Individually, we are intelligent… We have evolved and we have developed intelligence. From the age when we can support ourselves and our family we do whatever we can to use the system in which we are born into.

 

We need food, shelter and comfort for our feelings. Our feelings include love, hope and compassion. In general we are brainwashed by the system — and by our self on the edges of our natural desires, and we try to minimise hurt, relatively.

This seems to work well as long as we avoid confusion. Conflicting ideas and the forces of nature can make dents in our comprehension. The system gives us some freedom to act, but in general the system does prefer predictable behaviour. We become statistical entities — numbers with a growth factor included, as most systems demands more of us by design or by accidents — it’s in the bible: "go forth and multiply”. 

The way humanity is divided into various groups from families, countries and alliances creates various competitions of needs and wants. Sustainability which should be a number’s game of balance becomes a trick of statistical accounting. 

We have a problem. There are too many of us. Or is there? Do we need to fill all the squares of the board game to realise that we’re not going to win the planetary Tictacto game, even if we all end up eating plastic food. Despite our intelligence, individual and systemic, we still play a reactive ad-hoc game with nature and with each other.

This is not "planet of the humans", but the planet of the interactive proteins. The proteins could become obsolete if the robots take over. This is not a new concept. In Fritz Lang movie, Metropolis, the robots become the new masters. Back in the 18th century, mechanoids build from clockworks could perform some delicate tasks. Some of the makers of the time, already envisioned that these crude robots could one day be imbued with emotional and active intelligence. In the 21st century (or whatever timefame is used to measure our present), we could be on the cusp of such invention. Can the robots become their own generators from extraction of minerals to forging metallic envelop and electronic quantum intelligent evaluations?

In the age of Covid19, in which our individual and systemic human reactions are mixed, yet drastic due to fear of the unknown, our Age of Deceit seems to be on the cusp of the age of confusion. The more we know, the less we understand what is best for us. While in the past, our drive was mostly deceitful, it was assured by the right of godly kings and dictators fighting for supremacy. These were our systemic ideals. Presently despite our deceit which stretches from fake news and weird real news to Donald Trump’s fantasy world, our future is less certain than ever before, though most of us carry on as usual “in the safety of numbers", thinking less and less and valuing distractions more and more. Have we stretched our illusions beyond the realms of this little planet?…

Many of us — still in the grip of philosophical amusement park merry-go-rounds and big dippers — manage to ask the questions. With more questions than answers, we seem to be regressing. We vote for the dork rather than the deceitful. Meanwhile we are aware that our behavioural models are manipulated by the artificial values of derivative ideas rather than the hardcore structure of life on earth. 

Will we muck "it" up? “It" being whatever we choose… We have mucked it up before, but more often than not our muck up was done with the deceitful certainty of improvement. Now? We are in the grip of confused uncertainty on many levels and we cannot rely on the saving grace of our deceit to write the next chapter… Are we going to hit the wall in slow motion or at high speed?

Good luck.

GL
Ephemeral traveller.