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So a few days ago I was waiting for the bus, scrolling through YouTube Shorts, and I stumbled upon a short from a creator I’ve enjoyed for some time doing an explainer on this new behavior discovered in saltwater crocodiles in Indonesia. Now, Indonesia by all accounts has the highest population of practicing Muslims in the world by capita, which makes the country and the surrounding regions a hotspot for Mormon missionaries and various other flavors of obnoxious Caucasian tourists. So apparently the crocodiles of the region have developed a rather disturbing new hunting strategy. By submerging their bodies below the surface of what is usually very murky, brackish water and having their front arms pointed upwards, they can mimic the appearance of a drowning child and lure some poor unsuspecting white person into jumping into the water to “save this poor impoverished brown person,” only to be gobbled up by the hungry crocodile who was waiting patiently for such a valiant white savior to feast on. Is it a morbid fact, why yes it is, but what makes it worse is that this tactic is so effective that other crocodiles in other areas around the country have displayed similar behavior. Why, you might ask? Because people have and will fall for it for the amount of times necessary for the crocodiles to spread the technique to other members of their species. The crocodiles are behaving this way because it works.

It’s moments like this that both give me hope for the future of the planet and also scare the crap out of me for the future of humanity, because regardless of the state of the world in another 500 years, whether we as homo sapiens will still be walking the earth to see it is not set in stone. Now, I know that may sound doomerish and “all is lost,” but in the words of Jeff Goldblum, “Life finds a way.” In the last 75 years alone there have been several instances of various animal species changing their behavior in unexpected ways to adapt to an ever-changing world that humans have made for ourselves. Foxes have adapted to thrive in urban environments like modern-day London and Chicago. In Cape Town, South Africa, the fur seal breeding season was defined by the pups using the cover of darkness to learn to swim and hunt without fear of being eaten by great white sharks. However, in the last 50 years, with Cape Town developing its own nightlife, the sharks have learned to time their hunts to the light emanating off the city, so now they can hunt the fur seals day or night, rain or shine. I think as humans, especially those of us who watched The Lorax in elementary school for Earth Day, developed this perception of the natural world as something fragile to protect, or, once you got a bit older, recognized nature as something dangerous and fierce but at the same time domineering and begging to be tamed and controlled. Something I remember watching as a kid growing up in the 2000s was a show on Discovery Kids called The Future Is Wild. It was an animated series that was based on a previous Discovery Channel documentary that I highly recommend everyone watches at least once in their lives, because it introduces the concept of speculative biology to such an incredible degree. Speculative biology is on its own a method in which we can develop or speculate what form and shape life could take on under various different environmental factors, and it’s fascinating because the animated series The Future Is Wild was based on the plot of 10,000 years in the future, humanity is facing extinction from a climate crisis of its own making, not a fiery one as we have today, but a frozen apocalypse that humanity would not be able to survive. The main character, a teenager named Cassiopeia, or CG as her friends later call her, has to go into a time machine into the distant future and find a new habitable land for her people to live in, not on a different planet, but on an alien planet Earth filled with creatures that are vaguely familiar to the modern day but have evolved far past anything we could imagine now, because of how drastically Earth’s environment had changed thousands and millions of years into Earth’s future.

This idea of traveling into the future to find life thriving on a world that could very much be Earth a few million years from now sounds insane but at the same time very familiar. Now, I’m 26 years old, and in the short time I’ve lived with human consciousness, the world as we collectively knew it has also changed, and the wildlife has definitely noticed, as has the job market and the global economy on a world stage, because prior to the current mess and decline of the American empire, to many people a lot older than me, the future feels too alien to even comprehend.

“What do you mean you can’t buy a house with $40,000 anymore?”
“What do you mean going to college doesn’t guarantee you a good job?”
“What do you mean autism is genetic and can’t be fixed with medication?”
“What do you mean that billionaires aren’t heroes?”
“What do you mean America isn’t the best country in the world anymore?”

The game has changed, and an entire generation of people can’t deal with it because for most of their lives they didn’t have to; the economy was stable, so even if times were tough, you could always bounce back if you tried. Information was available but took too much effort to access, and knowledge of what you were looking for. If you wanted to learn more about a topic, you had to ask a question either to a teacher or an expert to get an answer, and the answer you were given by an authority figure of any kind was trusted because that’s all there was. If you wanted access to education, you needed to follow a procedure to get it. The rules were in place for a reason, arbitrary as they are in the modern day, and that fact matters, as rules and traditions seem like frivolous things that are rooted in superstition or even just outdated nonsense, but much like every other animal on earth, humans are creatures of habit. Our behavior is dependent not just on what we learn to associate with safety in infancy and childhood, but we also learn our own hunting strategies to survive. In paleolithic times that strategy was endurance running. Humans evolved sweat glands to regulate our body heat and long legs to run for miles without stopping. We were slow-paced joggers, but we were relentless. Essentially we would just run down an animal to the point of exhaustion until we could walk right up with a spear or hand axe and finish the job. This is also why wolves slowly began to be domesticated into dogs, as wolves have the same strategy of hunting prey and therefore were the only animals on earth capable of keeping up with us and mutually benefiting from being in our company. A grey wolf in the right cold conditions has the record for the longest continuous pursuit on foot of any animal, clocking in at about 24 hours of running without stopping even once. That level of endurance is unheard of in the animal kingdom and only matched by us humans for a reason. Which is why once humans switched to an agrarian way of life and abandoned our running days to raise cattle and sheep, despite having our canine companions with us, many other wolves stayed just that and became our rivals for generations, as humans were no longer chasers, we were guardians of our flocks now. But we learned that if you want to keep something that cannot be run down or chased off, the best way to protect a vulnerable flock of sheep is to keep them confined in either a barn or a fenced-in pasture. Which makes total sense to do for obvious reasons, until the wolves began to learn when the farmer goes to sleep at night and strike at an open crack in the barn door, or watch and wait slowly and paw at the gate until you can’t figure out how to open it, no thumbs required, and thus spurred humanity’s arms race against the encroaching forces of the natural world, using technology and innovating our way, defeating our greatest adversaries of the four horsemen of plague with modern medical advancements like synthetic pharmaceuticals, so we don’t need to chop down aspen trees to make painkillers anymore, or harvest insulin from cows to treat childhood genetic diabetes. We defeated the horseman of war by implementing soft power projects and initiatives worldwide. It’s better, they say, to make friends than it is to make enemies, and after the hellish apocalyptic landscape that was Europe post-WW2, the development of logistical and policy-driven initiatives like a welfare state to make sure the government takes care of its people when they need it the most, and initiatives to curb hatred and antisemitism to ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust and WW1 would not be repeated. We defeated the horseman of famine by developing fertilizers to boost production of grain and crops to grow year-round, and the practice of veterinary medicine to keep our livestock safe, not from wolves but from germs, as well as keep our furry friends happy and healthy so they can prevent our minds from destroying themselves from panic attacks and depression. These are all wonderful innovations that as a species we have developed for the greater good, and for a time it really did work, to an extent anyway, as with every innovation that brings us closer to the light, there is always a darkside that makes us question whether continuing the practice is worth the cost.

There is a concept or thought experiment written by an old-school philosopher named G.K. Chesterton in which he describes a scenario in which you approach a fence that is blocking your path, either for building a road or for another project you seek to accomplish. The fence is kind of just in the way; there is no sign pointing to why it exists or how it got there. The question Chesterton asks you is a lesson on intellectual humility. Do you pause and try to figure out who built the fence and why before dismantling it, or do you go barreling ahead on the assumption that if you’re correct and nothing happens, then no harm done, or if you’re wrong and the fence was not to be tampered with, to ask for forgiveness and deal with the consequences later. G.K. Chesterton poses this question as an argument for classical conservatism, pushing the reader to wonder and inquire about the reasons certain systems exist and learn more about them before making changes, as changes without thorough knowledge of the implications that could come later down the line could reap dire, irreparable harm, while at the same time acknowledging that if the fence was put in place for a pragmatic solution to a problem or environment that no longer applies, acknowledging that reality of everything changing is also important to find a way forward and proceed with the dismantling of the fence if needed, or finding a way around it if need be. This level of considering that the reason a system may exist may have been for pragmatic reasons given the time period, while also reckoning with the harm that system caused, is not an easy thing to balance. Especially as we come to terms with the true cost of maintaining capitalism for its own sake, and the rampant disregard for children’s and people with disabilities’ right to bodily autonomy and to participate in society, and the reality of gender and racial inequality has become impossible to ignore, as the stability that came from accepting those practices as a fact of life has ceased to keep up with its promised demand, as the environment both within and outside our societies and worldviews have changed so drastically that white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, and capitalism have failed to keep up.

You see, humans are creatures that behave in a similar manner that every other animal like us does, for very similar reasons. We are motivated by 3 basic concepts in total: food, sex, and shiny objects, and access to those resources, or the lack thereof, have traditionally determined one’s position in proximity to power within a society. Historically, European monarchs required marriages of any age for political and economic reasons. Marriage at the time was less about love and connection and more about asset distribution and governance. When the entire logistical framework of your economy and the survival of your people are dependent on the birth of a successor to the throne, consent and even age of one’s new bride or groom was irrelevant to the stakes at hand. Keep power in the family by any means necessary. The reason we see age gaps and pedophilia especially as gross and weird in the modern day is because we can sense that there is a level of unequal power being used to first justify the existence of a monarchy and a tyrant, and now to justify the existence of predatory behavior of older men preying on much, much younger individuals. The theory of evolution didn’t take hold until Darwin figured it out in Victorian England, at which time many people used his work to justify the monarchy, as the French Revolution and Haitian Revolution were happening at the same time. We’ve seen people be hurt by this before, and the whole “evolutionary or simple biology” talking points we’ve heard used, even back then, in the popularity and spread of eugenics, to now with the hatred and vitriol pointed at trans people for existing. We’ve seen people be hurt by this before, and the whole thing feels gross because the same people in the Epstein files demanding a second chance to maintain power are using the same logic that justified everything from slavery to incest-based unions to maintain “noble blood,” and for what? What purpose does maintaining this fence have in the modern day, as all it seems to be doing right now is serving as an obstacle to progress when we need it the most.

So here’s a morbid fun fact I learned this week: did you know that ladybugs are not beetles but instead are in the same family as cockroaches, which makes sense if you think about it, considering how ladybugs were only cute and cuddly on TV, but in real life are voracious predators that eat the aphids on any garden you can find. To the gardeners, the ladybugs are wonderful creatures, as aphids like to snack on crops that we as humans would rather eat ourselves. But for the ants who shepherd aphids for their waste products called honeydew (which is indeed just poop; aphids do in fact poop a thick syrupy substance that is pure sugar, and ants rely on it to feed their babies), the ladybugs are insatiable monsters trying to prey on their livestock. Perspective is everything; what is one man’s opportunity is another man’s apocalypse, which, if you account for climate change or declining empires, can be quite literal in many ways. It’s times like this that remind me that who is considered “the best of the best” changes over time. The American Empire doesn’t win technology arms races like we used to. It sucks, but it’s true. Right now we have a technology that could be implemented in more conducive ways that doesn’t piss off consumers or those in creative fields, or destroy our infrastructure and national parks. Not everyone needs an AI assistant in their pocket. Some people are good with tech that can make it work and can improve their workflows, like I and so many other people on this platform have done, and others just need a human life coach and some new friends, and possibly some help getting out of their parents’ houses without being homeless, because that will screw with anyone’s mental health. Which brings up another question as to why, honestly, the age of someone is not an indication of their development or where they should be in terms of that. Arrested development is a massive indicator of past trauma, but also an indication of whether someone would abuse another person, whether it be a minor or otherwise, and even those metrics for diagnostic criteria of intellectual disabilities or other disorders that could indicate past sexual abuse have changed so drastically, and for good reasons, as what was previously grounds for permanently sedating and institutionalizing someone against their will has given way to a more nuanced perspective as to what we associate capacity for independence to entail.

Plus, we know today that a lot of diagnostic criteria for such disabilities didn’t account for environmental factors like restricted access to public transportation, and the slow dissolving of third spaces and teen and young adult socializing without a parent’s interference has impacted those metrics as well. I mean, I’m Gen Z myself, I’m 26, and I’m on the spectrum with moderate support needs, but had to emancipate myself from my parents to get a chance of going to college and not wanting to be drugged in the basement for eternity. There is a significant lack of access to standard stepping stones of adulthood, partly because of the cost of living and the economy, but also due to a lack of public transit nationwide and the lack of third spaces for kids to grow up and learn on their own without constant surveillance. We should be gauging our relationships and connections based on where and how they impact our development as humans, not just income- or career-wise, but if you can’t leave the house without a car, and can’t get a car without being 24 or older with your parent/guardian approval, then it’s no wonder TikTok has a grip on so many people my age. I’ve never downloaded the app or even made an account because I knew it was a bottomless pit, but then again, I was lucky I had an external support system that caught on when I needed them most. Most people don’t have that, and homelessness should not be a prerequisite for independence, let alone exist as a possibility, in the “wealthiest country in the world.” The very existence of a power dynamic opens the door for all kinds of harm to be done, and we know in the modern day that that harm has a price that cannot be put off any longer.

Everything is on credit and borrowed time, and the reality is that even the most well-meaning attempts of alleviating the pressure have fallen flat. Something I thought of was, instead of regulation about the ages of consent, it would make more sense to first establish the basis for human development as a foundation, and then establish age brackets of consent based on those established phases of development. This would be solid for a few reasons: not only to prevent abusive power dynamics between adults, but also to establish a precedent to charge parents with creating the environment that developmentally stunted their kid. In the aftermath of the last 80 years of chaos and terror, and the rise of mass media on a population that was not equipped to see everything everywhere all at once, the Boomer generation has created a world in which they alone felt the safest at the expense of everything and everyone else. A world that depends on specialization, and the shaming, shunning, and incarceration of those who don’t ask the “right questions” or do things the “right way,” and it’s come to a point where it no longer works or provides in a way that is sustainable or even functional under our current environment, both socially and environmentally.

Is the price of “winning against China” worth the suffering that’s coming from AI above all else at high speeds? I don’t think so. We could slow production; we don’t need this level of computing power for things that could be accomplished with simpler models. We don’t need humanoid robots to move in warehouses when we already have solid modules used in assembly lines that require human workers at a console to operate, just like we don’t need thousands of specialized workers to do what a small team and a central hub could do in a matter of hours, that could be automated if we recognized it as such, because let’s be real, AI is nowhere near the point of making humans irrelevant in all ventures; there still needs to be a human pilot no matter how advanced an AI model can be. The problem is, recognizing this has caused a massive disruption in an economy where what was once only feasible with a small army of workers in each department in a service-based economy, or a small village of specialists in trades and crafts and farming to sustain a village, but that’s no longer the case, and for valid reasons, of course, that no one teaches the generation outside of the aesthetically pleasing and lighthearted views on social media, while the darkside of going back in time is rarely approached. But no matter what period of history you are in, the rules of the game have not changed, outside of their base principle that every living thing on earth has had to deal with. You are born into this world with one job: only to not die. Once you pass that stage, you figure out the best way to survive long enough to start thriving and helping your community do the same. You establish a place for your community to settle down and call home; some will have babies, while others will tend to more intense labors or tasks that would not be ideal for kids to see until they are older. The adults don’t just care for the young; in the light, they raise them and protect them until they are ready to face the darkside of the world on their own, and that’s something no one teaches you how to do. It’s not something parents or authority figures can adequately prevent you from facing, either, or defend you from it fully, as the whole point of the game of human survival is to make the not-dying part of the early game a little bit more forgiving with each generation, and each time the cycle goes through. With each time period we have developed new ways that help us thrive in the environment we’re in: running to the point of outlasting our prey, growing and guarding our food instead of chasing it, organizing in different ways to distribute those resources to massive amounts of people peacefully, developing specialization in those facets of society to distribute resources to even more people peacefully, developing technology and outgrowing those systems and fences we built over generations and generations that both protected us from harm long enough to get us where we are today, and now we’re at a crossroads, because this is the farthest specialization-based innovation can get us, and the more we cling to it and refuse to budge and make way for new ideas, the more we risk our own demise and losing the only game that actually matters.

The demands from the Trump regime to hold on to a failing system of patriarchy and white supremacy for its own sake is overkill. It’s not going to work.

The AI arms race is overkill. It’s not going to work. Nobody wins this in the end, and even if “China wins,” I don’t think they really care anymore, because their citizens don’t have to sell pictures of their feet on the internet to buy groceries for their families. They’re fine.

Think about crocodiles, for example: they eat everything and can adapt to any environment you put them in, but a polar bear is struggling with the events of climate change, as their behavior and hunting strategies are tailored to an environment that is changing before our eyes. Crocodiles have been around since before the dinosaurs, and they’ll likely be here long afterwards too. The same can be said of multifaceted professionals that don’t have a distinct specialty or job title but are skilled in many different ways and can innovate on our own terms, if given the chance. In regards to technology, especially in robotics, there is only so small you can build something before it stops operating on the principles of mechanics and starts operating on the principles of chemistry, and that’s something that most engineering or programming students don’t learn. They don’t learn that the sciences, or STEM in general, have a lot more interchanging fluidity than we previously assumed to be the case. Most people don’t see mathematics as a language that changes as fluidly as the romance languages have for generations. They can’t recognize that coding software vs. designing hardware are both identical but never as clean-cut and easy to control as any other form of data, like how Victorian high society tried and failed to control their own genetics to see their own view of a perfect body or a perfect form of intelligence that may ever exist, and most likely will result in so much harm and suffering that any ounce of satisfaction gained from “winning” or achieving perfection is soured by the aftermath of screaming and the silence.

I think we’re at the point where specialists are facing an extinction crisis in the job market, while generalists or polymaths are doing okay for the most part, I hope, because much like the crocodile in Indonesia adapting to their polluted riverways and dropping fish stocks by getting their method acting game up and fooling some poor tourist into being lunch, we as a society have to get creative for our meals as well. The 9-5 no longer applies, so we improvise and start our own business. We fight in the midterms and make a better future, to once again prove that the point of government is to make the lives of its people better. We’ve been here before; we can survive long enough to start thriving once again, and this time around, let’s not be like our predecessors and fuck it up for the generation after us.