Visionary Species?

My desk is littered with thoughts on tiny scraps of paper. Some of them make it to this space and some end up on the floor or in the recycling and are forgotten. It's quite sad really because in the moment that one records them thoughts seem to be genius, major breakthroughs. But when you get around to doing something about them it's almost too late.

And maybe that's okay.

A recent thought dealt with the constant theme of this blog of late: the place of humans in the natural world. Undoubtedly humans are currently on an unsustainable and destructive collision course with the natural world. We have forgotten ourselves in the flashes of neon and plastic that assail us like IEDs. It's like over stimulation has caused a sort of madness to take hold, one making us blind to the facts.

• We are too many therefore we are squeezing out other species,
• We wholly believe in the doctrine of instant gratification, living in the moment,
  
• We consume too much, far too much of the earth's resources pretending these are needs,
• We are violent to other beings, not out of necessity but out of greed,
• We are dooming other species and our descendants to miserable lives, if any at all, on a planet that would sustain all life indefinitely.
  

My thought was about the place we currently occupy. We are caught in the dark void between animal and something else which I'll refer to as visionary species. Animals live in balance with other species as parts of vibrant and ever changing ecosystems. Sometimes they vanish being unsuited but the system continues through cycles. One member of this system doesn't need to give it much thought, just provide for the basics and ensure you pass on your genes to the next generation.

A visionary species on the other hand would be able to think long term and be willing to make tough choices to ensure the survival and thriving of the species. A visionary species, I surmise, would never risk extinction, being possessed of foresight. The visionary species would recognize that it is part of the world's many ecosystems but that its special place requires treading softly and mindfully at all times. In order to achieve maximum happiness and material security, populations of these species would be small but vibrant enough to ensure a stable and healthy gene pool. A visionary species would make lasting goods as much as possible and never, ever take too much ensuring that future generations could live as comfortably and happily as the one that came before.

While I recognize that dichotomies are usually false, I beg, for the purposes of this argument, that you bear with me. By failing to either embrace our animal natures (which might be impossible given our devious/genius brains) or our potential to be a visionary species we are threatening all life on earth. We are an out of control animal that overcomes natural controls to our ultimate detriment. The longer you put off the fire, the hotter it will burn. In our madness we think the party will go on for ever.

To start down the path of being a visionary species (and we need to move fast) humans need to challenge everything they believe. I mean everything from retirement to travel to food to ownership. Currently all our collective cures to our own excesses remain within the frame of our destructiveness; so we consume more to cure our consumption for instance. The strongest barrier to challenging these "truths" is our lives which have become so burdened and mindless that we can't sit quietly and truly find the path to visionary species and we certainly can't do so together.

So we are always alone writing little notes to ourselves.

There you have it. Do humans have the potential to become a truly visionary species? Is this just more human arrogance and denial of our true nature? Or, as I often believe, are we simply not worth it? If only we could go without taking the system down with us, that would be truly visionary.