SuperForest

Heyo!

I just saw a great piece by Nicholas Wade on NYtimes.com about new scientific thinking that says that humans are born with an innate urge to be helpful, and to share with one another.

From the article:

“Shared intentionality, in Dr. Tomasello’s view, is close to the essence of what distinguishes people from chimpanzees. A group of human children will use all kinds of words and gestures to form goals and coordinate activities, but young chimps seem to have little interest in what may be their companions’ minds.

If children are naturally helpful and sociable, what system of child-rearing best takes advantage of this surprising propensity? Dr. Tomasello says that the approach known as inductive parenting works best because it reinforces the child’s natural propensity to cooperate with others. Inductive parenting is simply communicating with children about the effect of their actions on others and emphasizing the logic of social cooperation.

“Children are altruistic by nature,” he writes, and though they are also naturally selfish, all parents need do is try to tip the balance toward social behavior.”

(Click here for the full article)

That science is recognizing the goodness inherent in our species couldn’t come soon enough. I’ve been lucky enough to travel around the world and found that people everywhere are helpful and kind 99.9 percent of the time. The point one percent of the time that another human decides to hate on you is so small as to be forgettable.

If we are to succeed as a species we must combine forces as a species, and that means playing nice and treating each other as if we are bound to see each other again later, in close quarters. This “small island” mindset will help us all, as it will allow us to see the Earth as something completely new in our history, as one giant neighborhood, interconnected. Utterly interdependent. One for all, and all for one. That sort of thing…

Since we are not warlike, destructive, or evil by nature, we can overcome our interpersonal strife, and that means that all wars can end. We humans are good inside, and naturally inclined to care for one another. We can all live lives of peaceful creation. Now we have the tools and skills it takes to take care of our fellow humans and by extension conserve the natural world. Since we have the tools, the talent, and apparently the natural inclination, we set forth to create peace, justice, and an equitable existence for all Earth’s creatures, plant, animal, insect, and man alike.

In short: Humans are awesome, and can do and make anything they like, including turning the whole planet into a cool techno-garden where everyone gets to spend their lives dancing, making art, and visiting their wild animal friends in the forest with their silver flying jetpacks, and living for a long time. Why the heck not?

We can do anything we like.

Yay humans! Win!

-SFJ

Here, this is nice:

:)