The appearance of self consciousness and the capacity for analytical thinking during the process of evolution of life has, of course, established the dominance of sentient beings on planet earth. These attributes are the transformative features of the human brain and have established our collective humanity.
The thinking character of the human brain, however, is subsumed by the chaotic aspect of the ever-present reality principle that encompasses the ineluctable forces of nature over which we can exert little or no control. The one capability of the human mind that has co-evolved over millions of years is the ability to impose order in relation to the incoming data constantly streaming into our minds through the senses. The net result of this organizing “feature’’ has created the perception of an ordered environment.
It is this reality superimposed over the human experience that has made the rise of human civilization possible along with the development of human hands capable of serving as tools to craft creative potential into usable objects. Unlike most other living creatures on Earth, we not only react to natural forces around us, but we also interact with and actively attempt to transform our environment.
This superimposed and ordered aspect of our thinking has established the predominance of the delusional mind, for what seems so apparent in our daily lives does not reflect the real nature of reality that exists within the framework of the cosmos. Within this delusional matrix in which the natural world seems to be at our disposal and forever subject to our control, we have chosen a kind of blind certainty over clarity. We have chosen to see reality as we expect it to be rather than as it truly is.
Up until the very recent past, this state of delusional thinking has been quite effective and apparently productive. However, the human species is rapidly approaching a state of existence in which the artificial world that we have collectively created is beginning to transform the underlying physical reality in a way that may ultimately lead to our collective extinction.
Humans have crafted an apparent reality that teaches us that the human species holds a special place in existence that precludes all else; that the individual is the center of existence, and that the environment of which we are a part exists for our benefit at the obvious expense of any other life forms inconvenient or hostile to us.
The delusional mind has come to perceive only one reality that is centered around self and that all other aspects of our true environment and place in the cosmos is part of a shadow world not worthy of our attention. It is within this shadow world that the reality of individual death has been placed. It is within this shadow world that the inescapable reality of the finite, ephemeral and fallible nature of human existence has also been placed.
This delusional state of existence - remarkably enhanced by the imposition of technologically-crafted virtual realities - remains perpetually at risk, for we are subservient to the real and ineluctable forces that operate within the cosmos. We are, after all, protected from the chaotic and unforgiving forces of the cosmos by a very thin layer of atmosphere on which we absolutely depend and an exceedingly narrow range of climatic conditions, temperature, available sources of nutrition, water, etc.
Either we will collectively persist on our present course into the future or choose some other path more in accord with the actual nature of reality. We shall see.
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