Homo Hubris
A New Species
“Having created a Star Wars civilization with Paleolithic emotions, Medieval institutions and God-like power, we are a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life.”
-E.O. Wilson
Through the Cracks Kilauea, Hawaii
Approximately 200,000 years ago, early humans, the first Homo Sapiens, emerged along the evolutionary timeline. 165,000 years later, science documents a “Great Leap Forward” to animal-hide clothing, more efficient hunting techniques, ritual burials, and artistic and symbolic expression. Some 25,000 years later, the first Agricultural Revolution occurred, enabling humans to settle in larger groups, trade, learn to write, and use and sculpt metals. Only 6,000 years after that, the Sumerians of Mesopotamia developed the first-known civilization. Looking at human progress in just 200,000 years is all the more amazing in relation to the estimated 55 million years of primate evolution and 3.8 billion years of life on the planet. At the same time, 200,000 years sounds incredibly long in relation to the evolution of human consciousness during this time.
Despite the extensive timeline of scientifically explained human evolution, I will be examining the much more condensed, yet significantly evolving, nuances of cognitive human evolution. In just the past 250 years, many humans have undergone a transformation of consciousness that, by itself, rivals what had developed during the previous 3.8 billion years of life. The term “Homo Sapiens,” which translates from Latin as “wise man,” offers only one classification of humans that includes 195,000 years of evolutionary developments. I argue, however, that in the past 250 years alone, human evolution has diverged in an unexpected direction. The Industrial Revolution and the incredible technological progress and global interconnectedness that ensued from it set in motion a paradigm shift of human values. For the first time in history, humans have begun evolving so rapidly and irresponsibly that the species has lost its balance. In growing our ability to think, reflect, and analyze in a way previously unexplored, we have grown as advanced as we have ignorant. Because of this, I believe that today’s humans have evolved beyond the Earth’s and our own natural homeostasis. A new species has evolved, and I call it “Homo Hubris.” It remains to be seen if continuing human progress and evolution will cause us to implode or save ourselves and move beyond to yet another new era.
It is important to acknowledge that this shift in consciousness has not taken hold among all humans. Two Octobers ago, I found myself immersed in the Lahu Village—a hill-tribe outside of Chiang Rai, Thailand. The tribe was composed predominantly of pigs, followed by chickens, dogs, water buffalo, and then, maybe, humans. The tribal “chief,” Yafu, was 101 years old, though he didn’t look a day over 85. Despite a growing tourism industry in Thailand, this tribe has remained relatively secluded. Just a few hours away, however, is the booming metropolis of Bangkok. The Lahu Village is the culmination of 10,000 years of human civilization in the Thai/Burmese hills, and in all of this time, it has remained relatively untainted by the chaos that has taken hold for much of the human species.
Science has become the optimal lens for examining the physical world. But the science that is able to track thousand-, million-, and even billion-year intervals in physical terms is not very useful in examining the evolution of consciousness. While we can draw on the parallels between evolution in mindset and its physical manifestations, neuroscience and bioscience have not yet allowed us to examine consciousness in verifiable detail. As Dale Wright writes in his book, The Six Perfections, “Consciousness may require an explanation of an entirely different character from those that have been so successful in explaining the material world….the kinds of introspective awareness that show us consciousness are very different from the ‘extro-spective’ tools of scientific analysis.”[1] Wright considers the difference between the brain and the mind and how the two have been wrongly fused by the Western paradigm. He says, “Scientific humility requires that we acknowledge that the explanatory gap between the brain and the mind is enormous, and that we currently have no way to cross that divide. It may be that we must await a paradigm shift in understanding before we can begin to unravel this relationship.”[2] The paradigm shift he describes is one where astral truth, that of the mind and heart, is valued alongside physical truth, that of the brain and science.
The Industrial Revolution was a turning point in Earth’s ecology and humans’ relationship with it. Arguably the greatest turning point in human history, the Industrial Revolution dramatically changed every aspect of human life. Machines replaced human labor, fossil fuels replaced wind, water and wood, transportation opened the doors to an interconnected world. As Eric McLamb writes in his article, “The Ecological Impact of the Industrial Revolution,” “These processes gave rise to sweeping increases in production capacity and would affect all basic human needs, including food production, medicine, housing and clothing. Not only did society develop the ability to have more things faster, it would be able to develop better things.”[3]
The result of this massive shift in technology was a massive shift towards self-centeredness and narrow-sightedness and away from our connection to each other and the planet. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, human consciousness correlated to human relationship with money. We were concretely aware of our means of survival, and thus, very connected to the planet and other people. Before the Industrial Revolution, there was not a single bank in the United States. Then, from 1834 until 1933, the US operated under a Gold Standard—where the price of gold was fixed at $20.67.[4] The massive depression of the 1930’s, felt worldwide, forced Franklin D. Roosevelt to lessen the value of gold, beginning the end of the US economy’s relationship with it. Without a Gold Standard, paper money evolved into credit. The rise of National Banks, granting credit to the public, inevitably created widespread debt. Finally, this debt became the means for the US economy’s functionality.
The current economic model operates based on perpetual debt, which, beyond being unsustainable, forces the majority of the public to be constantly playing catch-up. As a linear system, we are seeing the end-points in many facets of life; the continuing use of fossil fuels amidst increased scientific evidence of their consequences and impermanence, is just one example of perverse pride that exceeds the boundaries of planetary and societal balance. This economic system has had a continuous stranglehold on the collective consciousness of those within it—most significantly, the middle and lower classes of the United States. What has transpired is just what could be expected: a lifetime of continual work, centralized around the self and family. The effects of this lifestyle and mindset are a misrecognition of reality; lost within the hamster-wheel, we become increasingly lost in our conceptual minds and lose contact with our hearts—our connection with the earth and each other. Our economy promotes inter-personal and inter-societal competition, without intrapersonal recognition. As a result, it benefits nothing but the personal ego—the epitome of Hubris.
By analyzing the current state of the global economy, the effects of Capitalistic culture on other facets of life become increasingly obvious. Nestle, for example, is one of the largest corporations on the planet. The company owns the rights to more than 70 percent of the world’s fresh water.[5] The Chairman and former CEO, Peter Brabeck Letmathe, was quoted saying, “access to water should not be a right.”[6] This privatization of the most valuable and scarce resource on the planet is surely an indication of the influence the economy has over the wellbeing of the people and the planet. Money has trumped morality, and has altered the evolutionary path of the species. Maybe the old Native American proverb is true: “only after the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize we cannot eat money.”
The ascension of money in the last 250 years has engulfed human awareness and narrowed our conscious scope. This new paradigm has put humans at a crossroads between the value of money and the values of everything else. As we have become increasingly mesmerized by money, we have become increasingly withdrawn from our connection to the physical world. In John Horgan’s 1979 controversial book, The End of Science, he considers Darwin’s widely adopted theory on competition as the root of evolution as well as Ann Margulis’ theory of symbiotic relationships as a mechanism for evolution. Humans have consciously altered the evolutionary process in both areas. Competition for survival has given way to competition for wealth. The results have been increased greed, leading to the degradation of the people, animals, and planet exposed to the consequences.
Margulis believed that “through Symbiosis, one organism can genetically absorb or infiltrate another and thereby become more fit.”[7] Margulis adopted James Lovelock’s theory of “Gaia,” the idea that “the sum of all life on Earth is locked in a symbiotic relationship with the environment, which includes the atmosphere, the seas, and other aspects of the earth’s surface. The biota chemically regulates the environment in such a way as to promote its own survival.”[8] Without life on Earth, the planet’s atmosphere would be an estimated 270 degrees Celsius, composed completely of CO2, there would be no water, and the planet would resemble Venus.[9] The cyclical nature of life patterns has promoted a sustainable Earth. Since the Industrial Revolution, however, the rapidly changing inter-personal, inter-special, and inter-planetary relationships have turned a once mutualistic relationship into a parasitic one.
Margulis’ and Lovelock’s “Gaia” theory includes humans as an indelible part of the whole system. According to Martin Ogle, a ecologist who spoke at October’s Front Range Bioneers Conference, “Human beings are a seamless continuum of the Gaian system. Our economics, energy systems, and even the ways we think and behave, are all part of Earth’s ecology and evolution.”[10] What this means is up for personal interpretation. To some, human evolution in its current direction is intentional, perfectly on par. For me, however, science is proving the human-inflicted climatic and geographic disruptions to the Earth’s natural homeostasis. As Ogle said, “We have evolved beyond our means, and are paying the price.”[11]
The species’ continuation down this path shows a delusional view of reality—an incongruence in physical and mental evolution. This delusion was so pervasive that it was not until the 1960’s, 200 years after the Industrial Revolution, that the extended impact of the Industrial Revolution even began to register in the eyes the public. In 1962, Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring raised, for the first time, a concern about the effects of human outgrowth from the Industrial Revolution. Her book raised awareness about the finite nature of natural resources and the implications of unsustainable growth.
Fifty years later, we are in what McLamb calls an “Era of Sustainability.”[12] He says, “with the very same mechanisms and effects that brought about both the progress and the indelibly connected results of that progress to our ecology…over the last 250 years, we are entering a new era of sustainability—that is the next revolution.”[13] The call to consciousness over the issue of sustainability is surely real; it is the result of the most rapid period of growth in history—one humans are now trying to catch up to, and one that humans are addressing through a lens previously unexamined.
Still, however, we are seeing Economic incentives trumping morality and unity. At a point where the human population is three times the planet’s sustainable amount,[14] China has just lifted its one-child law. At a point where lessons of peace over violence are ubiquitous, India and Pakistan are caught in a nuclear arms race. At a point where science and spirituality are converging, Israel and Palestine are locked in war over religious differences.
I argue, however, that no society has become as self-centered and complacent as the United States. Acknowledging Democratic Socialism in Europe, we can see extremely high levels of happiness and well-being while maintaining a genuine care for the whole society. All over Asia, we see people full of culture, rich in love and spirit, and sheltered by faith—though economically poor, these nations are still connected to the earth and each other in ways that are long lost in the United States. In South America, there are Amazonian tribes and Andean villages still so connected to the land and culture that the people find extreme happiness and fulfillment without many additives at all. In sum, across the globe there are people living in connection—to each other, the earth and their culture.
Due, however, to widespread economic, physical, tyrannical, occupational and environmental influences of the United States on these regions, they are being increasingly corrupted. The influx of American media, products, and propaganda has caused much of the world to form a falsely positive image of the United States. Put on a pedestal of freedom, opportunity, luxury, and happiness, America has become the paradigm of the world. Unless a call to Consciousness hits globally, countries like China, India and Russia will continue to follow in the Capitalistic footsteps of the United States.
There is another human-induced concern: artificial intelligence. Several prominent champions of technology – Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk among them – have declared that “the greatest threat to humankind is not climate change, nuclear warfare, religious fanaticism or bacterial superbugs…the threat we should really be worried about is advanced artificial intelligence.”[15] The exponential increase in technology since the Industrial Revolution has deemed this a truly authentic threat. According to Gordon Moore’s Law, which suggests that computer processing power doubles every 18 months, “Once computers can mimic the synaptic wonders of the human brain, they will continue evolving, ushering in the much-discussed ‘singularity’ – when computers that have access to all of the world’s knowledge begin teaching themselves, they will continue redesigning and improving their neuro-electronic pathways to the point where human thought is, essentially, obsolete.”[16] The question then would be: did the artificial intelligent beings inherit our greed or our basic connection? This could very well be the apex of catastrophe just as it could be the reinstatement into the Gaia balance. Regardless, the future of humanity looks to be intertwined with the continuous evolution of technology.
Paradoxically, despite our increasingly self-oriented individual mindsets, a new collective mindset is taking form to address some of the issues facing the species and the planet. More than one billion people take part in Earth Day every April 22nd.[17] A leading candidate for the US presidency is a champion of Economic Socialism. At the same time, we will need to overcome the fact that we are addressing the issues from a place of illusory separation. We have grown cognitively self-consumed to the point that working for anything considered separate from ourselves has become somehow unnatural. But Gaia proves that we exist on the same physical plane as we have for not only the history of Homo Sapiens, but all of life. From this basis, we have the potential to bring the wisdom of collective thought and action to meet the vital economic and technological challenges that lie ahead.
When I returned to New York from Thailand a few months later, I was overwhelmed by the innumerable differences. I was struck by just how poetically beautiful and heartbreaking the present-day reality of our species is. The “Homo Hubris” group has clearly not consumed all Homo Sapiens, like the Lahu, yet it seems to have control of their destiny. So when I consider the future of humanity, I think about the Lahu Village. We have been co-existing on this planet, this spaceship of sorts, for thousands of years. Though these people have done little to nothing out of sync with the natural flow of the planet, they are susceptible to any and all damage done to the species and the planet. I think of the spectrum of humankind—our drastically different paths, and our inevitably shared destiny.
Curved Within the Straight
[1] Dale Wright, The Six Perfections: Buddhism and the Cultivation of Character, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 204
[2] Ibid, 205
[3] Eric McLamb, “Impact Of the Industrial Revolution”, Ecology Global Network, 2011, http://www.ecology.com/2011/09/18/ecological-impact-industrial-revolution/.
[4] Michael D Bordo, “Gold Standard,” The Concise Encyclopedia Of Economics, 2008, http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GoldStandard.html. 2.
[5] Res Gehringer (Director), Bottled Life: The Truth About Nestle’s Business With Water (February, 2012), DVD
[6] Ibid
[7] John Horgan, The End of Science (Reading, Mass: Addison Wesley Publishers, 1996), 130.
[8] Ibid, 131.
[9] Stephen J Mojzsis, “Life and the Evolution of Earth’s Atmosphere,” American Museum Of Natural History, 1997. http://www.amnh.org/learn/pd/earth/pdf/evolution_earth_atmosphere.pdf.
[10] Martin Ogle, The Gaia Paradigm: What It Is and Why It Matters, recorded October 24th, 2015. http://entrepreneurialearth.com/the-gaia-paradigm-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters/.
[11] Ibid
[12] Eric McLamb, “Impact Of the Industrial Revolution”, Ecology Global Network, 2011, http://www.ecology.com/2011/09/18/ecological-impact-industrial-revolution/.
[13] Ibid
[14] World Population Balance, “Current Population Balance Is Three Times The Sustainable Level,” 2001-2015, http://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/3_times_sustainable.
[15] Tad Simons, “How The Machines Will Take Over,” Star Tribune, 23 May, 2015, http://www.startribune.com/how-the-machines-will-take-over/304830181/. (1).
[16] Ibid
[17] Earth Day Network, 2013. (http://www.earthday.org/faceofclimate/about.html).