Choices we face by the author of
Enigma of The Second Coming.

I think it was James Burke, the Irish science historian who, leavened with an inimitable sense of humor, said "evolution advances at a rate of somewhere between dead slow and dead slow." My first reaction was, "Speak for yourself!" On the other hand it did seem to illustrate the stagnant minds of the vast majority of people I’d ever met. Now I don’t know how well can a cockroach think, but in many ways it seems to outthink us. Pretty successful, I would have thought.

Let us look at the facts. In most optimistic projections, backwards, Miocene Epoch, period of time that extends from about 23.03 to 5.332 million years before the present is claimed to possess the oldest bones ever found which, though not really human, were vaguely humanoid. That’s like saying that most apes are vaguely humanoid. No matter, let us be generous. Some people I met, lately, would hardly qualify today. But we are talking of success, and real success must surely be defined by the ability to survive. Otherwise, what’s the point of being successful? At the moment we seem much better at killing each other than at extending the lifeline of the human race, H-bombs notwithstanding.

On the other hand, look at our friendly, neighborhood cucaracha. There are roughly 4,500 species of them in six families. That’s a much greater diversification than we, humans have. We don’t admit it, but we hate diversity. We prefer our neighbors to be just like we are. About the same size, colour, habits and behaviour. Not so with the cockroach. The most well-known species in American is about 3 cm long. The German and the Asian versions about 11⁄2 cm, while the Oriental version a little larger, some 21⁄2 cm. We should also note that only 1% of the cockroaches infest urban habitats. They know where they are not wanted. This cannot be said of some people I know.

Now while a differential of 3cm to 11/2cm doesn’t seem like much, in human terms this would be equal to neighbors on our global village being both, 5 and ten feet tall. Or six and twelve. (Goodbye NBA). Just how friendly would we be to someone twice our size? If cockroaches were anything to go by, such diversification would vastly improve our chances of survival.

As a species. As human race.

I mentioned our ancestors’ bones being, at best, between 5- and 22-million years old. Well, cockroaches beat us there too. They are reputed to have been around for some 300 million years. That is some 150 million years better than the dinosaurs. While it is not true that a cockroach can survive an atomic blast at ground zero (not that we would), they can, however, live for weeks after being decapitated. Had we, the ‘intelligent’ apes, such an ability, we could have played havoc with the French Revolution.

There was a time when our medical profession grew jealous of cockroaches’ abilities. It had been reported that in the 1st and 9th centuries, the learned doctors recommended either grinding them (the cockroaches, not their abilities) with oil or boiling the poor critters, and then applying them to open wounds, or treating "gynecological disorders". It is evident that cockroach survived even our medical profession’s ministrations. Good for them.



We, the masters of the world, do not follow the model of diversification. We maintain our form, our mode of being, through a matrix, or a program, evolution put together over some millions of years. This program is automatically and continually updated. It is subject to continuous feedback, which adjusts it minutely on a second-to-second basis. Though endowed with a brain presumably more advanced than a cockroach has, we, as an organism, do not question the efficacy of previously acquired traits. Thus such traits not only remain in us but also become reinforced. In addition, new data temporarily stored in our subconscious later become ingrained in our cells for future reference. Since the program has been subject to such a long and arduous period of trial-and-error experiments, it is protected by automatic safeguards from external interference. New ideas, no matter how beneficial, are automatically rejected until proven by the same trial-and-error method (or unpredictable mutation) to be of value. This, unfortunately, is referred to a "natural selection."

Such a system as we, human, inhabit, is oriented, like all organized systems, to the protection of status quo. The principle follows the dictum: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Unfortunately under such circumstances the program is renewed at a pace of, as Burke said, somewhere between dead slow and dead slow. So slow that we, as a species, are extremely unlikely to survive, for instance, a sudden climate change.

What is infinitely worse in our organizational make up, is that governments, major religions or churches, even the scientific establishment, all tend to be bogged down in the same quagmire. They are not only protective of status quo, but seem afraid of what the popularity polls might do to any change in the "good old days" mentality.

If only we did not suffer from such magnificent, highly evolved brains, we could have gone the way of the cockroach. Instead of building atom bombs to ‘protect’ ourselves (they were always reputed to have been a deterrent), we could have diversified and survived as long as a cockroach already did. But there is hope. With the gigantic strides our medical and non-medical science makes in the fields of genetics, bionics, cybernetics, artificial intelligence and most of all nanotechnology, there is still hope. We may yet produce a Homo Superior through our own efforts. Now that would be a real measure of success.

Or….

Or we shall decide to stop improving our bodies and improve our awareness of the Infinite Potential residing within each of us. We shall see––if we survive.