Extinction

by Douglas Preston

The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. And it is terrifically dangerous. —Edward O. Wilson

Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception. —Carl Sagan

“I see you’re skeptical. But let me explain. Think about the miracle of life on this planet. A dust cloud in space condensed into a wet dead rock orbiting an average star. And then, somewhere on this rock, a microscopic bag of chemicals made a copy of itself. And copied itself again, and then again. Because these copies were imperfect and differed slightly from each other, some chemical bags survived better than others. That’s it. That dumb little rule, iterated a billion times, produced us and everything else in our glorious natural world! But you and I are still a bag of chemicals, fabulously complex, that somehow acquired this mysterious thing called consciousness. Look at you and me—it blows the mind that we evolved from a dust cloud left over from an exploded star!”

“Midnight shakes the memory like a madman shakes a dead geranium,”

Twelve o¹clock. Along the reaches of the street Held in a lunar synthesis, Whispering lunar incantations Dissolve the floors of memory And all its clear relations Its divisions and precisions, Every street lamp that I pass Beats like a fatalistic drum, And through the spaces of the dark Midnight shakes the memory As a madman shakes a dead geranium. T. S. Elliot

“Just like cats. Especially when they’re sleeping. So do elephants, by the way.”

Karlmann King SUV

https://karlmannking.com

Out of empathy springs cooperation, compassion, and altruism. We had each other’s backs. We could organize ourselves into much larger and more cohesive social groups—which meant bigger war parties. But empathy also allows us to lie and deceive and manipulate—because empathy helps us to see into another person’s mind. With empathy, you can anticipate what others are thinking and feeling. That’s a huge advantage in warfare and conflict.

What a grim and self-loathing species you are! Look at what you worship as progress. The agricultural revolution turned you from free wanderers into slaves to the land. The Industrial Revolution robbed you of your souls and made you cruel. And the IT revolution gave you loneliness, hatred, and misery. What’s next for Sapiens in the glorious march of progress?”

“You’re the species of the apocalypse. You exterminated us, and you’re doing the same to thousands of other species. You’ve mortally wounded the earth. You didn’t just eat the apple; you destroyed the garden. And yet you go on and on, consumed with greed, addicted to comfort, soft and degenerate as grubs. You think we want to be like you?”