Modern generations of humans have been bred for comfort, and convenience, including myself. I love hot water running out of my tap, plumbing (working toilets!) inside my own home and, above all else, I think I might actually die if I could not escape the oppressive Florida heat inside of an air-conditioned room. I love home delivery. I think I might have been one of the first customers of Amazon back when friends and family thought it was ‘crazy’ to put your credit card info out into the ‘interwebs’ like that. I’ve always loved convenience. And home delivery is the essence of convenience.
No other species spends their day with so much free time in search of entertainment. Their lives, from the time they are born are constantly filled with hunger, danger and the threat of death. That is how we started out. While generations before us spent their entire day looking for food and hiding from threats, we spend our days wandering around in our modern ‘civilization’, looking forward to getting lost in the next great streaming hit or recreational pastime. Whether it be watching or participating in recreational sports, reading, building a model airplane or learning a new skill ‘for fun!’, we humans have lost our survival skills.
We have gifted ourselves the miracle of ‘free time’, a luxury only available to kings and queens in the 17th century. We have lifted millions of humans out of poverty and that is an amazing thing. We have done this at great cost, one that we have not yet paid. We have taken out the most irresponsible loan against the earths resources, paying little to no downpayment, no interest and no premiums. Our children will have to pay this loan if we do not start paying it back now.
The resources of the earth are finite and our rate of consumption and production cannot be sustained. We cannot afford to run out of resources. The world as it is now, with such high expectations from so many, would simply implode. Most of us would not make it in an apocalypse, with extended shortages of food and energy, and comfort. I know my children will not make it. They have been bred for comfort also. Besides, who really wants to live in that world anyway? You’d be living in a hellscape, definitely not getting the chance to binge out on Bridgerton.
Some people say we can all go live on the moon, or Mars if we destroy this planet. First of all, do we really think we will ALL get to go? And second, the number of people who want to trade their home on earth for one on Mars is ZERO. Even the richest billionaires do not actually want to live on Mars because Mars has nothing on our Earth.
This is why it is critical we use the technologies we have available to us right now to ensure that we never run out. That there will always be enough, for all of us, and the many more we still need to raise out of misery.