We humans are a crafty breed. We’ve adapted ourselves to live in nearly every area of the planet; from coastlines to inland, frozen tundra to deserts. Through innovation of resources at our disposal, civilizations have developed almost everywhere, and within these civilizations, cultures were formed and carried down through generations. Today, some of us embrace our culture completely, others not at all, and the rest embrace culture selectively, with each subsequent generation adjusting it little by little.
Culture includes such things as language, food, social constructs, customs, and religious beliefs. The non-physical aspects of culture are dependent only on its ability to be communicated, whereas the physical aspects — predominantly including food — depend partly on communication but greatly on available resources. For this reason, moving to a new country centuries ago meant leaving behind a lot of your culture, particularly food. Recipes themselves moved easily but when certain ingredients weren’t available, they had to be adapted to what was available. Even the non-physical aspects of culture changed, since some things are taboo or illegal in other places. Culture, then, always changes. Continued…
Consider evolution as a more abstract whole. The survival imperative of living organisms is to adapt or perish, but this imperative could be less species-oriented than we believe. All organisms on this planet could be living in a completely symbiotic relationship where the survival of one species depends on and is affected by another (seemingly unrelated) species. This implies that a species doesn’t necessarily evolve on its own; all species would evolve simultaneously in order to benefit the planet — and all species — as a mutual whole.
Now, consider evolution as simply a process rather than a forward-moving process; if evolution is possible, then an eventual retrograde of a species must be as well. Traditional discussion of evolution involves an organism developing new characteristics or mannerisms in order to survive. Its default setting is to survive by reproducing and evolving in order to continue the existence of its species. But if all species evolve to increase the stability of all species, then a reverse-evolution of one species would be possible if it benefits the planet, even if that leads to the extinction of one species.
The human race has been fighting nature in a multitude of ways this past century. A variety of diseases, cancers, and natural phenomena have been antagonizing us and we are still struggling to keep up and understand. Maybe we aren’t supposed to. This could be the next step in evolution; the end of the human race. In the 20th century, man has created many technological advancements strictly for our own progress, compromising our environment in the process. In this way, our extinction would benefit the planet. We do not engage our ecosystem in a symbiotic relationship; we are parasitic in habit, and our most significant evolution as a species has been overwhelming apathy and greed. If we accept that we are flawed in this way, if we accept that nature is greater than us and cannot be conquered, perhaps then we would live peacefully with the planet, each other, and even ourselves.
