Aggregate change in human behavior seems a necessary though not sufficient condition for extending the term of life (that is, all life) on earth. Human activity self-evidently means nothing to the cosmos, but surely means much to humanity and its ecosystem. Can humanity become a good ecological citizen? Evolution offers no precedent. Species that become dominant have left us no record of voluntary self-control. What then can, or should, be the basis of any form of human optimism?
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John Zawacki on February 24, 2008, 2:13 PM
“Survival of the Fittest” does not dictate that all mutations lead to evolutionary benefit. It could be that Homo sapiens’ large brain size could function as the mutation principle to arriving at an evolutionary dead-end, as did the large antler size of the Irish Elk cause its extinction.
The extent to which we have the information to understand how our selfish-survival behavior coupled with our intellect, affects the evolution on Earth, is limited by the lack of long-term natural history of our species (and funding). Hopefully, we have a couple more million years to learn how to sufficiently extend life and stop causing mass extinction.
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