(no subject)

[ironymaiden]

so much science fiction is an exploration of the other. i suppose all fiction is, i just had a moment tonight as i'm reading Wyrms (i got over the Shadow Puppets thing and picked up the other Card from that trip to the library) and thinking about how all these stories that i love are about merging (or fighting the merger) with something other than self.
i love the idea of succumbing to a blending that makes a unit that is beyond the whole. The Color of Distance or the Ousters from Hyperion are just what i would want to be in an alien environment. we have such conceit about being the peak of evolution, but we stopped evolving when we replaced cleverness with entitlement. we spend so much energy on mastering our world with tools, that we overlook any discipline that would allow us to live in it in harmony.

harmony, maybe that's a little earthy crunchy, but why should i think we should have a colony on Mars by now when we can't figure out when to stop eating? do miracle cures do us any good when we lose the lore of prevention? if we're the smartest monkeys, then we're overdue for a dieoff. if we are the avatars of divinity, then we must be truly perverse - we're not turned far enough inward to help ourselves, nor far enough outward to grow. we're an evolutionary dead end by our own design.

Comments

[raevnos.livejournal.com]

I've always liked the idea of altering ourselves via biological and mechanical engineering to better fit an environment than reshaping the world to suit ourselves. However, I don't think that the latter practice stops evolution. Changes the focus of adaptation, sure, but not stop.

[ironymaiden]

i guess i just feel like the platform for enhancement gets weaker and weaker. and then there's the problem of complexity and the fact that i don't understand most of the tools i use every day - like this one. how many of the people who consider their PDA indispensible could do anything for it if it broke?