Humanity today is like a waking dreamer, caught between the fantasies of sleep and the chaos of the real world. The mind seeks but cannot find the precise place and hour. We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. We thrash about. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on humanity’s struggle to reconcile advanced technology with primitive emotions and societal structures.
E. O. Wilson's quote presents a vivid analogy of humanity as a 'waking dreamer' caught in a paradoxical state, where our sophisticated technological advancements clash with our primitive emotional responses and outdated institutions. It highlights the confusion and dangers that arise from this dissonance in our existence, suggesting that despite living in a technologically advanced 'Star Wars civilization,' we are still burdened by 'Stone Age emotions' and 'medieval institutions,' leading to a chaotic and perilous state of being.
In practice
In a discussion about the impact of technology on modern society, this quote can illustrate our disconnect between progress and emotional maturity.
Consider the nematode roundworm, the most abundant of all animals. Four out of five animals on Earth are nematode worms — if all solid materials except nematode worms were to be eliminated, you could still see the ghostly outline of most of it in nematode worms.
Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.
The worst thing that will probably happen-in fact is already well underway-is not energy depletion, economic collapse, conventional war, or the expansion of totalitarian governments. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired in a few generations. The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.
Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.
An Armageddon is approaching at the beginning of the third millennium. But it is not the cosmic war and fiery collapse of mankind foretold in sacred scripture. It is the wreckage of the planet by an exuberantly plentiful and ingenious humanity.
It's obvious that the key problem facing humanity in the coming century is how to bring a better quality of life - for 8 billion or more people - without wrecking the environment entirely in the attempt.
Some people, with a certain nostalgia, the worshippers and admirers of the colonial system, cherish and nurse its structures instead of smashing them. This is typical of a mentality in bondage to decadent values, negative values - counter-revolutionary values.
Even if you play perfectly, a fault of your opponent's can destroy the entire beauty of the game.
One day I visited a guy who had made a fortune as a broker. He was sitting in his office with his computer. I hire people from here and make deals from this room, he told me. Then he took me to the trading room. Nobody was talking to anybody else, the place was silent as a tomb, they were all sitting there watching their terminals - a great word, terminal. I tell you, it scares the crap out of me.
If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?
Things that happen every day are, frankly, what we in the news business aren't good at covering because there is no one day in which they are news.
The world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.
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