I have been trying to answer this question all my life. What has mankind done, either for itself or for our home which we live on (Earth), that has made for a positive difference and will not have future long term negative effects? Yes, this is a serious question, as I cannot think of any answers myself. I will appreciate any response.
This is easy. Everything! We're on top of the foodchain. Not by strength, not by agility, not by speed. Pure smarts, cunning and a non-stop appetite for climbing that next mountain. Explore something new. Experience something new. Learn something new. Humanity is great, now that we've conqured the earth without serious competition, the galaxy is ours to exploi... eh, explore
We are the only species that has extended its own life expectancy, and the only known outpost of any intelligent life within the currently observable universe. We are the caretakers of the planet, if we want to be. We can see through time and space, and use imagination to create a more perfect unverse. And some of us are damn good guitar players!
Amen to that! <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ATub40Npxik"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ATub40Npxik" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
were the only species who asks what the hell is wrong with us. that makes us great. self reflection is an essential tool for improvement. that guitarist looks a lot like my old roommate who was killer at the guitar too, but i'm sure its not him as i suspect he's dead from a heroin od by now.
Don't forget that we're 'probably' just another result of evolution as a whole. Through different variables added to the great equation (ice ages, heat waves, avalanches and the Clinton scandal) we have kept our cool and throttled ourselves through the ages long enough to produce a world-wide civilization where we have progressed rapidly, if not constantly, in scientific endeavors. Of course, I emphasize the word 'probably' because I am most likely wrong and that's 'probably' one of the most beautiful aspects of humanity itself!
course not, rasta wouldn't expose himself like that. the government would be able to track him. they'd cross check the weight of the guitarist with the brand of white curtains in the background and then match up other recordings of the musician to bust him
Another great thing about the Human race is the written language, the recording of history and science and culture and even the hallucinogenic nightmares of us all! Think of the 'superbrain' created by the collection of worldly experiences, both real and imagined, the morphic resonance of the human experience is never done growing.
As much as I'd love to take credit it is not. It's some Brazilian guitarist. I'm musically challenged.... like I mean I was a drummer for 4 years.
Perhaps mankind as a whole is not great, rather only a few men. As time goes by you could compile a list of all the great minds of the world, those who strive to better humanity, protect the environment (from which others have destroyed), to make others happy, and to put "mankind" before "man". However, if you were compile another list, side by side to the original, of all those "men" who strive for something else in life, greed, lust, power, there will a significantly larger number. True, there have been some members of mankind who were truely great, however on the whole, mankind is not. Sure there are environmentalists who try save the rain forest, however there is a larger number of corporate personnel who care more about turning their trees into dollars, figuratively and literally. Sure, there have been great men who have preached peace, equality, justice. Those men would be without occupation without the corruption, hatred, and war of mankind. The once blue planet Earth is increasingly changing color, with every passing day our blue oceans turn slightly more towards red, as the blood of "mankind" is spilled, for the "greatness" of men. That being said, I feel that "mankind" is not great, rather "men" are great. With that point, I feel that we should all ask ourself, what type of "man" will we be? Will we one day change the lists, have good overcome evil, community over vanity? Will we once be considered to be "great men" or will we succumb to join the ever growing ranks of those men who simply live, either aimlessly as drifters through this world, or selfishly for them selfs?
By "pure smarts" and "non-stop appetite" you mean our addiction to creating some materialistic mass to plot next to us and all of our other materialistic junk already beside us that will maybe make life great in the NOW, but down the road will probably just end up being some worthless junk that we find out is really hurting our environment and our long term world and not really doing much for us at all?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> <o></o> Mankind has climbed many mountains in search of new things. The problem there is that a majority of mankind climbs and searches for individual benefits, not for mankind as a whole. Otherwise the mountains such as... starvation, disease, pollution, etc. would have been climbed and conquered, not climbed and then disserted as if it were never climbed in the first place.<o></o> <o></o> Mankind is extremely dirty, and does not even hesitate to create new things that will have negative effects on itself or its environment, as long as it brings some sort of immediate fix for the time being. This to me is not smart, it is quite insanely stupid.<o></o> <o></o> Mankind cannot even take care of itself, and is incapable of cleaning up after itself. This is proven by the countless hours I spend every week by myself picking up bags and bags full of trash littered on the very roads we created and use daily. Of all the species on planet Earth, mankind takes care of itself with the least effect. We kill each other more than any other species and we pollute more than any other species.<o></o> <o></o> If Earth is just some stepping stone for you on your way to the next galaxy, don't you think you should at least respect and take care of it while you're visiting. We live among thousands of other species that were already here before us. Just because we have managed to plot a bunch of material around us, does not make us smart. I don't believe you could make such a judgment without knowing the final result, which we don't.<o></o> <o></o> My other question is how does mankind expect to move together to other galaxies when we can't even move together here?<o></o> <o></o> Maybe we should stop looking for new mountains to explore and work on the ones we already know to need attention. <o></o>
You believe that. That we are roaches exploiting nature. That all we do for progress is somehow bad. Yes, let us all pretend life was much better in the stone-age, and that human curiosity and inquiry is, well, evil. Here's my view on it however: Life is intrinsic to the universe. A few places this have resulted in intelligent life. Nature, life, seeks complexity where it can. We owe it to the nature that developed and nurtured us to seek all the knowledge that we can. To spread life, to spread the beacon of intelligence throughout this universe we live in. To make all this dead matter we and everything consist of to actually mean something. To have a use. This earth, this solar system, this galaxy, this universe is our little sandbox. Now let's have some fun with it! And if we meet someone else having fun, we got friends This universe will end sometime in many billions of years from now. Without understanding the universe, having conquered it like we have the earth, how are we (or more correctly, our ancestors that may not resemble us at all), have any hope of keeping life alive? We need to understand nature to live. In this moment, and also in the long run. Understanding nature means science, technology and progress. Taming nature to submit it to our will, not the cold indifference that nature provides. It's what we've done so far, with great success I might add. But we've just started
humans are unique in many ways which makes us "great". not only our ability, but desire to create new things is just awesome and is one of the many things that sets us apart from our fellow animal inhabitants.
Yeah we're intelligent and all that, but our physical characteristics bother me. The left side of the human heart works to send blood pretty much all over the body, while the right side of the heart works to send blood to the right lung. Because of this, the left side of the heart is obviously stronger, therefore the left side of the brain gets more circulation(sp?) and since the left side of the brain is connected to the right side of the body, most people are right handed. The sole fact that our bodies are not symmetrical kind of bothers me. BUT, since we're intelligent, shouldn't we figure out how to fix this? I think we'll be able to work something out to correct this one day(or at least I hope so). Also, because one side of our brain is stronger than the other, doesn't that mean that there's alot we're probably missing that would have been helped by the other side?