Survival of the Wisest

Charles Darwin, the famous evolutionist, suggested that his theoretic concept, popularized as “the survival of the fittest”, was the most successful natural survival strategy for a species.

By “fittest”, Darwin implied that the strongest, healthiest, most intelligent and creative individuals of a species would be the ones to survive, breed and continue to exist for the requisite immense number of generations necessary for biological evolution to take place. Chance and good luck seemed also to play major roles in what Darwin suggested was nature’s method of evolution.

However, “The fittest”, in this classic sense, may not be enough now to ensure the continued survival of Homo sapiens as a species.

Lambert, etc., claims in the book “The Field Guide to Early Man” that for mankind, “extinction seems likelier than further evolution. Soaring human population depends on increasing food and energy production—and both of these processes encourage overexploitation of the planet’s resources. Overuse of soil brings erosion; fossil fuel depletion threatens energy supplies—which may worsen with climatic change. Overcrowded, underfed, under fueled, Homo sapiens might fizzle out in famine, war and pestilence. Homo sapiens is a dead end—without a future, as they presently exist. They must themselves control future evolution.” (My italics)

If Homo sapiens does not take charge of its own evolution immediately it may not survive as a species, and perhaps chance may now play a lesser role in our consciously directed evolutionary drama, though, as always, “good luck”, (sometimes called: “the Will of God”) will continue to be a major factor, and, of course, we must also create the planetary environment that favors our species’ survival.

Perhaps the survival of Homo sapiens will now depend on what may be called: “the survival of the wisest” rather than Darwin’s “fittest”, and this may depend more on conscious choices of survival strategies than the blind operations of biological selection.

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Last Laugh

I have just heard that the polar bear has just been placed on the "endangered species" list.

I am so sorry to hear this terrible news.

It seems that the polar ice is melting so fast now that the poor animals drown trying to swim from one iceberg to another as they have through the many ages of their species evolution.

And more terrible than this is the suspicion that this change in the world's climate is due to my own species' selfish acts.

Ourselves, the homo sapiens species, is probably also on some cosmic "endangered species" list since we seem to be responsible for so many biological disasters.

So here is my sad poem:

The Last Laugh Track

Ho, ho, ho, and hee, hee, hee!
One if by land and two if by sea!
Ha, ha, ha, and yuk, yuk, yuk!
If we’ve gotta run, let’s run amok!

Toes and heels, toes and heels!
Let’s slide on them banana peels!
Heels and toes, heels and toes,
Let’s put on glasses and a big, fake nose!

Chase us like the Keystone Kops!
Let’s us run until we drops!
We shakes our sacroiliacs!
We lives our lives like maniacs!

The bestest animal’s a giraffe!
The bestest medicine’s still a laff!
The wisest of us’s still a loon!
The greatest of us’s a baboon!

The bestest place that’s for a pie,
Is in my face and in your eye!
And if we gotta say goodbye,
Let’s us not say it with a sigh!

Let’s say it loud, let’s say it clear––
With dryfull eyes–– without a tear!
We lived and loved, we scrapped and fought,
We did just like we thought we ought!

We ran a good race tho’ we lost––
Our t’s are dotted and our i’s are crossed––
They can’t forget us if they try––
Fare well, so long, toodle-oo, goodbye!

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Tanya on the Trail

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Jobs...just jobs.

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The "nine to five",
The forty hour week,
Is a soul killer.

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The Bridge

"Let him who is ahead be a bridge."


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