"You gotta make way for the Homo superior" sang David Bowie in Oh! You Pretty Things. Now David Bowie was privy to much advanced knowledge and wisdom hitherto hidden from H. sapiens. As the Man who Fell to Earth, he had some profound insights into our future destiny...
Imagine, then as Bowie did, a better human being.
Much of the improvement would be around behaviour, rather than form or function (although it is believed that evolution is responsible for more and more humans to reach adulthood without wisdom teeth - ósemki in Polish). There is little biological advantage in being bigger or indeed smaller. And then the big debate as to what extent intelligence is hereditary, and to what extent does one increase it as the result of lifelong learning.
Other than intelligence, the principle improvement that H. sapiens requires is to become kinder and more altruistic, not given to anger, better at getting on with other humans and the environment.
Would evolution point us this way though? Isn't it about survival of the fittest? What's the evolutionary advantage of being kind?
And yet - we are kinder today, kinder than in the Middle Ages, kinder than in Roman times, kinder than in Ancient Greece. Executions and torture are confined to outliers rather than being mainstream punishment as they were. People are generally less violent - not just because of better policing - but because it does not pay to behave villainously in modern urban society. Education, healthcare and equal rights have improved ordinary people's lots enormously, with billions of human lifted out of poverty, able to enjoy a life free of chronic discomfort, hunger, cold.
We are not developing kindness genes - rather, behavioural adaptation is the result of learning. Win-win replaces transactional ("I will only give you this if you give me that", the Trump mentality) or adversarial thinking ("I can only win if you lose", the Putin mentality).
At the moment, we are experiencing a routine, regular hiccup, a step back after two steps forward, a time of confusion and social unease; it will pass, better times await.
Better times... times without tyrants. Full democracy based on informed electorates, checks and balances, separation of powers, separation of money and power - peaceful coexistence between nations, an end to war, an end to disease.
Imagine that your consciousness is that of a being from another world - another galaxy even - vastly more evolved than humanity. But you are in human form. Brought up among humans, you interact with them, maintaining your cover; you observe them and their world closely, and you compare them. You have the wisdom. You see just how far they still have to go to catch up.
How does your world compare to Planet Earth in the early 21st century?
"Disease - eliminated aeons ago, along with war, poverty and natural disasters. Genetic progress has conquered ageing - and death. Genetic and spiritual progress. They have also tamed hatred and anger, cruelty, greed, laziness - and ego. Extended lifespans and technology allow us to travel vast distances across space, as our experience of time is far different to yours - your centuries, we treat as mere months. We communicate via telepathy - for us, no one holds secrets. We cooperate with each other to a degree that you could not begin to imagine. Learning is all important to us. Learning in depth and in breadth. In time, you too shall see. In time. Not in this life or the next, nor the one after that."
But religion - what is the religion on my planet?
"It is science; it is knowing; it is awareness."
And what is science on your planet?
"It is aiming towards total understanding of the phenomenon you know as consciousness, distributed as it is across the Universe."
This time last year:
Applying Occam's Razor to religion
This time two years ago:
In search of spiritual immortality
This time three years ago:
Knowing and being and intuition
This time four years ago:
Rzeszów - capital of Poland's south-east corner
This time seven years ago:
A tipping point in European history
This time eight years ago:
Random sentiments from London suburbs
This time nine years ago:
Stalinist neo-classicism in Warsaw
A week into Lent
This time 11 years ago:
Afternoon-dusk-night in the city centre
This time 12 years ago:
How I saw these things back then - ALIENS!
This time 13 years ago:
Wetlands waiting for the spring
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