Previous QotD (aka Pathogenic Humanity)

Last post's Quote of the Day was something that I had really connected with when I first read/heard it. There are a lot of other memorable and (in my opinion) significant quotes from the Metal Gear series, but this one in particular was one that I could really connect with.

Why? because it was how I saw the world. No, maybe that's going overboard. It's more like it was how I thought about things in general, and what I try to be and do in life.

I mean, think about it. Most of the problems we have now is because people try to change the world, instead of leave it the way it is. And for those of you who think that we shouldn't just change the world, but make it better, I respectfully disagree. Trying to make the world better is no different from changing it. Besides, let's face it "better" is a very loose and relative term. You don't need me to tell you this, but my "better" and yours may not be the same. Besides, look at wars and conflicts (and some other points) in the past; I'm no good at history, so I'll just mention the obvious ones.

Do you think that Hitler thought he was doing an evil thing when he tried to eradicate Jews? Or the Popes who ordered the Crusades on Jerusalem? Or the industrial revolution, which I view as the starting point for pollution, over-exploitation, and every other environmental issue?

No, these people thought that they were doing the world a favor. They thought that what they were doing was the right thing. They thought they were making the world better.

Still not convinced? Here's you're Quote of the Day:

"I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to another area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet."

-Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith, from The Matrix

Again, think about it. Imagine some place on earth where humans haven't yet inhabited. There's an ecosystem; plants, animals, predators, a river, maybe a volcano, whatever you want. Ideally, the food chain would be balanced; plants are eaten by plant-eaters, which are in turn eaten by meat-eaters, which are eaten by... well, bigger meat-eaters.

From what little I've picked up on nature documentaries, carnivores are usually naturally careful about their prey. Eat too much, food runs out. Same goes for the herbivores.
In short, imagine a place where it really is "survival of the fittest"

Say a disease comes along, infects one species. Disease spreads, many die, but said disease has no more hosts. Eventually some other species comes along, reinhabits, end of story.

Now, advances in medical technology may have cured many (and I mean many) diseases, but you could say that it's also accelerated the "evolutionary arms race" against viruses and bacteria. The above scenario is totally ideal, and I think isn't very likely to happen anywhere, even without humans. But the fact that the disease (let's say it was caused by a virus) would run out of hosts and eventually die out is - well, also unlikely, but at least it's plausible. Back on topic, advances in medical technology also causes viruses and bacteria to adapt to the antibodies more quickly than it would "naturally" (i.e. the above "ideal scenario)

I'd say more, but if you've actually bothered to read this far, I'm guessing you're more than capable of thinking up scenarios where the world would be better without humans, so I'm gonna end this post abruptly (for a second there it crossed my mind to just hit "publish" right there) with a final note that I'm not suggesting that we go back to the way things were and live in the dark ages. Please, as idealistic as I sometimes may be, even I don't want that to happen. I'm just saying, let's think about just living life the way it is right now, not changing too much of the world.

Think about it.
-Zet