Friday, June 03, 2011
Survival Advantages of Mortality and Discord
In my 50's I suddenly realized that discord and mortality are survival advantages of our species. We cannot come to some unanimous agreement about anything of major importance because each of us sees the world differently but were this not so we would not have diversified and occupied every ecological geological and economic niche. If we were immortal and death was rare then there would not be perennial generations of idealistic youth. Our species is robust because it can constantly change and adapt and it does so because not two people see reality the same way and no single individual lives or dominates for an unreasonably long period. Century after century we preach to one another with the hope that all will come to some political or religious unity of agreement. We seek some magic quadratic formula or heuristic algorithm to solve all problems automatically and express all phenomena of energy space and matter in some grand unifying theory. Even Plato's groping for a "golden mean" is an expression of this vain hope of a key which unlocks all mysteries. We strive to cure all illnesses and eliminate poverty and war and yet the ultimate solutions are ever elusive. This is the folly of pursuing a truth that is unanimous, unilateral, irrefutable.
