Three Vital Things Cthulhu (and Lovecraft) Show Us About Biology (and Tentacles)
Swiped from A Great Becoming:
What Evolution Really Means: That the Fate of All Species is to Die
It’s a bit depressing to know that more than 99.9% of all species that have ever existed on earth have also died out. Extinction is not an exception but is the norm; the Dodo has plenty of company. Thus the destiny of all life is ultimately extinction as throughout time different species rise to dominate the planet. This was not how we always saw the world. Before Darwin (and others) had the genius insights to realise what was really going on around us, we thought that all the creatures alive now had been alive since the world was created and always would. This ‘steady-state’ view of the world gives us a comforting sort of eternal playground of life.
What Darwin did was to point out that death, both of the individual and the species was the normal part of nature. This was and still is a major change to how we see ourselves and the world around us. Because for our very brief life-spans things don’t seem to change that much, it can be hard to appreciate just how much change does occur on a wider time-scale. We still sort of don’t fully get it. We talk of environmental protection to ‘save the planet’ when the planet will be fine either way. It’s our (and other living species’) ability to live on the planet that is under threat from our polluting ways. Hence political philosophers like John Gray argue that we’ve not yet full grasped the meaning of Darwin’s work; that humans too will one day die out. Cthulhu gets it too, as he lies there dreaming of the end of the age of mankind and his return to the surface; “Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now. After summer is winter, and after winter summer.”
More at the link.
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are
comments.
What Evolution Really Means: That the Fate of All Species is to Die
It’s a bit depressing to know that more than 99.9% of all species that have ever existed on earth have also died out. Extinction is not an exception but is the norm; the Dodo has plenty of company. Thus the destiny of all life is ultimately extinction as throughout time different species rise to dominate the planet. This was not how we always saw the world. Before Darwin (and others) had the genius insights to realise what was really going on around us, we thought that all the creatures alive now had been alive since the world was created and always would. This ‘steady-state’ view of the world gives us a comforting sort of eternal playground of life.
What Darwin did was to point out that death, both of the individual and the species was the normal part of nature. This was and still is a major change to how we see ourselves and the world around us. Because for our very brief life-spans things don’t seem to change that much, it can be hard to appreciate just how much change does occur on a wider time-scale. We still sort of don’t fully get it. We talk of environmental protection to ‘save the planet’ when the planet will be fine either way. It’s our (and other living species’) ability to live on the planet that is under threat from our polluting ways. Hence political philosophers like John Gray argue that we’ve not yet full grasped the meaning of Darwin’s work; that humans too will one day die out. Cthulhu gets it too, as he lies there dreaming of the end of the age of mankind and his return to the surface; “Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now. After summer is winter, and after winter summer.”
More at the link.
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are
comments.