614
Whatever we are prepared to declare on behalf of this bizarre organism is fully
suspect because of its predominant solipsism. Profuse existentialist engineers
(e.g., Thomas Edison, Bill Gates) propagate the religion of techno-fixes, Gates and
his wife, Melinda, with an inspirationally curious, ethically pragmatic zeal that
they have owned. But restraint, as etymologically enshrined in such word/concepts
as the Chinese zhongyong, the Indic sattva, or early Greek sophrosyne do not come
about in the Spaceship earth-versions of what Buckminster Fuller sought out in his
synergetics, ephemeralization, doing more with less, closing gaps and using technological know-how to solve all of our problems. We can’t; we won’t. Whether it
is the concept of a perfectly engineered planet, toilet or vaccine: humans are
only human.
The problem with human problems remains not only unsolved (an indignity of a
word in the context of its overwhelming hierarchical breakdown within both language and protocognition), but unimaginable. This lithospheric sculpture of epigrammatic, inaccessible philosophical quanta is the problem of humanity; of
human individuals, communities, their interactions and genetic factoids, as enunciated generation after generation. In an unspeakably tense, breathtaking 13-page
essay by British author, Hari Kunzru in 2006, for the slim and undermining book,
Human Problems
12
innumerable cornerstones of the problem, the iconic pillar of
our myriad discontents and reasons for anxiety, surface. These include the “crucifixion of the humming bird hypothesis,” “Bot-fly larva removal,” and all those who
“know they don’t deserve what they’ve inherited” (speaking of “the earth”).
13
Leading to an ultimate dilemma: the fact that “to winnow the truly human from the
pretenders” constitutes “The problem.”
14
And simply because, in the hands of, a problem in and of himself, an author, any
author, any reader, any zoological ambassador of this enterprise accelerates and
embodies the proliferation of more problems, moral dilemmas, absolute wastelands absent any compass, level of confidence or ability to delineate identities from
among a biological chaos that would seek to champion order. Order upon Self;
Order in the very outlines from atop some mythopoetic Olympus wherein some
iteration of a Zarathustra or Buddha seeks to look down upon the earth as it lingers
in anticipation, presumably several billion years hence, of its galactic implosion.
As Venice, Italy sinks; and the global climate continues to rise. Yet, the real problem, herewith elucidated, is fully hidden beneath the distractions of geopolitics,
and the identity crisis of a species fully caught out in the tumult of its undoing. We
simply will not see ourselves.
Neither evolutionary biologists, mathematicians, biophysicists nor ethical pundits have managed to find wormholes of predictability between macro and micro
fields. The “clash of civilizations,” as outlined by political scientist Samuel
12 Half of the work devoted to the deeply arresting art of New Zealand-born Francis Upritchard,
Kate MacGarry/Veenman Publishers/Gijs Stork, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2006.
13 ibid., pp. 5, 6, 9.
14 ibid., p. 15.
65 The Great Divergence
Whatever we are prepared to declare on behalf of this bizarre organism is fully
suspect because of its predominant solipsism. Profuse existentialist engineers
(e.g., Thomas Edison, Bill Gates) propagate the religion of techno-fixes, Gates and
his wife, Melinda, with an inspirationally curious, ethically pragmatic zeal that
they have owned. But restraint, as etymologically enshrined in such word/concepts
as the Chinese zhongyong, the Indic sattva, or early Greek sophrosyne do not come
about in the Spaceship earth-versions of what Buckminster Fuller sought out in his
synergetics, ephemeralization, doing more with less, closing gaps and using technological know-how to solve all of our problems. We can’t; we won’t. Whether it
is the concept of a perfectly engineered planet, toilet or vaccine: humans are
only human.
The problem with human problems remains not only unsolved (an indignity of a
word in the context of its overwhelming hierarchical breakdown within both language and protocognition), but unimaginable. This lithospheric sculpture of epigrammatic, inaccessible philosophical quanta is the problem of humanity; of
human individuals, communities, their interactions and genetic factoids, as enunciated generation after generation. In an unspeakably tense, breathtaking 13-page
essay by British author, Hari Kunzru in 2006, for the slim and undermining book,
Human Problems
12
innumerable cornerstones of the problem, the iconic pillar of
our myriad discontents and reasons for anxiety, surface. These include the “crucifixion of the humming bird hypothesis,” “Bot-fly larva removal,” and all those who
“know they don’t deserve what they’ve inherited” (speaking of “the earth”).
13
Leading to an ultimate dilemma: the fact that “to winnow the truly human from the
pretenders” constitutes “The problem.”
14
And simply because, in the hands of, a problem in and of himself, an author, any
author, any reader, any zoological ambassador of this enterprise accelerates and
embodies the proliferation of more problems, moral dilemmas, absolute wastelands absent any compass, level of confidence or ability to delineate identities from
among a biological chaos that would seek to champion order. Order upon Self;
Order in the very outlines from atop some mythopoetic Olympus wherein some
iteration of a Zarathustra or Buddha seeks to look down upon the earth as it lingers
in anticipation, presumably several billion years hence, of its galactic implosion.
As Venice, Italy sinks; and the global climate continues to rise. Yet, the real problem, herewith elucidated, is fully hidden beneath the distractions of geopolitics,
and the identity crisis of a species fully caught out in the tumult of its undoing. We
simply will not see ourselves.
Neither evolutionary biologists, mathematicians, biophysicists nor ethical pundits have managed to find wormholes of predictability between macro and micro
fields. The “clash of civilizations,” as outlined by political scientist Samuel
12 Half of the work devoted to the deeply arresting art of New Zealand-born Francis Upritchard,
Kate MacGarry/Veenman Publishers/Gijs Stork, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2006.
13 ibid., pp. 5, 6, 9.
14 ibid., p. 15.
65 The Great Divergence