What Are We Thinking?

The answer is: Not Much. In fact we are more driven by our emotions than by logic. And the reason for that is pretty simple. Emotion is what makes us able to survive in a violent world full of other creatures that are more driven by emotion than by logic.

Science has a reputation of being the habitat of dull, boring, monotonous Dweebs. That is the bane of every girl "who just wants to have fun!" Emotions in males are heavily weighted toward obtaining sex-crazed girls, and the emotions in girls are heavily weighted toward highly testosteronized guys. Thus we have a preponderance of X-games, dance clubs and football hooligans (both the US kind and the UK kind).

My life has been a kind of mixture of everything. I was less inclined toward muscles than brains, however, so the last half of my life, so far, has been almost entirely devoted to science. Dweeb-land. But the first half was a strange, stumbling walk through wild emotions and cold logic. I was not a robot, certainly -- I wanted the "sex-crazed girls" no less than any other normal male.

By age 30 I mostly had my fill of fast women and fast cars, but I can't really expect young people to ignore their emotions and pursue something more sedate. Yet, eventually they will have children of their own and their children will have children and they will not be so attracted to dance clubs. They will wonder about the survival of their offspring. That is what I am now most concerned about.

I don't care whether someone votes with a D or an R or even an I. Politics is just about propaganda and emotions. Few people are thinking about mathematics when they vote. Ask the experts like "Boy Genius Rove" whether people "think" at the ballot box. No. That is why politicians use hate, fear, anger, or "nice hair" to appeal voters' decisions. Voters don't use chemistry or physics. The masses don't calculate the probabilities or find the standard deviations of anything. That is for Dweebs.

I am old enough now that I will not have to experience very much of the consequences of our runaway addiction to destructive technologies. Burning oil, burning forests, burning people who get in our way -- all the "old guys" who profit from those things will just leave the cinders of the biosphere for our descendents to worry about.

Some people dispense with logic altogether and let "God do their thinking". OK. Well, there is no use trying to argue with them. Logic cannot penetrate the stone walls of Religion. If the world becomes chemically polluted and covered with death seeking holy warriors and radioactive clouds -- it's merely God's will.

I am not satisfied with that. Most people would not be alive today if it were not for science. Modern medicine, farming machines, refrigerators and other technologies allow the huge populations of humans to exist on Earth. That is the paradox -- that the very science that keeps us alive will be what kills us. It is like flying straight up in an airplane. Everything is fine until it runs out of air or out of gas and then the fun ride in the sky results in a harrowing spiral to death.

The USA is a country of extremes. We have some of the highest technology on Earth, and we have some of the most ignorant fools on Earth. We have vast expanses of huge houses and we have wandering hordes of homeless people. We have every science and every religion and every kind of saint and sinner. We are the envy of the world and the most hated enemy of the world.

And we are willing to let a bunch of greedy, ignorant toads burn all of our children's futures in an orgy of stupidity and chemical expediency. Why? Because we are only apes. Emotional apes with nuclear weapons and "Gods" that do most of our thinking. We are the pinnacle of evolution -- or the inexplicably dim witted creation of God -- and willing to sacrifice all life on this planet to satisfy our basest emotions.