Wednesday, 30 June 2021
A wistful farewell to Katherine and we head west on the Victoria Highway. There are surprisingly few cars, despite the caravan numbers in town. We finish listening to Sapiens. The broad sweep of time the book covers is awesome: from cave-dwellers to robot-makers. The last chapter is challenging, with its suggestion that humans now have the capacity to interfere with “natural selection”. What we do with our genetic technologies could have far-reaching consequences if we end up creating a new species with its own “free will”. That is, able to exist and replicate without our help or intervention. What does that mean for the fate of homo sapiens, currently on the top of the food chain? Supposedly this new form of AI won’t necessarily need to eat us, but maybe worse, they just ignore us, or eradicate us because we keep wanting to mess with their technology. It sounds like sci-fi, but apparently it’s on our doorstep.
Most of us, when faced with the question about where things are heading, recoil into a shudder of horror. Faced with so many complications, showered daily with dire news about the coming catastrophes of climate change, trying to shake off a persistent global virus that has a few tricks up its sleeve about how to survive – it can be frightening indeed.
I have a theory that includes a 3-pronged possibility for where humanity’s heading. First is the one Harari expounds in his book: technology will play a pivotal role in creating a brave new world where human survival has a good chance. We won’t need to change course and figure out how we can live sustainably with nature because we’ll keep creating technologies that shield us from her ever increasing hostilities. Second is the “evolution of consciousness” theory, that we’re on the precipice of a major mental/spiritual paradigm shift that, once we get that hundredth monkey doing the right thing, will result in a more enlightened society that can manage itself and the planet in sustainable ways. Third is perhaps the most prevalent: the pessimists’ view, or, some would say the realist view. We’re doomed like the dinosaurs to be another epoch of earth’s history. Dead as doornails. Planet Earth moves on. In a million years or so it recovers from the damage humans imposed and natural selection continues on its merry way helping to create the next set of earthlings.
I suspect whatever the future holds, it will be a tumultuous blend of all three. Whether one wins out and becomes the new norm will be interesting to see, though none of us will be around to witness it, at least in our current forms. Harari ends his book with the question, “What do we want to want?” and suggests we take a cold hard look at our answer, and do whatever it takes to manifest that reality.
Which outcome do we want for humanity?
The landscape turns stunning around the Victoria River and we weave our way through tabletop mountains circled by rims of vertical red rock. We stop at Joe’s Creek Picnic Area and take off on the 1.7 kms loop walk. No one else is willing to do an afternoon walk in 34C degree weather, so we have the trail to ourselves. It winds up the side of one of these tabletops and skirts just under the edge of an overhanging escarpment, where palm trees flap in the wind and lush ferns drink from trickles of water oozing from the rock. The multi-hued rock towers overhead like a giant curling wave ready to come crashing down on us. We discover a splay of Aboriginal rock art that looks quite genuine, though hard to decipher its age.
Two hours later we’re back at the hot car, revelling in another peak experience from the many of nature’s free offerings.
Further down the highway we turn south onto the Buchanan Highway (a grand name for a dusty outback road) and into the Judbarra/Gregory National Park. The tabletops thicken and the fences disappear. We’re back to remote country. An hour down the rocky road is the Jasper Gorge campsite. The sun is low in the sky and a ring of campers circle the small grounds. It’s OK, but not what we were hoping for. We decide to check out the inconspicuous dirt track a short ways back – if that’s no good we’ll come back here. We haven’t much time before dusk.
The narrow dirt track circles around a small incline and opens into a wide open, flat area (most likely an abandoned road quarry) surrounded by tabletops, their rocky rims glowing a fiery red in the setting sun. This is it. After nearly a week of communal campground living, we’ve returned to the wilds.
Harari is an interesting read. K often speaks of his theories, particularly the ability of homo-sapiens to create concepts around which communities build. I guess our view on where the world is is that humans are on the path they have created and that was sort of pre-determined by our natures. That is a discuss to share over a bottle or two of red. Sue M
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