Evolution's Two Speeds

You and I are Homo sapiens sapiens.  Part of the order of Primates and the family of Hominidae.  In the Kingdom of Animalia.  We are animals.

Our appearance on Earth goes back approximately 200,000 years before present (BP).  We migrated out of our east African home about 70,000 BP.  We developed language at 50,000 BP.  It took another 40,000 years to understand the basics of agriculture in 10,000 BP.  In 6,000 BP the first nation-like organizations appeared with cities and armies to defend them.  We then figured how to conquer and expand territory using those armies thus giving rise to Greece, Rome and China in 3000 to 2000 BP.  That is when things really took off.

I believe that, today, we live in a world where new inventions are coming out a pace that is hard to keep pace with.  I don't just mean in the field of consumer electronics.  I include our understanding and invention in physics, in biology and medicine, in finance - in all fields.

New gadgets come out that society feels are must haves.  Our understanding of subatomic particles is forcing physicists to question our fundamental laws on how our "everything" is built - from consciousness and thoughts to the very physical like our bodies.  Our understanding of the universe shows us how little we know and how much we don't.  The 20th Century brought amazing advances and the 21st will bring even more.

In the past our inventions were relatively superficial and easier to understand.  A plough made sense to most.  A television's use was understandable.  Money's utility comprehensible.  Do most understand the impacts and possible uses of genetic manipulations?  The most comprehend the impact of discovering what black matter really is?  Do we all understand the complex financial tools that are discussed nightly on the news?  The world becomes more and more incomprehensible to most due to the specialized nature of the discoveries.

It all seems fantastical.  While we invent we become less comfortable with the present.  Our discoveries raise more questions, more and more fundamental questions about life, about physical dimensions.  Our brain's ability to create seems to have evolved faster than its ability to assimilate the change these inventions, and resulting questions, bring.  Our ability to understand and use these inventions and discoveries just does not progress as quickly.  We become confused.

Man's self destruction may not come from a third world war but, rather, it may come from a level of insanity caused by our inability to understand the implications of what we are discovering.

Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!