Along with
other oddities of growing old, insomnia seems to be common. I don’t have any trouble falling asleep,
but I wake about four each morning with the monkeys run through my mind
dragging random thoughts that seem to keep me awake.
We view
ourselves today as fait accompli, the final, perfect product in the tree
of evolution.
There is
some justification for that thinking, since evolutionary differences have resulted
from adaptive changes among isolated groups to specific environments: Aboriginal
in Australia differ from pigmies in Africa and differ from Nordic populations
in northern Europe…
Today, with the
ease of world travel people are less isolated resulting in more cross-cultural societies.
It seems
likely to me that the next evolution of humankind will not happen in isolated
societies, but as the result of the ease of global travel, we will experience assimilation
– moving toward a homogeneous race.
Cultural accommodation
has more effect on our actions than logic and biological adaptation, so it will
take the dying off of most generations living today to asphyxiate the idea of
racial purity.
In our egocentricity,
we view time over the period of our lifespan, but time is a continuum. As important as we think we are, humankind
will evolve over time, just as we always have – unless we bring about our own
destruction.
the Ol’Buzzard
I appreciate your optimism with "unless we bring about our own destruction. ". I would have said until instead of unless.
ReplyDeleteWhile I also hope and believe that with travel we will grow more homogenous.... the environments effects on us will still try to shape us. The confounding variables of sunlight exposure and vitamin D production are a case in point.... although we can combat both negative environmental factors through the use of supplements of vitamin D and use of sunscreens.
ReplyDeletePipeTobacco
"Lord what fools these mortals be"
ReplyDeleteIt's 4:18 a.m. now. I slept for less than 2 hours and woke up thinking I needed a gaia statue so got up and googled and found one at walmart and then after listening to that song of yours earlier I bought a blacksmith lady mambasa cd ...think I'll go read my new John Sanford book, it had Virgil Fucking Flowers in it...
ReplyDelete