Too much of a good thing is a bad a thing. This phrase has been pounded into our minds from generation from generation. But is this clever slogan broad enough to encircle everything? Yes. This even includes the most defining characteristic of a human, intelligence. Octavia Butler displays her concern in her novel titled Lilith’s Brood. Humanity has met its demise and its fate is left in the hands of alien visitors. The human race is doomed because it is more intelligent than lower creatures yet dumb enough to blow each other up. Humanity is cursed. Butler describes the presence of intelligence as the “Human Contradiction.” The first Oankali or alien that is introduced in the novel describes it best. It says that humans have a “mismatched pair of genetic characteristics” (Bulter 38). The two genetic characteristics it speaks of is hierarchical and intelligence. Hierarchy is the system of Kings or leaders that we have. This is most commonly seen in unintelligent animals such as ants or, more closely related to humans, chimpanzees. The problem with hierarchy is that once intelligence is introduced there is no need for one person to look after everything. Hierarchy becomes an inhibitor, a dangerous thing. Humanity becomes torn between the past and the present, unable to distinguish the difference. Traditions of the past cloud intelligence so hierarchy goes unnoticed. Conflicting traditions isn’t the only pitfall that intelligence have laid in our path. Another hazard is the mortality of humans. Death is a part of our life and we are smart enough to realize its inevitability. Bulter addresses this concern by making the human colonies have an extended life span. Despite the extension to their lifespan the humans remain unhappy. They realize that although they may live long lives their lives are frivolous. The chances of aliens extending our lives in the real world are very slim, but what if it did happen? Would humanity cherish its life anymore? Be afraid of death less? The answer is no. As long as humanity is cursed with intelligence, death will forever be present in our minds. The most obvious and the most deadly side-effect of intelligence is the abuse of technology. Authors like Bill McKibben claim that we should put a limit on what technologies we should use. He only wants technology that is beneficial to humanity. In a perfect world that would be fine. But our intelligent design makes us want more. We take what we want and make it what we need.
Let me just say this is a very interesting topic. Okay the opening paragpah good.
I first see a problem when you say "The problem with hierarchy is that once intelligence is introduced there is no need for one person to look after everything." You need to either word this differently or explain this better because it was kind of confusing. Then you say humanity is torn beneath the past and the present, you should leave this out, and say instead that humanity doesnt try to rethink its use of hierarcy because its a tradition. Alright the hierarchy being bad thing was a very good talking point, but there wasnt nearly enough evidence or suport to make your point. You should show more specifically how hierarcy is leading to the end of the human race. Dont say another hazard is our mortality, say instead another hazard is our awareness of mortality.
This paragrpah there are no quotes im sure you can find some in Mckibben he talks about this. im sort of confused about where the paragraphs end so my comments might be confusing after this. Why arent there more examples of humans and their obsession with mortality.Your assertion that aliens existing is not likely i think is wrong because we live in a huge universe. But thats not a big deal.
Your last paragrpagh does not restate the theme of your thesis at the beginning, and you bring in a new out of place subject. Either turn the subject of technology into a body paragpah or get rid of it altogether. There isnt a summation of anything in the last paragraph, the whole last paragrpah needs to be redone.
You need to build on the strong points of your argument which are the negative effects of hierarcy, and our awareness of mortality. If you do you can succed in making a good essay.
Too much of a good thing is a bad a thing. This phrase has been pounded into our minds from generation from generation. But is this clever slogan broad enough to encircle everything? Yes. This even includes the most defining characteristic of a human, intelligence. Octavia Butler displays her concern in her novel titled Lilith’s Brood. Humanity has met its demise and its fate is left in the hands of alien visitors. The human race is doomed because it is more intelligent than lower creatures yet dumb enough to blow each other up. Humanity is cursed. Butler describes the presence of intelligence as the “Human Contradiction.” The first Oankali or alien that is introduced in the novel describes it best. It says that humans have a “mismatched pair of genetic characteristics” (Butler 38). The two genetic characteristics it speaks of is hierarchical and intelligence. Hierarchy is the system of Kings or leaders that we have. This is most commonly seen in unintelligent animals such as ants or, more closely related to humans, chimpanzees. The problem with hierarchy is that once intelligence is introduced there is no need for one person to look after everything. More emphasis is put on the individual in an intelligent society, which makes a hierarchy system obsolete. Hierarchy becomes an inhibitor, a dangerous thing. One person is in control of virtually millions of people. Often times this one leader goes against the general will and puts it’s citizens in danger. Our hierarchy tendencies go unquestioned because it is in human tradition. Traditions of the past cloud intelligence so hierarchy goes unnoticed. Conflicting traditions isn’t the only pitfall that intelligence have laid in our path. Another hazard is the awareness of our mortality. Death is a part of our life and we are smart enough to realize its inevitability. Butler addresses this concern by making the human colonies have an extended life span. Despite the extension to their lifespan the humans remain unhappy. They realize that although they may live long lives their lives are frivolous. Butler created a world where people become “Raiders” and “Child thieves” (Butler 307). Their obsession with human children show how deep rooted the fear of mortality is. They become obsessed with having a legacy, a way to guarantee partial immortality. The raiders will do anything for children that look like humans so they resort to kidnapping. As long as humanity is cursed with intelligence, death will forever be present in our minds. Because of this vision some people live selfish, worthless lives. The most obvious and the most deadly side effect of intelligence is the abuse of technology. Authors like Lee Silver claim that technology enables humanity to “self-evolve” (Silver 351). Silver claims several times throughout his book, titled Challenging Nature, that technological advance is inevitable. This means that all technology will be in a constant state of change. What Silver fails to see is that with beneficial technology comes destructive technology. In a couple of years society might figure a way to live hundreds of years but at the same time it might find a way to blow up an entire continent. In Butler’s novel the world was plagued by “a handful of people” that “tried to commit humanicide” (Butler 8). While this novel is fictional it accurately depicts how dangerous it is putting destructive power in the hands of a few people. Luckily our hierarchy system prohibits anything like this from happening. If your sense of sarcasm escaped you, I’ll say it more direct. What happened in Butler’s novel is near identical with what is happening in our world. Eventually humanity will end. A nuclear holocaust might be our destructor or maybe robots will take over the world. Any plausible cause to our extinction could be linked with any other cause by one thing; intelligence. While intelligence graces us with compassion, it also plagues us with a destructive society, awareness of our mortality, and technological advance. This is where the contradiction lies. There is no society without intelligent people, yet it is intelligence that will be the destructor of society. Unfortunately we will never be able to escape our curse, the only hope we have is that our intelligence will provide us with a key to an unseen door.
3 comments:
Jason Miller
The Curse of Intelligence
Too much of a good thing is a bad a thing. This phrase has been pounded into our minds from generation from generation. But is this clever slogan broad enough to encircle everything? Yes. This even includes the most defining characteristic of a human, intelligence. Octavia Butler displays her concern in her novel titled Lilith’s Brood. Humanity has met its demise and its fate is left in the hands of alien visitors. The human race is doomed because it is more intelligent than lower creatures yet dumb enough to blow each other up. Humanity is cursed.
Butler describes the presence of intelligence as the “Human Contradiction.” The first Oankali or alien that is introduced in the novel describes it best. It says that humans have a “mismatched pair of genetic characteristics” (Bulter 38). The two genetic characteristics it speaks of is hierarchical and intelligence. Hierarchy is the system of Kings or leaders that we have. This is most commonly seen in unintelligent animals such as ants or, more closely related to humans, chimpanzees. The problem with hierarchy is that once intelligence is introduced there is no need for one person to look after everything. Hierarchy becomes an inhibitor, a dangerous thing. Humanity becomes torn between the past and the present, unable to distinguish the difference. Traditions of the past cloud intelligence so hierarchy goes unnoticed.
Conflicting traditions isn’t the only pitfall that intelligence have laid in our path. Another hazard is the mortality of humans. Death is a part of our life and we are smart enough to realize its inevitability. Bulter addresses this concern by making the human colonies have an extended life span. Despite the extension to their lifespan the humans remain unhappy. They realize that although they may live long lives their lives are frivolous. The chances of aliens extending our lives in the real world are very slim, but what if it did happen? Would humanity cherish its life anymore? Be afraid of death less? The answer is no. As long as humanity is cursed with intelligence, death will forever be present in our minds.
The most obvious and the most deadly side-effect of intelligence is the abuse of technology. Authors like Bill McKibben claim that we should put a limit on what technologies we should use. He only wants technology that is beneficial to humanity. In a perfect world that would be fine. But our intelligent design makes us want more. We take what we want and make it what we need.
Let me just say this is a very interesting topic. Okay the opening paragpah good.
I first see a problem when you say "The problem with hierarchy is that once intelligence is introduced there is no need for one person to look after everything." You need to either word this differently or explain this better because it was kind of confusing. Then you say humanity is torn beneath the past and the present, you should leave this out, and say instead that humanity doesnt try to rethink its use of hierarcy because its a tradition. Alright the hierarchy being bad thing was a very good talking point, but there wasnt nearly enough evidence or suport to make your point. You should show more specifically how hierarcy is leading to the end of the human race. Dont say another hazard is our mortality, say instead another hazard is our awareness of mortality.
This paragrpah there are no quotes im sure you can find some in Mckibben he talks about this. im sort of confused about where the paragraphs end so my comments might be confusing after this.
Why arent there more examples of humans and their obsession with mortality.Your assertion that aliens existing is not likely i think is wrong because we live in a huge universe. But thats not a big deal.
Your last paragrpagh does not restate the theme of your thesis at the beginning, and you bring in a new out of place subject. Either turn the subject of technology into a body paragpah or get rid of it altogether. There isnt a summation of anything in the last paragraph, the whole last paragrpah needs to be redone.
You need to build on the strong points of your argument which are the negative effects of hierarcy, and our awareness of mortality. If you do you can succed in making a good essay.
Jason Miller
The Curse of Intelligence
Too much of a good thing is a bad a thing. This phrase has been pounded into our minds from generation from generation. But is this clever slogan broad enough to encircle everything? Yes. This even includes the most defining characteristic of a human, intelligence. Octavia Butler displays her concern in her novel titled Lilith’s Brood. Humanity has met its demise and its fate is left in the hands of alien visitors. The human race is doomed because it is more intelligent than lower creatures yet dumb enough to blow each other up. Humanity is cursed.
Butler describes the presence of intelligence as the “Human Contradiction.” The first Oankali or alien that is introduced in the novel describes it best. It says that humans have a “mismatched pair of genetic characteristics” (Butler 38). The two genetic characteristics it speaks of is hierarchical and intelligence. Hierarchy is the system of Kings or leaders that we have. This is most commonly seen in unintelligent animals such as ants or, more closely related to humans, chimpanzees. The problem with hierarchy is that once intelligence is introduced there is no need for one person to look after everything. More emphasis is put on the individual in an intelligent society, which makes a hierarchy system obsolete. Hierarchy becomes an inhibitor, a dangerous thing. One person is in control of virtually millions of people. Often times this one leader goes against the general will and puts it’s citizens in danger. Our hierarchy tendencies go unquestioned because it is in human tradition. Traditions of the past cloud intelligence so hierarchy goes unnoticed.
Conflicting traditions isn’t the only pitfall that intelligence have laid in our path. Another hazard is the awareness of our mortality. Death is a part of our life and we are smart enough to realize its inevitability. Butler addresses this concern by making the human colonies have an extended life span. Despite the extension to their lifespan the humans remain unhappy. They realize that although they may live long lives their lives are frivolous. Butler created a world where people become “Raiders” and “Child thieves” (Butler 307). Their obsession with human children show how deep rooted the fear of mortality is. They become obsessed with having a legacy, a way to guarantee partial immortality. The raiders will do anything for children that look like humans so they resort to kidnapping. As long as humanity is cursed with intelligence, death will forever be present in our minds. Because of this vision some people live selfish, worthless lives.
The most obvious and the most deadly side effect of intelligence is the abuse of technology. Authors like Lee Silver claim that technology enables humanity to “self-evolve” (Silver 351). Silver claims several times throughout his book, titled Challenging Nature, that technological advance is inevitable. This means that all technology will be in a constant state of change. What Silver fails to see is that with beneficial technology comes destructive technology. In a couple of years society might figure a way to live hundreds of years but at the same time it might find a way to blow up an entire continent. In Butler’s novel the world was plagued by “a handful of people” that “tried to commit humanicide” (Butler 8). While this novel is fictional it accurately depicts how dangerous it is putting destructive power in the hands of a few people. Luckily our hierarchy system prohibits anything like this from happening. If your sense of sarcasm escaped you, I’ll say it more direct. What happened in Butler’s novel is near identical with what is happening in our world.
Eventually humanity will end. A nuclear holocaust might be our destructor or maybe robots will take over the world. Any plausible cause to our extinction could be linked with any other cause by one thing; intelligence. While intelligence graces us with compassion, it also plagues us with a destructive society, awareness of our mortality, and technological advance. This is where the contradiction lies. There is no society without intelligent people, yet it is intelligence that will be the destructor of society. Unfortunately we will never be able to escape our curse, the only hope we have is that our intelligence will provide us with a key to an unseen door.
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