I agree. We're still people, We still benefit from the ruthless, cruel, and oft stupid exploitation of people far and wide, even if I just sell produce for a living and hate seeing people get a shit deal. I don't think I've contributed much to the advancement of all humanity. Don't think I ever will. Bit of speaking up, and light volunteer work maybe. If I get lucky cook on a research station in some remote and terrible place like Antarctica. Still my mostly harmless life is all built on the corpses of the equally deserving. When I get done with this, I'll probably smoke a bowl and watch someone play video games on Youtube with my wife while we gossip.
What is pure, our scientific knowledge and engineering prowess is still increasing faster and faster, and that's pretty cool.
But, if humanity is still a thing in two thousand years, I bet it'll still be ran by assholes, on human suffering, for the benefit of the oblivious.
I have to refer back to inner work and debunking stories, narratives, mind and consciousness. If you can live life from a firmly rooted present awareness and debunk all your own inner crap, even the narrative of your own existence, you eventually see that this whole system of humanity is just something that's happening of its own accord. People apply linear trajectories to our evolution, like we're "supposed" to do something or go somewhere. The truth is that this shit show could go on for another 2,000 years, or 10,000. We could evolve into a completely different species and still be doing pretty much the same things we're doing now. Or we could live a billion light years from here, or...
My point is, what are
you here to do? Why be so macroscopic about it? If you didn't have books, internet, education, and all these ideas floating around, then there'd just be you and your immediate environment. It's always going to come back to you. Aggregate evolution in the species is almost pointless to talk about. Even with all our micro-managing of our own biology and evolution, we have no idea where the road leads. So what it comes down to is this moment.
you make some good points, but at least I think you have to agree that there are at least some countries in this age, where people can live in relative freedom. I'm not too good with history, but a couple hundred years ago, there was probably more poveryt and oppression than nowadays. We live in an age, where human rights are at least a thing people recognize and talk about. of course far from all is done, but we are getting there eventually, I hope.
In a relative way, yes. But every time I hear the word "freedom" used in this constitutional, legalistic way I cringe a little bit. There are many humans on this planet who have legal freedoms, but there are very few humans who behave as though they really understand freedom. As far as I can tell, freedom is something that people aspire to, but not many have. They just assume they're free without interrogating the concept. Everyone on this planet is already free. How many realize it?
So yeah, I can walk down the street at night and not need four men surrounding me with torches and swords in case bandits try to attack me. I'm literate, have access to some interesting technological tools, the world is more connected, etc... but what are we doing with it? Are we really that much more free? The human condition chases us into every century.
I am almost certainly convinced that if sentient, advanced life exists out there and knows about us, the reason they haven't made contact is because of our state of consciousness. Nobody cares what fancy tools you have if the better part of you is still just an instinctual animal. Barely any time has passed since our nuclear awakening. Experimental bombs have been dropped all over the world, and one was used on Japan. The jury is still out and whether we stop ourselves from blowing each other up, so why would aliens come visit such a trigger happy species?
Godandlove, what say you to the complete absence of organisms found in space debris colliding with earth? Its been happening for billions of years and we haven't found a trace. I think this is probably the best argument against panpspermia.
There are many spatial bodies out there that are rich in hydrocarbons which may provide the substrate for organic life to coalesce upon, gradually forming complex molecules over time. So panspermia can also be about the components of life and not life itself.
The problem is that modern science cannot create a living cell from its separate components, so the jury's out.
Even if another form of sentient life created us, who created them? The question is never ending.
I was reading an ancient text about Daoist embryology recently... what some of the old Daoist schools think about the formation of life. This was back before they knew about DNA, but had some awareness of physical structure building upon itself. They believe that sperm and egg coming together attracted a higher, non-material life form (the human soul, so to speak). This spirit then coordinated all of the biological activities necessary to produce a physical body for itself. Matter is preceded by spirit.
That got me thinking. What if the universe is filled with non-material life, and some of it looks for compatible planets with the ingredients necessary to organize material life? We know that matter and energy are essentially the same thing, just at differing densities. That would mean, hypothetically, that non-material life is abundant in the universe, and the only confine to taking physical form is finding a place where matter can be appropriately structured.
