h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There are few common traits in all the life forms: 1) Struggle for existence 2) Spread it's form by reproduction 3) Protect and nourish it's offsprings (not found in all life forms) etc. The roots to our problem lies in these three.

Struggle for existence

Food is the first and foremost necessity for any species to survive. Our ancestors apparently were just interested in food. So there was a decent amount of mobility. People could explore, they could go to new places when they used up the resources that they had or just for the heck of it. There were no territories, no restrictions in who should live where, until we encountered a problem with our second trait which is...

Spread it's form...

We started to expand, expand in a big way. Now some folks used up their resources faster than others and they starte moving to new places. There wouldn't have had any problem if there weren't any other folks already living at these new places, if there were then we have a problem. Struggle starts. We fight and the fittest survives! But the main problem arised mainly because of our third trait...

Protect and nourish...

This is the most important cause for the effect that we are experiencing now as delineated terriotries, immigration laws etc. We want to save what we have for our kids. We explored various lands. We found that some terrain was more blessed with resources than other. We settled there. We put up fences. We called them countries. Then we start controlling the flow of people in and out of this land so that we make sure ultimately our kids has the most out of this land.

We can find a solution to our problem if we can change our thinking, give up our basic trait. This I cannot see happen , atleast in my lifetime!

Robert Heinlein once wrote that the biggest danger to the survival of the human race was the human race.

fruitbat

This may seem reasonable but its not how it played out.

Some people raided other territories for resources even though they still had plenty. Note they didn't settle in any of these places.

2/3

I've often wondered why we can't just do away with money, but then I realized that people are just too darn greedy.

The missing trait - greed!
The desire of some people to have what they have and protect it for their children and simultaneously deprive someone else of what they have!

Its at that point that the whole world went wrong. The world lived in relative harmony up until 1492-ish. Relative in that any conflct was fairly localised and there were no cross-continental conflicts.

There are theories that africans and asians travelled to the americas (see the research by Thor Heyerdal among others) prior to 1492 but this didn't result in any global disharmony. Possibly because greed was not a factor in these visits.

2/3

One might also point out it was around that time the Rennaissance took place and people started forming large Governments. Which in turn paved the way for stronger defences, and thus people lived longer and had greater chance to entertain themselves *cough*. Ultimately spreading across the Earth much like a desease and kicking out the other animals who either got in our way or tasted good.

The Agent in The Matrix actually describes this in a similar way.

Agent Smith in the movie "The Matrix" says:

(Quote) "I'd like to share a revelation during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area." (Unquote)

That covers much of the trouble, but not completely, because Agent Smith is a Computer Program and talks about all humans in totality, he was not interested in the fact that we fight for those resources and hence differences exist between us. Add to this situation greed and other traits and it explains everything.

I agree with 2of3 The missing Trait is greed.

One of the first principles Westerners are taught in Economics is that all indivudual units of the economy of motivated by self. I spent my first tutorial at University arguing that this should not be the case. By electives btw were Development, Environment and European Economics, I wanted to use my qualification for the benefot of others not for self.

Greed is a major problem. Believe it or not at present the world does have sufficient resources to feed, cloth and shelter every human on the planet. In a well nourished, secure setting away from natural disastor. The problem is that the minority of the world's population ie the developed world will not give up their excess without Western levels of payment, including on their interest payments.

Actually I knew this years ago. If you want another fictional referance to our "problem" read My Teacher Flunked The Planet. It's the last book in a series, and the plot really does build up from the first, but the last goes in to it better.