[keladry]

It just doesn't make sense. We're animals. The laws of nature apply to us. We're part of nature. And yet we're not. I mean, you don't see lions suddenly spreading out to all corners of the planet and developing substances that never before existed on the earth and screwing things up in general the way we have. First we were normal animals. We worked within the ecosystem. Then something changed, and suddenly we had tools and agriculture and everything from that point on seems to have inevitably led us to this point. What happened? What changed?

Nature is a balance. Like when rabbit populations grow too large, they starve or get killed off by predators, etc. Then when predator populations get too large, they die back because they've already used up most of their food. When something starts to push the boundaries, the system corrects itself. Before long nature will finally win and we will get pulled back to our original limits. But what allowed us to get this far in the first place? I don't mean exploiting nonrenewable resources to get more food or bend the rules of nature, etc. We were different long before the discovery of fossil fuels. So did nature just happen to create something that came to circumvent itself? Or was it something else? I don't believe in God, as least not the version put forth in the Bible, but when I start to think about all this I can't help but wonder if the "something" that changed us was some outside force.

It's hard to put this all into words, but something is not right here. This goes beyond Peak Oil. Why are we like this? If we came from nature, then why are we so unnatural?

[turmoil]

We evolved into curious, spiritual creatures, but remained stuck in a physical reality.

[holmes]

Yesterday I was shoping for food at prospecter. A throw away place of the Wealthies food scraps. A father with his child was in there. The baby was going crazy screaming and whinning out of the cart the whole time. To me this is typical for our spoiled rotten kids.
But the way he had to quiet it down. Talking softly to it didnt work: "daddys tired. daddys tired he said. please". several times. very pleasant. this only brought on more shrill screams. Like the baby was being ripped apart alive.
what stopped it for a time was daddy turning on the plastic POS animated toy that played a song and dance and daddy dancing along with it. This got what the baby wanted.

Now think at a scale that the mind cannot comprehend.

[PeakKYJelly]

Ask the bacteria why they spread out across the globe and killed hundreds of millions of human beings. Ask the roaches why they survived the extinction of the dinosaurs and plague mankind's houses.

[Raxozanne]

I too think of this often.

I think how did it happen? How did we as a species or 'third chimpaneze' gain such a competitive advantage that we know almost no boundaries and rule over all other species? Such a giant evolutionary leap seems so out of place and unfair to all other forms of life that surely mother nature would have prevented it.

[Ludi]

Don't confuse our culture with all of humanity. Most cultures didn't rampage over the Earth, just a few, and ours has done it the most.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Some questions will never have answers. We haven't got a clue what life will be like in a hundred years from now, and we never will. We don't really even know what it was like to have lived a hundred years ago. Our prosthetic machines and devices fool us into false conceptions of who we are. You ever get into those misanthropic moods?

[PeakKYJelly]

Yes, the higher the IQ, the more rampaging is done.

[lotrfan55345]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PeakKYJelly', 'Y')es, the higher the IQ, the more rampaging is done.

[PeakKYJelly]

It takes brains to built boats to cross oceans. It takes brains to build spaceships to reach the moon. It's true, a lion will never be landing on the moon of its own volition, but is that who we should be modelling ourselves after? Does evolution go forward or backward?

[gnm]

Hmmm interesting point. One nuke can do a WHOLE lot of rampaging. Way more effective than clubs. But Ludi, don't just blame this admittedly myopic "culture" for rampaging. Every culture has rampaged within its means - the modern west just happens to be real good at it.

-G

[0mar]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PeakKYJelly', 'I')t takes brains to built boats to cross oceans. It takes brains to build spaceships to reach the moon. It's true, a lion will never be landing on the moon of its own volition, but is that who we should be modelling ourselves after? Does evolution go forward or backward?

[seldom_seen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('0mar', 'E')volution doesn't go anywhere. Evolution simply adapts an organism to its environment.

[seldom_seen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('keladry', 'I')t's hard to put this all into words, but something is not right here. This goes beyond Peak Oil. Why are we like this? If we came from nature, then why are we so unnatural?

[PeakKYJelly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('seldom_seen', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('0mar', 'E')volution doesn't go anywhere. Evolution simply adapts an organism to its environment.

[seldom_seen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PeakKYJelly', 'W')e are a part of nature. Therefore, when we run rampant, nature runs rampant. When we bat, nature bats. Stop trying to divorce only 1 species from nature, while leaving the rest intact.

[Falconoffury]

I read an interesting book that suggests we were actually the result of genetic experiments by aliens. Adam and Eve were simply the first two homo sapiens ever genetically created. These ideas were taken from the oldest ever recorded writings, the tablets from Sumeria.

It would explain why we fit so poorly within nature. If you know anything about Cane Toads, you would know that they have been an ecological menace in northern Australia. Every year, their territory spreads, and their numbers increase. No native animals seems capable of slowing the Cane Toad.

Humans are like the Cane Toads of Earth. We were created outside of nature, and that is why nature has so much trouble bringing us into equilibrium.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('seldom_seen', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('0mar', 'E')volution doesn't go anywhere. Evolution simply adapts an organism to its environment.

[BlisteredWhippet]

Personally, while having a good imagination and a hefty number of brain cells certainly makse homo sapiens interesting from many perspectives, the truth is that we're just evolved mammals for whom extraordinary results resulted from ordinary genetic shuffling over hundreds of thousands of years.

Breaking out as many Sci-fi and fantasy/religous theories is a function of that increased mental capacity, but it doesn't prove a damn thing. It certainly doesn't create the kind of unambiguous evidence such a scenario would leave in our biological or geological strata.