THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY

If you observe animals closely you will notice that animals live almost exclusively in the present; they have no sense of tomorrow, next week or next year. A dog might anticipate being fed or taking a walk. A deer may lay on the edge of a forest on a cold day anticipating moving into an open area to catch the sun to warm up; a bird may sense cold weather coming and fly south. However, an animal’s sense of anticipation is very short in comparison to our own.

We, as humans, often fail to live in the present; instead we are constantly anticipating the future. How great it will be when I get big enough to ride a two wheeled bike, when I get to be a teenager, when I graduate, when I get married, when I get that new job or move to that new town, when we have a family, when the kids grow up, etc.?  We humans have a much longer sense of anticipation than that of animals and we consider ourselves much superior for that and rightfully so. We have the ability that animals do not by being able to anticipate and plan for the future.

However, we should not be so quick to congratulate ourselves with our extended sense of anticipation. Instead, we should strive to improve and develop our sense of anticipation to the next generation, next century, and next millennium and far beyond.

Today most people anticipate financial wealth and the acquisition of material objects to make themselves and their families happy, but they do it with a limited sense of anticipation. We justify in our minds that it is perfectly acceptable to destroy the environment, pollute the water and air, deplete the natural resources of the Earth and to take whatever actions which we see as necessary to obtain those short term goals in order to reflect a substantial profit on the year-end financial statement and we do all of that with a very limited sense of anticipation.

As a species we must learn to extend our senses of anticipation well beyond its present limits. We cannot simply be like dogs anticipating to be fed. We must fulfill our capacity as humans to extend that sense of anticipation to what the world and humanity will be like far into the distant future based on our actions today. We must see that we are creating the future as we live our lives in the present and must recognize that it is our duty and responsibility to do it way so that our effect on the present will be a benevolent one to future generations. Unfortunately, today the effect of our lives in the present has been extremely malevolent towards future generations and to the environment on Earth. That must stop.

At the same time we can learn from animals to enjoy our life in the present and live our lives fully and joyously. The present is all we have and constantly living in anticipation of how much better our individuals lives might be in the future if something in the future might happen is to deny ourselves the joy of living in this life now.

The answer is to learn to live for today while extending our individual sense of anticipation of the future by recognizing what the effect of our lives today will have on the future of the world and humanity. These two can and must coexist and are the things that will truly set us apart all other from animals on Earth. We must begin moving in that direction, but we are far from there now.

Where will humanity be in a 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 or 1,000,000 years?  We know that we can create our own future by our thoughts, but will we do it properly is the question. What kind of future will we allow to be created for humanity?

It is possible that the Earth can be a habitable planet for hundreds of millions of years into the future. What then is the role, if any, of Man in that future?

The future is ours and we can control it therefore we must ask ourselves what is the highest and best use we can make of the future?  What can we do now to maximize that future that will serve Humanity the best?

Let us start with the thing that people want the most. That thing is happiness for ourselves and our loved ones. How do we best achieve that in the future?

Man lives in a body of an animal on Earth and certain basic needs must be fulfilled before any conscious living being can be happy living in a body during any given life. The first and most fundamental thing that is needed is health, for without health there can be only a limited happiness.

In order to achieve health humans need food and medical care. We have the technology to provide and improve medical care and that technology is progressing and a rapid rate.The health care system should be designed in such a way as to provide the best possible healthcare to the greatest number of people. However, there are many places in world where the healthcare providers use the healthcare system to provide themselves with the maximum monetary return in their quest of personal materialism. Improvements in medical care are often delayed in order to insure continued profits as a result of the existing health care system.

 We currently have the technology to provide food to the masses of humanity, provided that we do not ruin the environment of the Earth first. Therefore, the first order of business for a future that contains happiness is for us to protect and enhance our environment on Earth and to provide adequate medical care to all people. We must learn to manage rather than exploit the Earth's natural resources .Unfortunately, again that is something that we are failing miserably at doing at the present time.

After food and health Man needs safety. We can never have safety so long as there is war and hostility toward others, we must begin to work towards ending hostility and therefore war. In order to end war and hostility we need to change the way we organize our priorities in society. The primary cause war is hatred of others through hostility. Hatred is a very low emotion which we should never tolerate. Humans must learn to avoid hatred and all of it triggers including vengeance, envy, lust, greed and the like. This will obviously not be an easy task, but today it seems that much of the time and effort of society is spent on preparing for, rather than preventing war. It is going to be almost imposable to accomplish, but we need to at least try and we cannot ever accomplish it unless we recognize the problem and begin the process of attempting to reverse it. We can do that by providing education in the development of our consciousness through training in the art of self awareness and enlightenment.

After the three basic bodily needs of health, food and safety our bodies should then be prepared to accept happiness.

Next  we, as intellectual beings, need happiness. Included in that are spiritual happiness and love. In order to achieve intellectual happiness humans need entertainment, religion and a purpose for living. These things will mean many different things too many different people, but one thing we will all need is a purpose for living and help in the guidance of why we are here and what is it all about in the first place. Essentially, we need to know the purpose for our being. Today that subject is almost exclusively left to religious teachings but it must develop into something more academic.

Lastly, humans need to survive as a race of living beings. That is something that can only be done by seeding humans in other places in the Universe therefore we need the technology to reach the ability to move and sustain human life on other habitable places of the Universe outside of Earth.

 Surely this has been done before in the past, and may be happening now, by other races of living beings in some of those other habitable places in the Universe, of which science and logic tell us there must be many. If not, and even perhaps if so, we humans need to develop our own plan for our race into the distant future. there are over 200 million stars in our Galaxy, the Milky Way. There are some Galaxies that we can see that contain over a trillion stars and we can see over a trillion Galaxies. There are certainly more stars and galaxies which exist beyond our view. We calculate at present that the Universe is about 14 billion years old. Humans have existed for about 20,000 years. For us to think that we are unique in all of the Universe is just plain short sighted and represents a denial of the obvious. Our planet, Earth, is only one small microscopic spec on one small grain of sand in a world of sand, yet we are made of the same stuff as all the rest of the sand .We are not unique , we are the norm.

 In order for the future to contain physical and mental happiness for our race we must begin today and we must formulate a viable plan and goal.

If I were to say, “The resources of the Earth are mine also and I will take all the monetary rewards from them to the exclusion of all other people”, then most would think that I was mad. However, we are allowing others to do that same exact thing now. Why?

The resources of the Earth do not belong to any one man or group of men, they belong to all of humanity and must be used in such a way that the resources of our beautiful and fragile planet, Earth, are respected, preserved and managed for the benefit humanity as a whole both for now and into the distant future. That is what that man or group of men should be doing for humanity instead of trying to possess and exploit those things for themselves to exclusion of all others.

Technology, medicine and other physical sciences will continue to evolve and improve. What are we doing to ensure that the intellectual side of our being is likewise continuing to evolve and improve? Very little at present.

We must redefine our goals for the future then seek to achieve them. It must start now. Scientist can handle the technological side of the equation. Dreamers, those people with imagination and foresight must step forward to assist in the development of the intellectual side of our being and begin the process of trying to end war and hostility in order to prepare mankind for a future where all men can experience true and joy happiness, now and for future generations.


Scott Ramsey 

October 13, 2012