Why Humanity Destroyed Itself

One day if human civilization ever wipes itself out aliens or one of our successors will cast an eye on our ruined planet

and ask themselves what ever happened to Homo sapiens their answer might look a little like this the root cause won't be the specific catastrophe conflict or devastation that eradicate sus the problem will begin with the architecture of the human brain

this tool will be remembered for being in part deeply impressive containing a hundred billion neurons capable of extraordinary

computations and combinations as aliens will note a particular part of the mind where ourmost dazzling thoughts unfolded was known to neuroscientists as the neocortex

a part that in humans was many times larger than that found in any other species

but this is what helps this hugely clever ape to produce the Magic Flute Anna Karenina Concorde and civilization

however our alien friends will also note that the human mind contained another component fairly influential but far less impressive known as the reptilian brain

an aggressive lustful impulsive section of machinery

with a great deal more in common with what might be found in a hyena or a small rodent because of this reptilian brain Homo sapiens ended up with three grave problems firstly tribalism humans were always on the verge of developing violent hatred of foreigners

and manifested strong ongoing tendencies to slaughter strangers in vast numbers they could never reliably see the humanity in all members of their own kind

secondly Homo sapiens were fatefully prone to short-term thinking even when confronted by data

it could only imagine the near-term future a few years at best viewing the long-term as a chimerical and unreal state its immediate impulses were left uncontained and worked to destroy its individual and collective future

lastly Homo sapiens had an especially keen fondness for wishful thinking so capable of immense intellectual achievement its mind hated to reflect on itself it couldn't bear to submit its ideas to rational scrutiny

it preferred to act rather than think and stay dream rather than plan having invented the scientific method it preferred in most cases just not to use it

it had a narcotic desire for distraction and Handa see it didn't want to know itself for many generations, these three floors were more or less endured certain institutions were invented to attenuate them the law sound government education philosophy science it worked sort of human fit keep wiping out slaves of their fellows

but they didn't scuppered a species as a whole what caused the ultimate destruction with the increasing yet untrammeled power of the neocortex this mighty tool eventually managed to capture fire contain the elements and give Homo sapiens a god-like power over the planet while the animal overall still operated with reflexes a serene and gentle as those of a hyena

the cost of its mistakes grew ever larger its powers became uncontained while its wisdom remained intermittent and fragile eventually it might outpaced its capacity for self-contro

l it became a nuclear armed rodent there was one thing that might have saved humanity love and three varieties of love in particular

firstly the love of the stranger the capacity to see the other as like oneself and worthy of the same mercy and charity

secondly the love of the unborn the concern for those who do not have yet exist and whom one will never know but whose lives one is shaping in the selfish present thirdly

the laugh of the truth the strength to resist illusion and lies and square up to uncomfortable facts of all kinds

we don't need to be aliens of the future to understand all this we can see the disaster scenario only too well right now the fate of civilization lies ultimately not in the law courts

at the ballot box or in the corridors of governments it lies in our ability to master the most short-term selfish violent of our impulses active in the dense folds of organic matter between our ears it lies in learning how relentlessly to try to compensate for the flawed architecture of a human mind you.