My sister and I were discussing serious things today, you know, country things, politics things, global warming, social media, and AI things.
In my opinion, the things we rail against, despair at and want to change are all human creations.
It is not global warming, social media or AI that will destroy us; it is humanity itself.
The planet will be here long after we are extinct.
Humans are the issue, even though so many people don’t see it. We are, and have always been, destructive, selfish and only out for ourselves, for our ideologies, and for our belief systems.
That’s being human. History tells us that. The world around us shows us that.
We want something or someone else to make choices for us, to atone for our sins, to right our wrongs, to fix our problems and make good our failures.
If we really cared about the planet, for example, we would stop eating meat, driving cars or flying in planes.
Most people want all the benefits of human technology and industry without the responsibility. We want the scientists to make it right, so that we don’t have to sacrifice or put in the work.
Something else will come along after social media for people to blame for their woes, for the unsavoury sides to humanity, for the behaviours in others we don’t like, for the consequences of the lifestyles that we are choosing.
Trains were considered to be a health risk when they were invented, same with television, then the internet, now social media and AI.
Social media is not the enemy; it is only the platform that spreads the poison created by other human beings.
The only common thread in all of these is us.
Humans.
We need to save the planet!
Do we?
The planet will thrive when humans go extinct.
Yes, global warming is a thing. We are accelerating warming, marginally, but the Earth has cycles of heating and cooling, which humans can’t survive anyway.
Actually, science tells you that less of the planet is subject to flooding or wildfires than hundreds of years ago, it is just that humans are inhabiting more and more of the less hospitable parts of the planet, as well as getting better and better at recording weather events.
In fact, around the world, farming methods have successfully reduced flooding and wildfires. Who knew?
The whole saving-the-planet thing isn’t real…what people are trying to do is save the resources for humans to exploit, so that we can be here for longer.
Personally, I think nature is just waiting for us to go.
Some people are convinced humanity is on the brink of catastrophe. Others believe we will innovate our way out of every problem.
Please don’t misunderstand me, as a species, we are also phenomenal.
We are a species that wages war and also invents antibiotics. A species that pollutes rivers then spends decades cleaning them up. A species that commits violence but also runs into burning buildings to save strangers.
None-the-less, I don’t think humanity will or should survive forever.
Perhaps that’s because I don’t believe we’re especially important in the grand scheme of things. We are a speck of sand on the longest stretch of beach. Who’s going to notice that missing grain?
Earth has existed for billions of years. Species have come and gone. Entire ecosystems have risen and fallen. Long after we are gone, the universe will continue without us. The stars won’t notice our absence.
That might sound bleak, but I find it strangely comforting.
I don’t have to carry the weight of saving humanity on my shoulders. I don’t want to.
What I do care about is individuals.
Not humanity as an abstract concept, but actual people, who are here now, in my world, inhabiting my space, colouring my days.
The people I love. My family. My friends. The readers who spend hours with my stories. The stranger who smiles at me in a queue. The nurse working a long shift. The person quietly struggling through a difficult day.
During a recent hospital stay, I had conversations with several nurses and catering staff who took time out of their duties to talk to me, to connect. These were people who touched my life very significantly for a short period, people I will not see again.
Two of these very special individuals bought and began reading my first novel, before I had even been discharged.
Three of them shared personal and intimate stories about their families and health struggles.
We connected, empathised with each other, listened.
Their time was their gift to me, and I was grateful.
It is the individuals who cross our paths or walk a period of our lives with us that matter.
When I look around the world, I see so much suffering. Poverty. War. Abuse. Violence. Inequality. Illness. Loneliness. Mental health struggles. Despite all our technology and scientific achievements, these things remain stubbornly present.
Sometimes humanity feels like a magnificent mess.
And yet, for all our faults, we continue to create beautiful things.
We write books. We compose music. We fall in love. We care for children. We help strangers. We make each other laugh. We sit around tables sharing meals and stories. We build friendships that carry us through difficult times.
For me, that’s what really counts.
I don’t know what the world will look like in a hundred years. I certainly don’t know what it will look like in ten thousand.
What I do know is that my time here is limited.
Yours is too.
So perhaps the most important question isn’t whether humanity survives forever.
Perhaps it’s whether we make good use of the time we’ve been given.
Did we spend time with people we love?
Did we create something meaningful?
Did we experience joy?
Did we show kindness?
Did we leave a few things better than we found them?
I think that’s enough.
The universe doesn’t need to remember us.
But the people whose lives we touch might.
And for one short human life, that’s significance enough.
