So I've been thinking, (yes I know, we pay people to think for us, I am only suposed to do - but screw that shit. I like thinking) and I can't quite figure out if intelligence is a gift to humanity, or if it is a punishment.

We are all aware of the fact that humans are the only intelligent species on the planet, and as far as we know, there has been none before us... So we are unique. For a brief time there was neandrithal man, but either it couldn't cut it, or we killed it. Every day we are diving head first into the unknown with the confidence that no matter what gets in our way we will survive threw it.

This logic is not only present with society as a whole, but in everything that we do as humans. Today my gf and I were eating at A&W and she said "You know how some restaurants use recycled matterial for their plates, cups, and stuff. Well, why can't everyone do that? Shouldn't there be a law to make it so?" And my answer to her was this: "The same reason why you try new tricks while snowboarding"

See - there is no difference between Tanner Hall switch 9ing Chads Gap and gas prices going up. both Tanner (or any skier with progression on their mind) and the government want to see how far they can push it before shit breaks down. Within human's society there has been many empires that were vast in size and power - take the romans for example. They kept getting bigger until they were just too big for their own good, and they crumbled. It has happened over and over. The only difference between than and now, is that the empire of today is global. Instead of taking over regions and religions, we are doing much worse things like harvesting the earth.

Besides the social aspect of our craving of oil, there are many natural things that could go wrong with taking all the oil from the earth that would impact humans. An example would be if you suck all the oil out of an area underground, the land above it could become unstable creating masive earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, sinkholes, among other things. Religion will say it is god's wrath, Science will say it is humans doing, Polititians will simply raise the price of gas and maybe go to war against some country that's hard to pronounce so the economy keeps growing.

I would say that we could make intelligence a gift, but the fact of the matter is that - we have it, gift or punishment - and we are (and have been since the industrial revolution) using it as if it were a punishment, and we're just taking it out on ourselves. Almost every tecnologial breakthrew in the history of humans has been so because of war.

Modern computers were made in early world war two so that hitler could keep track of all the jews during the holocost (IBM), without wars the development of vehicles wouldn't have happened nearly as fast, the a-bomb, satilites... The U.S. Government owns and controls G.P.S. and can shut it down at any time - world wide. The internet is also a child of the U.S. Government. War has made poor men rich, and rich men richer. Why would we want to waste our brains on peaceful technologies? So that a more war driven country can kill you with more advanced weapons? Not worth the risk.

So, I accept that fact that we live unsistanbably, and we (humans) will go the way of the dinosaurs. What I find interesting is this: Humans are the smartest things around, and yet for some reason, we are completely and utterly afraid of death and the unknown. Why is death so hard to grasp?