Is Being Smart Dangerous?

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GGecko

GGecko

Well-Known Member
The most interesting comment by Salutin, "What's missing isn't knowledge but the wisdom to apply it."
Do you think humankind is capable of making wise decisions about the survival of species and our planet, given our track record so far?
If so, what areas offer the most hope for the future, and the next generation?


 
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

What I know or do not know is relative. Compared to what another might know I might seem either smart or dull. Compared to what can be known I must confess that I probably tend towards ignorance.

I am aware that I do not know everything. That awareness speaks to a degree of smartness.

I can barely imagine all that I do not know, indeed I probably do not even know how to ask the questions which could bring me learning.

So it is possible that the species has the ability to make the decisions that must be made and it is just as likely that we don't understand the problem well enough to know what questions need to be asked.

In that sense how smart or stupid we might be plays less a part in our future than how merciful or merciless nature will prove to be.
 
Reality is, inherently.

Dangerous as well.

Look at where we are living. We can't survive, unaided, outside our atmosphere, where this massive constant thermonuclear explosion soooooo far away's light can actually hurt us (and does cause such things on our Earth as the aurora, overloading of our electrical grids, and sunburns...) and gets captured in the Earth's magnetic field to become the Van Allen Belts, zones of intense YOU'RE GON NA FRY radiation :3

Look at our history. We have plagues. We have viruses milling aboot, infecting, spreading, mixing DNA around. We have earthquakes. Tsunamis. We have several moments where life almost murdered itself (eg. the Oxygen Catastrophe). It looks like all of the humans alive right now are the descendants of a mere handful (less than 10,000) that survived a horrific catastrophe.

Look at our solar neighbourhood. Asteroids hitting our planet more often than we thought. The orbits of our planets may be, over the long term, chaotic, which means that our planets' orbits may move. We have comets.

Look outside our solar neighbourhood. We have events, called Gamma Ray Bursts, that are billions of light years away, yet, if they by chance are aimed at us just right, will KILL ALL LIFE on Earth.

So, is being reality dangerous?

Yes.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

(and yes, it seems that most of the life on this Earth is doing pretty hunky dory fine without brains)

ps. there are people, like Nick Bostrom, Anders Sandberg, who have been busy trying to figure out how to cognitively enhance people so that we can overcome our limitations, so that we can build societies that are more in accord with reality & so that we have a better chance to survive :3
 
@revjohn - "how merciful or merciless nature will prove to be." Or maybe how resilient Nature is or can be.

@Inanna - "figure out how to cognitively enhance people so that we can overcome our limitations, so that we can build societies that are more in accord with reality & so that we have a better chance to survive :3"

Can we start with our government and other heads of state? The situation in Iraq is deeply troubling.... :(

"Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare. Some would say it has yet to occur on Earth.” ― Stephen Hawking
 
It appears Salutin does not know about the AIDs epidemic, which is accepted to have been triggered by Drs doing medicine badly (mass inoculations with contaminated needles in Africa (where in the 70s they provided 100s of vaccinations using a single uncleaned needle.


Than there is psychiatry, which has increased levels of illness through over use of prescription of drugs.

Or the dangers of a global epidemic due to antibiotic resistance, which will make prior epidemics like 1917 look like nothing and could be prevented by the wisdom in drug use.

The end of the human race may come about because of unwise use of modern medicine,

WIsdom is not knowledge, and while Salutin claims that the last 70 years proves something shows humanity is progressing, he may want to revise that in a few years.

The key to wisdom is to be able to have collective actions, and interesting the internet by bringing people together (inc fighting) may allow us to develop the wisdom to apply knowledge in healthy ways
 
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Alex, I'm not entirely certain if Salutin is being serious or satirical with his comments....
 
What Salutin is saying has been talked about before by many.

There is a theory that life exists out there in space, but that they will never contact us, because by the time a civilisation has developed the ability for inter galactic travel, it will have destroyed itself through one way or another.
 
Alex said:
What Salutin is saying has been talked about before by many.

There is a theory that life exists out there in space, but that they will never contact us, because by the time a civilisation has developed the ability for inter galactic travel, it will have destroyed itself through one way or another.
Click to expand...

Or we will have destroyed ourselves before they get here.
 
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Alex said:
What Salutin is saying has been talked about before by many.

There is a theory that life exists out there in space, but that they will never contact us, because by the time a civilisation has developed the ability for inter galactic travel, it will have destroyed itself through one way or another.
Click to expand...


I have another theory. We're all so locked into looking at our cellphones that if an alien race ever did land on earth - no one would even notice.
 
A lot of it comes back to the teachings of Socrates, in particular his notion that his only particular form of wisdom lay in realizing that he did not know everything or have perfect wisdom. He sought to remedy this by questioning alleged experts, only to end up showing that they did not necessarily "know it all" either. Which leads us to his maxim that "the unexamined life is not worth living". Only by questioning and testing what we think we know or understand can we know if that knowledge is true and that understanding is correct. This is, of course, the basis for the scientific method but it also applies in ethics, our personal beliefs, and our understanding of ourselves.
 
"He knows too much, he's dangerous!" we all have read or heard that line.;)

As far as we know, we are the most knowledgeable form of life. Are we using our knowledge wisely? And what would a "wise" use of knowledge be like?

Certainly not for the sole benefit of our species, or a group of people within our species, to the detriment of other people and other forms of life. To seek knowledge for its own sake is very worthwhile, but when it comes to applying that knowledge, it should be applied for the benefit of all: of all people and all life.
 
Some truths....
 

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GGecko said:
I couldn't agree more, Hermann. We do need to realize how interconnected we are with all living things and beings, from the smallest blade of grass to the largest creature, to a human thousands of miles away on the other side of the earth to the human living next door. If we could ever truly come to see all life as sacred, we might have a chance.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/03/whales-ecosystem-engineers
Click to expand...

and even then, we still could be wiped out by completely natural processes and/or other 'unknown unknowns'

i take a look at one of the narratives of the Hebrew Bibble -- one tribe (Israelites) amongst all those other tribes, all that pain, suffering, loss, murder, death, sickness, starvation...then they get elevated as the Chosen People...and STILL they get hurt, suffer, etc etc. and yet they still press on...

so even though all the death, suffering, plagues, hurt, etc etc still continue, we still press on :3
 
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