Are We Too Smart For Our Own Good !

ellno#1

The question has been asked ?
Give us an answer if you dare, if you are game, that is, do you have an insight into the future of our world ?
The human race collectively, has made enormous advances in many different directions, most of them applauded as saving us from whatever would bring us all undone.
We have developed drugs to combat all kinds of maladies, eliminated lots of bugs/bacteria/viruses, that would have otherwise culled the worlds population amy times over.
In days gone by, The Black Death, The Plague, in modern times Malaria, Aids, Hiv, Bird Flu, the list is endless and the same devices Mother Nature placed on our planet are not there to keep our numbers at a level that is sustainable.
Population grows by the hour all over the world.
Does Our Mother Nature, even Our God, or Whoever it was who placed these obstacles in our way, do they/he/it have a plan, to keep us in check or are we too smart, cunning, devious in our ways.
Like civilisations in the past, they rise then they fall, will we like our forbears decline the same way, history repeats, what will save our planet or mankind.
Who will inherit the future, our world, the meek and mild, the strong and the bold, the insects, the cockroaches, the ants, rats and mice.
What say thee amongst us, who have bold an opinion, stirring a hornets nest of thought have I, or are we so complacent, safe in our caves, huddled against the cold light of reality.

willocrew

I don't think we're too smart for our own good, because we're not as smart as we would like to think.

Most of our advances rely on manipulating whatever is already there in nature. I daresay all our advances in the medical area is through the hijacking of biological processes already present in nature, and putting it to good use.

We're clever enough to spot these opportunities, but we're not clever enough to predict the consequences. We're thus limited in many ways, but I think our collective arrogance in thinking we have achieved and conquered our environment is a mental obstacle that clouds us from seeing the big picture.

So in order to answer your question, I'll say that yes, we're pretty smart... But not smart enough.

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vadiver

As I was reading the OP my thought was we are not too smart for our own good, we are too arrogant for our own good.

A lot of this depends on your religeous perspective. Not to HJ this into a thread on relegion because every belief is going to have a slightly different take on the situation.

To think most animal lifeforms before the current animal lifeforms that continues to evolve/adapt has been wipped out at some point to think we are smarter and better is a bit arrogant.

Just studying astronomy will give evidence of our future demise. It may not happen today, but it will happen, and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

bkaapcke

Intelligence, in humans, is highly overrated. For the most part, it provides personal entertainment, and an ongoing dialogue that we think is somehow meaningful. Our actions, as individuals, may have some basis in intelligence or logic. However, on a 'nations' level, collective human action is often emotional, instinctual, reactive and mindless. This is why history looks like an endless series of accidental outcomes of purportedly intelligent choices. In short; We talk of great things, but it is mostly bulldung.
Then there is the delusion of religion. Humanity maintains thousands of religious belief systems, each of which is the 'one true religion'. All have nice creation stories, and provide some basis for living a right life. But let one religion rub up against another, and it is all out war. Humans will kill others by the thousands to to correct their mistaken beliefs.
If it weren't for the omnipresent delusions of grandeur, humans would be a nicer lot. Bottom line; people don't recognize the limitations of human intelligence. bk

jhuskey

We can't control our thoughts,emotions,primitive urges,technology or bowel movements. Humans are too limited to know how weak minded we actually are.It is however all relative in the grander scheme of things.
We have become effective at killing in mass numbers. Is this a measure of higher intelligence?

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Hypnospin

ell, i have been thinking this over for a while now...great question to ponder.

we'll have to first define smart as applicable to the context, for there are different ways and means to quantify intelligence. there is cumulative smarts, empirically derived from some exposure to life experience and form of education, and there is innate wisdom, which is perhaps more of a talent, perhaps a genealogical trait.

it is put forth that the men of today have not surpassed the smarts of the men of ancient times, y'know, smarts on the order of the archimedes and platos, or more recently the jeffersons and franklins. and yes the churchills as this is a deserved nod to our uk forum. this is not to say these men did not display the foibles of humanity and the consequences that result...

one thing for sure, the science that has enabled man to live to see the advancements you mention has also resulted it the pitfalls as well.

as for civilizations rising and falling, the us, for instance, is now on the classic course of moving from democracy to despotic autocracy, and like rome before it, cannot "guard the roads" from the hazards that present themselves to any empire that intends to domineer and control by invasion and decree the resources of a nation, a people, a region or a planet...this has not changed as a fundamental fact that is far too overwhelming to contend with, there just are not enough tax dollars to support this current romanesque empire the us is being led into.



other points along these lines have to do with smarts relative to environmental and humanitarian concern issues in addition to the political/theological matters outlined above.


"i don't have a solution, but i admire the problem"
~quoted from Velocity velocages package

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"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present...As our case is new, so must we think anew and act anew"
Abraham Lincoln, in his address to congress dec. 1st, 1861

Bro Deal

George Jefferson never struck me as very bright. He did manage to move up the East side so he must have been doing something right.

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"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

Hypnospin

any conjecture about his relative brightness aside, he did wield a sharp witisism,
"if i paid you to think, you could cash your check at the penny arcade"
-geo. jefferson, circa 1975

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"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present...As our case is new, so must we think anew and act anew"
Abraham Lincoln, in his address to congress dec. 1st, 1861

Bro Deal

Point taken. He was a giant among men. We could learn a lot from George Jefferson. Him and Al Bundy.

__________________
"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

Colorado Ryder

Lenny Kravitz's mother was on the Jeffersons.