We Are Not Prepared For the Imminent Post-Natural Epoch.

we are living in the pre-post natural Epoch and that we seem to be determined to do everything we can to really piss off our great great grandchildren.

First I guess I'd better's explain what I mean by a pre-post natural Epoch.

I like to break the history of Earth life into three Epochs.

First the Natural Epoch.

Then the Epoch we are living in. I call it “Pre-Post-Natural.
It began when humanity started developing technology,
complex communication, and intricate social structures, a few thousand years ago,
and I believe it is coming to an end.

We are now about to enter a new, and very dangerous, "post natural Epoch".

I'm going to describe the first of these epochs in Darwinian terms
because I really believe that the science of evolution is a reasonable if not perfect theory.
But I could just as easily have used creationist terms.
Pre-post naturalism is a fact and does not rely on any specific theory about how we got here.

Throughout most of the history of Earth life, the primary factors which influenced the development of life and the proliferation of species were climate and natural selection.

Up until the development of human
technology,
communication,
and social organization
– Earth life evolved slowly and naturally, building evermore complex and diverse niches and then filling them.

The process was slow but inexorable.
And one has the sense that nothing but truly cosmic cataclysm could destroy this evermore complex and evermore diverse proliferation of life.

I like to think of us, all of Earthlife, as the technology of the DNA.
And the DNA has done an amazing job.

But if the DNA is an entrepreneur developing an amazing new technology,
it must live with the threat of corporate takeover by rapacious capitalists, looking to exploit that technology for short-term gain.

While it may seem that that analogy got a little out of hand, it's not really that far from the truth.

Because what has been happening
over just the last few thousand years
has been a dramatic change in the way Earth life operates.

In this pre-post natural Epoch things have start speeding up.
Changes are now happening, not just through not the simple process of random mutation and natural selection.
But human technology is forcing changes upon earthlife.

We started by domesticating predators, prey and even plants.
And we learned, through selective breeding procedures, to alter dramatically the nature of our captive species.

And then we started taking over ecological niches, converting them to our own use.
And in the process destroying or at least damaging complex systems which the natural processes have developed over eons.

It has been estimated that 10,000 years ago, at the beginning of this Epoch,
humanity and our domesticated livestock consisted of less than 1% of vertebrates on the planet. Today we are over 98%.

That is what occurred in the pre-post natural epoch. But it is nothing compared to what is to come.

We are about to enter the post natural Epoch.
Soon through technologies some of which are currently in their infancy and some of which are as yet undreamed of,
we will have the capacity to design our own species.

Humanity will take control of all the natural processes.

With great power comes great responsibility.

We have done a lot of unintended damage with the limited power we currently possess.
We are already capable of producing any one of three Holocaust scenarios as I describe in some of my other videos.
And the only social systems we have for averting disaster are weak international agreements which can easily be abrogated by ignorant despots.

Imagine how dangerous it will be when we possess the infinitely greater power which will be ours in the post natural epoch.
If we cannot come together as a species and establish the moral codes and social institutions to control our worst impulses,
we will surely bring disaster.

All of our social, political, economic institutions are far too parochial and shortsighted.
And they are becoming more so.

And our morality is woefully inadequate for the awesome responsibility we are about to inherit.

Geniuses and prophets from Jesus of Nazareth to the Buddha to Eleanor Roosevelt have tried to show us the way but we keep falling back into contempt corruption and consumption.

Today, when we so desperately need to come together in respect not only for all humanity but for all earth life,
hatred and tribalism are on the rise.

Today when we so desperately need to harness the genius of every unique human being,
education systems are faltering and becoming evermore exclusive.

Today when we as a species are about to inherit the power and responsibility to direct the future of earth life,
we are despoiling that inheritance through shortsighted behaviors which produce both climactic disruption and mass extinction of species.

Future generations, whose core technologies will be rooted in the manipulation of DNA and the management of all life on this planet,
will revile us for having destroyed so much of their raw material.

The natural epoch started coming to an end when we arrived on the scene with our technologies, communication skills and complex social organization.

But we have been allowed as a species an adolescent period, during which we could grow into the responsibility we are about to inherit.
That adolescent, pre-post natural Epoch is rapidly coming to a close.

Repent humanity,
for the beginning is at hand.