I recently read a book that asked whether we were an advanced or evolved species? The book noted the difference between "advanced," and "evolved." I thought, what a useful question to ask. So, now I pose it here, along with a few comparisons. What do you think? Are we advanced? More importantly, are we evolved? Are we evolving?
Advanced!
We’ve invented combine harvesters, refrigeration,
microwaves. We are able to grow food
using machinery and plant technology.
We communicate with iphones, ipads, and smart phones. We instantly connect by texts, skype or by
tweeting.
We have better sanitation systems, water comes through a
tap. We have flushing toilets and
impressive sanitation systems.
In psychiatry we have
developed anti-depressants, antipsychotics, and mood stabilisers.
We can fly from one side of the world to the other in less
than 24 hours. There are over one
billion cars in the world with car ownership at more than one for every two
people in North America, Western Europe and Oceania.
The financial world continues to develop new financial
instruments. Cryptocurrencies have
skyrocketed in price.
The world spent $1.68 trillion on arms in 2016. Just 8 countries account for more than
2/3rds of this expenditure.
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Evolved?
One billion people world-wide experience hunger and
malnutrition. Global obesity rates
have tripled since 1975 with 650 million now obese world-wide
Yet, we still seem unable to truly communicate with one
another. Communication problems are
one of the biggest problems in relationships and in business.
844 million people globally are without access to safe
water.
Suicide rates are on the rise, amongst the 3 leading
causes of death in some countries.
Depression is a leading cause of disability.
In many parts of the world women and girls spend up to six
hours per day walking to fetch water.
Over 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 per day.
The number of people killed in wars has tripled since
2008. Drone warfare and other such
technologies is desensitising combatants to killing other humans. Civilian casualties in war have climbed
drastically as a proportion of total casualties.
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What do you think?
Advanced? And evolved? The ledger above doesn't look good does it? Perhaps we have invested too much in becoming
advanced and paid too little attention to our evolution as a species.
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