ANECDOTE NO. THREE: ON BIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION AND GEOLOGICAL EXPECTATION
If humans are the most highly adaptable species, why does our species still have to wear oxygen tanks to breath underwater? Preposterous question in many ways. If the claim that humans are the most adaptable species is based primarily on the diversity of environments our species inhabits and has penetrated, I suggest the condition, “only because of technological developments” modify the claim. Of course it can be argued that because humans are able to develop such technologies to facilitate our environmental expansion, this ability qualifies us as the most adaptable. But human maximization of the art of adaptation has been achieved solely because we have tools. We have never, like the gecko, adapted to re-grow severed appendages. But if some day nature’s omnipotent sovereignty outpaces human ability to adapt, how long could our species survive without our technologies? Besides, how can a species that kills each other, itself, and it’s environment be said to be well-adapted for survival?
We never reached our destination “goal” of the glacier San Rafael which I am quite okay with. Making a geological spectacle a goal of an outdoor adventure places a certain emphasis on the end note before it has even been played. Expectation of how a final note will or should sound can ruin enjoyment of the journey by anticipation of the future. Arriving at the Grand Canyon after imagining how amazing it will be can be as dissapointing as throwing a surprise birthday party for yourself: the actual manifestation of the event never coincides with the imagination of the event.
Early on in our sailing journey Deborah and Rolph made it clear making it Rafeal in our three week period was unlikely. So I willfully suspended expectation of seeing the glacier. Now I am thankful for the forecast because putting the glacier out of my mind allowed me to spot whales and dolphins instead of looking straight over them with a future-aimed forward gaze.
If humans are the most highly adaptable species, why does our species still have to wear oxygen tanks to breath underwater? Preposterous question in many ways. If the claim that humans are the most adaptable species is based primarily on the diversity of environments our species inhabits and has penetrated, I suggest the condition, “only because of technological developments” modify the claim. Of course it can be argued that because humans are able to develop such technologies to facilitate our environmental expansion, this ability qualifies us as the most adaptable. But human maximization of the art of adaptation has been achieved solely because we have tools. We have never, like the gecko, adapted to re-grow severed appendages. But if some day nature’s omnipotent sovereignty outpaces human ability to adapt, how long could our species survive without our technologies? Besides, how can a species that kills each other, itself, and it’s environment be said to be well-adapted for survival?
We never reached our destination “goal” of the glacier San Rafael which I am quite okay with. Making a geological spectacle a goal of an outdoor adventure places a certain emphasis on the end note before it has even been played. Expectation of how a final note will or should sound can ruin enjoyment of the journey by anticipation of the future. Arriving at the Grand Canyon after imagining how amazing it will be can be as dissapointing as throwing a surprise birthday party for yourself: the actual manifestation of the event never coincides with the imagination of the event.
Early on in our sailing journey Deborah and Rolph made it clear making it Rafeal in our three week period was unlikely. So I willfully suspended expectation of seeing the glacier. Now I am thankful for the forecast because putting the glacier out of my mind allowed me to spot whales and dolphins instead of looking straight over them with a future-aimed forward gaze.
posted by Jojo at 1:43 PM
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