While the testing isn’t as in depth as the ones in Gattaca, they do screen for quite a few genetic defects.
The price will continue to drop, and the testing will become more in depth. In a few decades, genetic testing will be very popular. People will test themselves, their children, and anyone they are curious about.
