Human Hubris

Mankind yearns for meaning. But it is far from clear whether one exists.

We like to impart ourselves the apex identity - that we are the most supreme form of life. The zenith of evolution.

But that is hubris. And my favourite argument against it makes use of the gruesome Drucunculus Medinensis or "Guinea Worm".

Google for pictures at your own peril.

This worm uses the human body like a hotel. Ingested by drinking untreated water, it matures in the comfort of the abdominal cavity and when it needs to lay it's eggs it bores a hole out of the foot generating a searing pain compelling the host to immerse the wound in water - thus completing it's reproduction cycle.

It just goes to show that mankind is but one manifestation of the grander phenomenon called life.

And life is quite special - because of how extremely unlikely it is.

Look at Earth - the only planet known to harbour life so far. It has an abundance of liquid water and a rotating molten iron core generating a magnetosphere that shields against destructive solar winds. It also survived a tumultuous childhood in a chaotic young solar system.

There are scores of other variables which if were even marginally different would make conditions for life impossible. This concept is named the "Anthropic Principle" - and it suggests that the universe as we observe it is parameterized specifically for consciousnesses to emerge.

So which is it? Are we uniquely designed or is everything just a product of primordial chaos?