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Too Much Thought?
By: Nena Gabi

What separates the men from the beasts is not muscular strength, bone density, or even lifespan. It is central nervous activity, mainly the mega quantity and quality we Homo sapiens have of it. We have the power to think above and beyond most animals. In this manner, and only this manner, we are superior. While most creatures are successful because they are genetically suited to their environments, we have developed to such a level that we can shape our environments to suit us.

Technology gives us the ability to worry less about the primal needs of food, water, and heat, and instead think about happiness- procured through other material methods. Success makes us happy. Sex makes us happy. Fame and acceptance make us happy. Sure, our desires are results of the physiques granted by nature. The endorphins released when we eat chocolate, or the adrenaline from winning a sporting event are chemicals we come equipped with the ability to make since birth. But other creatures have to hold off over satisfying these desires as they are occupied with the more important ones, which are the basic necessities we have already fulfilled.

But just as we are blessed with the ability to create a situation where we can benefit beyond survival, we are cursed with the implications a complex nervous system establishes. Humans are brought into worlds of depression, anxiety, and long term fear without need. They are forced to deal with immense pressures and insecurities. We ask questions like “What is the meaning of life” because we are insecure about going through life just to survive, and feel a need for a purpose. Whatever DNA this terrifying question was written onto must have been a negative mutation that passed through our chromosomes undetected, because it certainly does not increase our happiness. The only explanation is that it does not affect our reproductive capabilities, because human keep turning out wondering about the same things that depress us.

The need to have a purpose helps no one, but hurts everyone in terms of happiness acquired, while having no effect on our population. Thus, “advocates” of natural selection are flawed when they claim evolution is successful in being best for continued progress of a species. At best, their logic is only partially true. The best aren’t selected for, just the ones most likely to survive in their environment. Is best really defined by numbers of a species surviving? Or is it happiness per capita? Just because there are more of us doesn’t make us better, or happier. It just makes for a lot of miserable apes.

So while amazingly developed nervous activities may be positive according to Darwin, they may be a harmful thing as a whole for the Homo sapiens. More life doesn’t make for a better life, or a better species. Which begs the question: is life worth it? Givens its costs, can life really be considered beneficial enough to outweigh its own costs? Our evolutionary genetics say yes. But our gene pool has no morals, just a desire for survival. Our genetic systems are logical, functional, and calculating. They care nothing for emotion. So we are wired to survive, just as we are wired to dislike the very aspects of life that survival causes- namely melancholy, stress, and suffering. It seems as though the human race got ripped off by its severely mutilated, over powerful nervous system.

Just the act of questioning proves that we have failed to recognize only our own benefits beyond the costs. Why we have developed the ability to question is beyond me- for it wastes time and doesn’t seem to aid directly in survival, least not the philosophical, unanswerable questioning that physically help no one. It must be assumed that with the mental ability we developed to acquire technology comes a price- that of pondering, that of useless though. All the analyses, all the philosophy classes we took in school are nothing but side effects of our ability to innovate, which serves only to enhance our ability to survive.

Article Source: http://journal.ilovephilosophy.com

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