Monday, November 7, 2016

It just doesn't work

Humans have tried living on this planet billions of times.  It just doesn't work.  100 years or less into a life, it's over.  We need to try something different or a different locale.


Who wants to go to the trouble of launching a life, only to have it end from accident or disease or the process of aging? The odds are clearly against living even two centuries.  I know that people like Aubrey de Grey are working at uncovering the causes of life termination and trying to reach a way to live for unlimited time.  But after all, we have tried some many things and still we have people conking out in childhood and young adulthood.  We have nobody who lasts even 1 ½ centuries.


We have some pretty good evidence that people are getting less violent and killing each other less.  You might not think so if you read the headlines but consider:

Homicide rates for males, for instance, declined from 0.3 per thousand in 1200 to 0.1 in 1600 and to about a tenth of this in 1800. Even from the beginning of this period, the level of personal violence was well below that of modern hunter-gatherer societies. Rates of 15 murders per 1,000 men have been recorded for the Aché people of Paraguay.

Wade, Nicholas. A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History (p. 155). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.


There are insects that live for only hours or days.  There are brief physical and quantum events of only split seconds but we want more.  We deserve more than insects and quantum atomic events and they don't take the toll on us that building, raising, protecting, educating and loving a person does.  Why should we settle for moments of life when we want eons and not just stretches of time but fun and joy and adventures and accomplishments?  I say if we can't do better, we ought to set sail for a truly promising location.


Sure, this little planetary ball is our home but it is time to branch out.  Let's not settle for short lives.  We can break out into really respectable lengths of life.  Who's with me?



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