Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Was consciousness a good evolutionary step?

Moskie · 11-07-2003, 03:29 PM

So, in the grand scheme of things, spanning from humanity's beginning to humanity's (impending?) end, is the evolutionary feat of consciousness more helpful or more destructive?

The benefits of it are pretty obvious, I guess. We are the top of the food chain and have no natural predators to worry about. We are able to fight disease with technology. The basic elements of survival are afterthoughts in our lives. (...as I write this, I realize that this might be particular to my/our extremely civilized and/or urbanized life style... i guess we'll stick to that for this discussion though)

But there's also disadvantages. We have the ability to wipe ourselves out pretty easily. War in general. What could be called a screwed up ecosystem.

So, as a species, is consciousness beneficial? Do you think that our species would last longer, or be more effective as a species, without it? What other effects does consciousness have on our existence as a species?

11-07-2003, 03:29 PM	#1 (permalink)
Moskie Pure Chewing Satisfaction Location: can i use bbcode [i]here[/i]?	Was consciousness a good evolutionary step? So, in the grand scheme of things, spanning from humanity's beginning to humanity's (impending?) end, is the evolutionary feat of consciousness more helpful or more destructive? The benefits of it are pretty obvious, I guess. We are the top of the food chain and have no natural predators to worry about. We are able to fight disease with technology. The basic elements of survival are afterthoughts in our lives. (...as I write this, I realize that this might be particular to my/our extremely civilized and/or urbanized life style... i guess we'll stick to that for this discussion though) But there's also disadvantages. We have the ability to wipe ourselves out pretty easily. War in general. What could be called a screwed up ecosystem. So, as a species, is consciousness beneficial? Do you think that our species would last longer, or be more effective as a species, without it? What other effects does consciousness have on our existence as a species? __________________ Greetings and salutations. Last edited by Moskie; 11-07-2003 at 03:33 PM..