People edit
The world is shrinking. Humans are living closer to each other than ever before. We have managed to improve, and continue to improve, our technology to a very high degree. (Nanotechnology is just around the corner.) However, we have not changed one iota toward treating each other as fellow human beings. In fact it is the reverse. I see callousness on all levels - from the personal to the national. We all better learn to treat each other with understanding before any effective change of the world can take place. Otherwise the worse case scenario will be the result - an extremely sophisticated technology controlled by an amoral people.
I have only been studying anthropology for half a year now. Much of what I know comes from the history research alongside, and necessary, for an understanding of many subjects. What I see now is this: the history of the human race is the history of who was subjugating who when. Take any subjugated people. Now read about their activities prior to their subjugation. Dollars to donuts you will find out that they were subjugating someone else. This is human nature - to be cruel. To paraphrase a well known quote: I have seen the enemy - and it is us.
And it doesn't end there. Not only do we devastate entire people, but we do it to our own as well. Class struggles have existed since the discovery of "wealth." Some have more, some have enough, some have little, and still others have almost none. The upper class wants to control the lower class (via marketing, low wages, laws, etc.); the lower class wants to control the upper class (via government control, power, laws, etc.). Religions are always a source for hatred. (Only Christ taught to love your enemy - for they are your brothers. But religions seem to misunderstand the message and read 'love' as 'hate, kill, control, dominate, impoverish, manipulate, etc.') Politics, culture, geography, et. al. all serve as a reason for subjugating our fellow humans. What is the trend?
The problem is our hatred of the 'other'. Since the 'other' can be ascribed as any one who is different from ourselves, then the other is our next door neighbor. Indeed, in large cities it is the norm for neighbors to not know each other - to even avoid them. As long as we perceive each other as different, people will continue to see the world in a state of constant battle.
I would like to say we are no more different than you are from your parents, your siblings, or even the person on the other side of the world. (I would even go as far as claiming that we are no different from non-terrestrial peoples, but since none have been encountered, then the claim will have to wait as just a conjecture. Although there is this video at YouTube.com: [1]) How can two people be the same? It is simple. They both pursue the same activities although in slightly different ways. And so we are all the same - just different manifestations of the way to do whatever it is we are doing.
But then why is there still so much avoidance, anger, hatred, and violence? That has to do with who we are on the inside. The problem is that we all perceive ourselves as 'gods'.
Technology edit
I studied solar cells one semester. Light is turned into a collection of electrons which can then be used as a source of current for circuits. The best we have is still weak. Some advances are being made by adding nano-structures to the cells to increase the light-to-energy efficiency. The chair of the department where I teach physics suggested that I look into photosynthesis with the idea that "plants have been doing it for a long time." Of course!
So off I went to read about photosynthesis - trees being a subtopic of learning. I discovered that leaves have ports which can be opened and closed to allow for an exchange of molecules, via Brownian motion, into or out of the leaf. This means that the tree can then use whatever useful molecules enter, and expel whatever molecules are not useful. As it turns out, O2 is expelled while CO2 is admitted. This is interesting because humans expel CO2 and inhale O2. And that's when it suddenly occurred to me - we are in a symbiotic relationship with plants! (Actually all O2 expelling plants. The others we can destroy b/c they serve no purpose to me. (that's a joke))
It reminded me of the clown fish and the sea anemone. They have a symbiotic relationship. The anemone provides shelter for the fish, and the fish provides cuteness for the rock. Place either of them alone in the ocean and they will die. That is the nature of a symbiotic relationship. So now comes along humans. We think of ourselves as self-reliant - we can survive on mountains, in the desert and at the ocean depths - all by our own doing. Not true. We, the highest form of life on the planet, requires the lowest form of life on the planet in order to do anything. (But they need us, so it's cool.) Put a plant on a planet with no CO2 and it will die. But put a human on Earth, with no plants, and we will suffocate ourselves.
Granted this will take a bit of doing, but not to worry, humans are rapidly destroying all of the O2 producing forests on the planet with each passing day. I have seen the enemy - and it is us.
Food edit
King Corn and Supersize Me
Americans grow more corn than any other country in the world... and it is all inedible. Farmers are growing a non-food food product that only turns into "food" until it is chemically processed in factories. What are we eating? An even better question is: WHAT ARE WE DOING TO OURSELVES!?!
In order to appreciate this fact, you should see "Supersize Me" and then see "King Corn."
... to be continued