tion of almost 8 billion, and a population growth curve that's almost vertical. Here's another point to ponder.
Every genetically defective child who's kept alive long enough to reproduce, today, will pass his genetic defect on to future generations. Eventually, those genetic defects might become widespread within the population.
They might even become universal. As I previously noted, whether such behavior is commendable or reprehensible isn't my point. My point is that we might be making some important changes in our genome, on the basis of good intentions, without having considered all of the likely consequences. It comes down to this. There's probably a tipping point, a level of genetic deficiency beyond which, lacking our technology, our species will not be able to survive. Therein, as they say, lies the rub. All of that well-intended medical intervention makes our species more dependent on technology, like the turkeys.
I believe that, since the beginning of our species, our ancestors have repeatedly developed medical technologies that allowed the accumulation of genetic
defects. Each of those hi-tech societies eventually collapsed, and
was followed by a dark age during which people, with only a rudimentary technology,
struggled merely to survive. It appears to me that our present hi-tech
society is near to the end of its run. In spite of any concerns for
the survival of our species, after this next collapse, I expect that any
efforts to actually correct the genetic defects in our genome, while there's
still time, will draw fierce opposition. We're paralyzed by our fear
of our past. We have a long and sorry history of racism, forced sterilizations,
bigotry, pogroms, ethnic "cleansing", human medical experiments, and so forth. Such behavior has caused eugenics to be widely viewed as a bad idea. Medical researchers might tiptoe around the idea, but I doubt if they will ever actually use it constructively.
The caribou and the wolf are one, but we are only a half. We don't have a wolf to keep us strong, and we lack the wisdom to do it for ourselves.
In the context of our high-tech society, genetic defects are accumulating.
We must help the children, because to do otherwise would seem inhumane.
We won't help ourselves, as a species, because of our fear of man's inhumanity to man. Our present course, unchecked, points in the direction of
a herd of helpless invalids, tended by machines. I can suggest only
one thing that might save our species.
Consider that Darwinism has two sides. It isn't just natural selection, the survival of the fittest. It's also natural deselection, the elimination of the unfit. I believe that, during each of those past dark ages,
natural deselection removed the accumulated genetic defects from our genome,
and preserved our species from extinction. I believe that the present
genetic condition of our species, as I understand it, and the trend, as I
perceive it, are such that we need another such collapse. I'm not suggesting some brief, local event like the so-called Dark Ages that happened in Europe a few centuries ago. That won't be sufficient. We need for it to be of long duration, so that the other side of Darwinism, standing in for
our missing wolf, will have enough time to remove our genetic defects. Natural deselection is a slow process. It takes time. We need for the collapse to be world-wide, so that the defects will be removed from our entire species, not just from bits and pieces of it, here and there. We need for it to be soon, before the accumulation of genetic defects is so
bad that we won't be able to survive at all, after the collapse.
It's a bitter pill to swallow but if there's a better way, then I haven't thought of it. I'm open to suggestions but, for now, a long period of
world-wide adversity seems to me to be the only thing that can save our species.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif) Nickels, Dimes, and Solitude Sam Aurelius Milam III
Briefly, during the early 1960s, I sold ice cream for the high school cafeteria.
It was a small-time operation. The cafeteria had a little cooler on wheels, and a cash box. Every day, during the lunch break, I'd push the cooler out into the hallway, and offer ice cream for sale.
Often, a student who approached me didn't want ice cream. He'd just plop a quarter onto my little countertop and ask for nickels and dimes.
I'd say, "You can have nickels and a dime or a nickel and dimes, but you
can't have nickels and dimes." Each such student always looked at me
like I was an idiot. Well, think about it. The smallest possible
combination of nickels and dimes, two each, adds up to 30¢. I
didn't last very long in the job.
The main lesson that I learned from the experience, although I didn't realize it until a long time later, is this. Whenever somebody looks at me
like I'm an idiot, it probably means that he's an idiot. Maybe I'm
being presumptuous about my own superiority (or maybe not) but, over the
years and the decades, it got more and more difficult for me to deal with
people's idiotic attitudes and stupid behavior. Nowadays, I just try
the best that I can to stay alone as much of the time as possible.
Solitude is a good companion.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif) ![Gun](../../Images/Gun.gif)
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