Let’s quit taking sides. Let’s hold everyone accountable for their actions. Is Rana Sanaullah responsible for police brutality and abuse of power during crackdown on PTI supporters throughout the country? Is Imran Khan responsible for evading his parliamentary obligations and insisting on mass protests and rallies creating chaos and anarchy?
Let’s look beyond the world of politics where double-dealing charlatans lecture us on morality and fortitude every morning while making secret deals behind closed doors in the dead of the night.
“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.” (Carl Sagan)
We have been living on this planet called Earth for 3.5 billion years. Back then, we were microbes that originated in a deep-sea hydrothermal vent. Today, we are part of the animal kingdom. We are the primates. Accounting for the genes we share, the genetic difference between us and the chimpanzees is only 1.2%, between us and the gorillas only 1.6%, and between us and the orangutans only 3.1%. (Smithsonian Institution). As primates, we are exceedingly intelligent. We know how to love and share. We know how to steal and fight.
According to Freud’s “pleasure principle”, we like to seek pleasure and avoid pain. We like to maximize our living experience with the aid of advances in technology: smart phones, smart clothes, smart houses, smart cities. We are ready to internalize “smart” medical implants, armed with advanced sensor technology, not only to combat chronic conditions but to enhance function. This includes brain chips and neural implants.
Human genetic enhancement carries the promise of designer babies carefully selected from a virtual catalog. You want your baby to have sapphire blue eyes or honey brown? Ash blonde hair or Auburn black? A perfectly chiseled jawline? Piece of cake. We are on our way to becoming trans-humans.
We’re a Type 1 Civilization, according to the Kardashev scale. We harness our planet’s energy for survival. But here is the problem: “Humanity will not survive another 1,000 years on Earth unless the human race finds another planet to live on.” (Stephen Hawking)
