Thursday, March 24, 2011

We Think, Therefore We Are Pretty Smug

If it came down to it. With the last of humanity dwindling out. A few gathering their possessions, trying to claim some shallow victory in having the most at the end. Others clinging on to whatever vice that appeases their minds. Others still, accepting their fate and welcoming what's to come. And of course, those who refuse to accept the inevitability. When it's all said and done, what is there to say about humanity that should be uttered without sounding condescending?

Our ability to reason is no more grand than a monkey who sits on his left testicle and realizes it hurts and never does it again. Credit to the monkey, humans don't seem to have this understanding and anything on YouTube will lend credence to the fact.

Our material accomplishments are nothing of real note. I've seen ant farms that would put Frank Lloyd Wright to shame. We've broken the sound barrier, we've been in space, we've set foot on another celestial object. Nothing compared to the journey of the monarch butterfly.

Our ability to dream? Now we're getting somewhere. Without it, one can argue that we'd be nowhere near where we are today. But dogs dream. And I bet so does every other animal out there. So again, not necessarily a human endeavor worthy of history.

How about, the fact that we were alive at all? That in the division and unification of cells, atoms, matter; we evolved, struggled, and LIVED. All other species on this planet can make that claim as well, but the question is, can all other planets make the claim to have sentient life?

The ability to be alive and exist may be our only true claim to fame.

We're a species of limited scope. Whether you want to believe it or not. There was a time where we didn't exist, and there will be a time where we will cease. It's the way of things.

But how incredible is it that we are here? We are fascinated by dinosaurs, not just because they existed when we weren't around, but that they're not here in that form anymore. We consistently look for life on other planets because we yearn to learn that we are not the only ones. And honestly, how sad is it to look on a planet with no life?

We see pictures of Mars, a rusted, cold landscape. A desert that mirrors are own. And I think the pictures that excite us the most are the pictures that show the tracks of the Mars rover dotting the surface.

It's because it's life (sort of)! It's movement, it makes the planet less foreign to us. It gives us hope that maybe there's more out there, that when we pass from this homosapien shell, someone or something will look back at us and say, "Hey! Looks like we're not alone."

- This post took longer than it should have, cause I douched it on my iPad.

Location:At a Starbucks in San Pablo

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