Intelligence is our most revered, defining trait. It has made us all members of the most successful trans-global apex predators on the planet today. This wonderful trait appears to be leading us to our ultimate downfall. Our human drives and desires are strongly influenced by biological needs wired into our DNA and have evolved over millions of years. We can look into our past and see how we were, and look at how we changed up to the present. This can establish a trend; and the trend I see is a disturbing one. Right now we are being blindsided by our own brilliance. In an effort to improve the individual, we may be sacrificing the future for all humans. I accept that this isn’t going to be a popular idea, however I feel it is very important to articulate these thoughts so perhaps we can start directing our all powerful intelligence towards solving global problems before events lead to extinction on account of being too clever.
What makes intelligence so special?
Physically, humans are not the most impressive creature on the planet; we don’t fly, we don’t have sharp teeth, claws, poison or any inborn food gathering capabilities. We don’t run fast, we are not great climbers, nor swimmers, nor well camouflage, nor are our senses sharp, when compared to any other creature. We are at a disadvantage to almost any environment we find ourselves in.
Paradoxically that is our advantage. Consider spider for example. Over millions of years, it has become highly successful at a specific trapping hunting strategy, it is a specialist in what it does. In being a specialist, it becomes better and better at what it does, but it sacrifices the ability to quickly adapt to new situations. Humans, on the other hand are the ultimate generalists. We are a jack of all trades, not able to do anything very well, but we have a wide range of different activities we can engage in. Our minds have evolved to make use of abstract thinking, imagination and sophisticated problem-solving strategies that enhance her ability to adapt to any situation. Furthermore, we can do this within our own lifetime. All other animals which are specialized for specific survival strategies require several generations to adapt to new situations; all humans can change within our lifetimes by LEARNING new tricks. There are other mammals which observe and adapt to the environment, some even teach their young techniques, but none can match humans for the level of complexity our abstract problem solving strategies can reach.
Our intelligence can allow us to traverse any environment on the planet, go into space, exist miles under the ocean, build aircraft which fly in the air at super sonic speeds, far faster than any bird. We can carve into mountains, change the flow of rivers and reshape the land into farms and habitation to suit our lifestyle. We can peer into our DNA and learn how we were created, cure diseases and we may be very close to challenging our own mortality. Abstract Intelligence, as it turns out, is nothing short of an evolutionary superpower.
To Survive and Thrive
All biological creatures on the planet are born with a instinct to survive and thrive. Survival means we attempt to put off death as long as possible. The reason that we need to survive or to extend her time on the planet is to allow us to reproduce, and create the next generation of creatures that are similar to use, but are the next stage in our evolution. It is the hope of all parents that their children go on to becoming better versions of themselves. And by parents I am not just talking about humans but every living organism on the planet. If their children do well, and reproduce more, they are considered to have thrived in the environment; spreading their genetic distinctiveness across the landscape.
Why We Have Death
All living creatures are fundamentally different from inanimate objects in that they actively resist entropy. Your biological process involves taking in new atoms, assimilating them for a period of time, and then expelling them. Within 2 years, every single atom in your body will have been replaced. In a very real chemical sense, you are only 2 years old (and this is just accounting for the mineral deposits in your bones which are the longest to cycle out, all water is replaces every 3 weeks). The truth is your system is so well-designed that you will never grow old and die.
Except we do.
So that begs the question “Why?” Scientists have discovered telomere wicks at the end of our DNA are responsible for our aging process. As DNA replicates a few molecules are knocked off the end of the telomeres wick, and this sends messages to the rest of the body to tell us what age we should be in. Protein sequences and hormones that are produced by a baby are very different than those produced by a teenager. Similarly as we move into adult and senior life we continue producing different types of protein sequences which have an effect upon our body. This study has become a very popular in recent years as it may hold the ultimate key to immortality. Just imagine how wonderful it would be if we could control her own telomere wick, and never need to experience the decline of the body associated with old age. What a wonderful age it would be!!!
Yet in the rush for immortality, we didn’t answer the original question: All complex multicellular organism come with a built in self-destruct mechanism known as old age. Why? Why? Why? Everything in our biological form has a specific purpose (or had a vestigial function that served in our recent evolutionary history). So why do all things age? It seems to go against her survival instinct.
The Immortal Problem
What would happen if all humans were ‘blessed’ with immortality? For one, you would probably be raised knowing your great-great-great grandparents, and you would live to see your great great-great-grandchildren. Cool. And your whole family spanning over 9 generations (from your great great great grandparents all the way down to your great great great-great-grandchildren) could all come to your place for Christmas dinner. Lots of fun, but that would mean a lot of turkeys. A large family would naturally need to eat a great deal more food, and you would need a very large house for them to live, but not just for one Christmas dinner, but for their whole life. As individuals they would all want to drive cars, need jobs, and consume many different resources as a function of being alive. Ok, so it would still be cool to be part of a large and powerful family. But it isn’t just you; all humans being immortal means everyone’s family is just like yours. This means everyone has these massive multigenerational families. The young would never have a chance to grow because they would be forever competing with limited resources already claimed by earlier generations. The young would never have a chance to grow because they are always at a disadvantage.
DNA already identified this as a problem and took steps to fix it a few billion years ago, around the time when sexual reproduction was created. Evolution is a process of improving organisms from one generation to the next. Part of that process requires the death of old organisms in order for the new ones to have room to grow. Immortality may seem like a wonderful idea; with unlimited time to survive, and create millions of progeny, it would quickly lead to overpopulation where none of the creatures have enough food, or space to grow; the result is everyone (young to old) are choked out. And if we stop having children? Well then the point of evolution is thwarted, we become stagnate. Eventually a disease or parasite will become perfectly able to lock on to us and we would all be wiped out. This is why we have evolution in the first place, life needs to change, grow and adapt. While we don’t like it, and we don’t want to think about it, death is an essential part of the renewal process.
The Problem with Advanced Medical Technology
We are not immortal, however our medical science has had a massive impact on increasing our lifespans. 2000 years ago in feudal China people were lucky to live to see 30s and 40 years old. 500 years ago, Europeans considered 50 to 60 to be a venerable old age. Today our we believe it is normal for people to live up to 80 and a few can even make it to 100.
It is a fact that human beings can bear children at the age of 12. This means as far as biology is concerned, we are adults by 12. Society feels we need more training and we more time to establish our place in the human world, so we have ‘teenage years’ and then we officially become adults at 18. This is imposed upon us by our culture and society. DNA is telling us we are ready to go after 12, which accounts for so many teen pregnancies. Many anthropologists believe that Homo sapiens first appeared on her planet about 60,000 years ago. And for most of that time our natural lifespan was probably under 30 years. Because of our advanced medical technology, we can expect to live to 80, 90, or even 100, however this extended lifespan has created a massive imbalance with her population against our available resources. Only 400 years ago (which is a blink in time as far as evolution is concerned) there were 500 million humans on the planet. Currently there are over 7 billion, this is due to our technological advancement. We know more about disease, pathogens, nutrition, preventative medicines, and treatment of injury. We have the technology to make life easier and safer for everyone. But as a result everyone is living a great deal longer than we were designed to live.
The Individuals Conundrum
I am currently 50 years old. I am fully aware that I am approximately 20 years beyond my natural biological expiration date; yet I do not care. I believe I will live for many more years and I can make a positive contribution to my society before I pass into the void. Like any other organism I will fight for my survival and attempt to stay alive as long as possible. I don’t feel hypocritical about this, it is the nature of the creature to which I am, nor can I blame anyone for using anything at their disposal to increase their life span.
Yet now we have uncovered the aging mechanism in DNA and we are a hairs breath away from unlocking immortality… and it will be to our cost. Nature never intended for us to open Pandora’s box, yet here we are.
We are still operating on tribal instincts to survive and procreate just as much as we have for the past 60000 years. In under 1000 years, medical sciences has extended our life span over 3 fold. Now we have identified the aging mechanism within the DNA and are a hair’s breath from unlocking immortality.
Extending our lives is a great benefit on a personal level. When we look at what it means in a broader scale, in terms of massive over population, carbon emission and effects on global environmental conditions… we can start to see how our own cleverness for individual gain, may threaten the whole of our species.
Solutions?
The above was the original end of the article… however I hate gloom and doom speakers without attempting to solve the problem. The following are not the best solutions, but they are some ideas that may lead us to better ones.
- We should all be more conscious about how biology influences our behaviour. Medical extension of our life span is great for the individual but it ultimately threatens the survival of our species as a whole.
- Our intelligences has given us control over our bodies and the environment, however it comes with a cost: we have taken the drives wheel, and we are now responsible for where we go next. If we survive or if we perish we chose our fate. Currently our thinking is “What is good for me right now,” and that kind of thinking will doom us. We need to start thinking and acting in terms of: “What is good for all of us over the next 500 years.”
- Our window to advert environmental disaster is closing fast. Estimates suggest that we have less than 10 years before global warming becomes incurable. We are in the urgent phase right now. However, the year of Covid taught us that 7.4 billion people can change their behaviour on a dime when motivated to do so. The real question we need to promote is “Are you going to accept personal responsibility for managing the environment?” and “What are you going to do to make the planet better for the next 500 years?” All humans everywhere must start focusing on the long game.
