Challenges and Changes affecting our evolution

When I think of the word evolution I think of it in terms of humanity, the planet, the stars, the universe, or even as is currently thought in many quarters, the Multiverse. More specifically, we, humanity, have evolved over what in real terms is a very short period of time, in our current form, only about 100, 000 years.

I always joke with people (although it is commonly accepted), that we evolved from fish, i.e., some curious creatures from the ocean made it on to land and so our journey began and we are the result. I am of course offering a very simplistic version of what is a very real, unique and utterly fantastic story of how humans came about. I think it is in the use of the metaphor of a 24-hour day, that if we had just arrived on earth it would be at a few seconds to midnight.

That being the case we can’t really have very high expectations of where we have got to but we are of course consoled by our progress so far. To use another metaphor, in the life of an adult well into retirement age, we are effectively only a few days old, and certainly no more than a few weeks at most (I’m certain a good mathematician might correct me as just being a few hours old if not indeed a mere minute or two).

Just as a new baby might struggle to come to terms with its very own existence, as it learns to feed, bond with its parents, and focus on its surroundings, so too, we are still trying to learn, understand and grow into ourselves. Every human of course has essentially the same if not distinctive journey to unravel but you would hope that with each new being, and each new mutation that comes into being, that we are one step further on that journey of discovery.

Just as I have evolved as an adult, and trust me, even after nearly half-a-century I’m still evolving, I have learned, that the more I know, the less I know (apparently that is the first step on the journey to self-realisation, and not only that, but being content with it). What we know of the planet is limited, what we have learned about ourselves, how our brains function, how things work, how life is, our history, biology, physics, and psychology among many other things, we ultimately know so damned little in real terms. I used to think I knew a lot, but in reality I didn’t know shit, and still there is so much of that shit to learn.

One of the things I have come to terms with is that very thing – I’m not going to ether, not even a mere 1% of all that there is to know. I’m ok with that. As I grow older, and life begins to take its toll on my human form, and I start to suffer from wear and tear (and believe me I still consider myself relatively young), my ability to know, or even retain most of what I already know never mind what I might learn in the future, has probably reached a ‘tipping point,’ and I imagine I’m on the other side.

What I can console myself with is that in the great scheme of things, and to offer a little perspective, I am merely a speck of sand on a very long beach (yes, I know, it sounds terribly corny and clichéd) but I arrived, I evolved, and I have managed to last this long so far. And whilst humanity has made undoubtedly, and in many cases fantastical and amazing progress (and even I can console myself further by knowing I have made a small contribution to learning overall), if Earth, or rather humanity were in receipt of a school report tomorrow, it would no doubt fall into the ‘could do better’ category.

Humanity has survived many challenges – from just about avoiding being ate by wild animals on an hour-by-hour basis, or surviving cataclysmic weather changes, or large speeding rocks knocking lumps out of the Earth’s surface, human beings are a tale of progress, arguably when we probably knew least.

But, and it’s a big but, our capacity for survival has also seen our tendency to over-egg our abilities, and for example, shoot ourselves in the proverbial foot where climate change is concerned, or press the self-destruct button with countless needless wars.

Evolving into sensible, mature, calm, patient, happy and well-rounded, peace-loving individuals, has been clearly no easy task – it’s a daily challenge for the vast majority of us, if daily news headlines from around the globe are concerned. It’s incredible with all the knowledge that we have amassed, our collective experience, and seemingly unlimited ability to create and innovate, we seem unable, and unwilling to end poverty, inequality, homelessness, modern slavery, the plight of refugees and so on. The list is endless.

We live in arguably the greatest era in the history of humanity yet it seems survival of the fittest is the dominant discourse. The technological advances in recent times has been immense, and frightening in equal measure, yet our fragility has been underscored by, at the time of writing, Coronavirus. All things considered, it’s surprising that we have had it, relatively speaking, so good for so long. But maybe, Mother Earth has awoken to deliver us a message. What else would have brought the planet to hit the brakes? Nothing it seems.

With all off our major technological developments and all of our epic advances across time and nations, a small little bug that is invisible to the human eye has captured our attention and has us reflecting upon, and reviewing on our everyday existence and behaviour. Neither speech nor campaign, at least in modern history, has ever managed to change the way we function overnight as Covid-19 has.

Our vulnerabilities and our collective fragility has been on show, but it in many respects it has been on show for a while now. The rise of feelings at the expense of logic; our never being so well connected in an age of pervasive loneliness; our ability to live longer and healthier lives in an era of obesity and chronic disease; our capacity to live more meaningful lives at a time when anxiety, stress, depression and suicide has reached obscene levels. These are just a sample of the many vulnerabilities and collective fragility, and in real terms, contradictions we share, and have been evolving with and alongside yet have failed to address.

We are at the greatest moment in the human journey but we are faced with a future of irreversible damage to the planet that will make life here impossible, if not in my lifetime, certainly in the lifetime of our grandchildren, and I say this a grandparent myself. We have difficult choices to make as we cannot continue to live as we have been.