"History is written by the survivors."

We are all made of starstuff. Thank you Carl Sagan (And yes later Moby) for that beautiful and awe inspiring quote. But this is simply half the story...

I am a storyteller, and as such I am also a storyfinder. Now the real problem with finding stories is not that they are difficult to find. They are everywhere. And everything.

Now currently it is believed that the Universe is infinite. I believe otherwise.

So does that mean that I believe the Universe has an end? Well as much as an end as anything else does. I believe the Universe is one of many "Verses" in a Multiverse. But I believe it is so complex and beyond our current understanding that we lack the imagination, cognition, and vocabulary to describe it.

I suppose I should also be clear in stating that I believe the "stuff" part of the Universe is finite...The dark matter quotient and nothingness of the Universe for all I know is infinite, but seeing how I'm much more attached to stuff than nothing, I'll equate the Universe with the stuff part.

Now that that clarification is aside, Starstuff.

Recently I've been greatly fascinated with Astronomy.
No.
That is a lie.

I have always been interested in Astronomy.
Recently I have been so inspired by astronomical creation and apocalypse stories that it has even trumped my first love of biology for the time being.

How will the Universe end?

The answer to this question has greatly impacted my views and my ideals of what is important.

Now I am a great advocate of intelligence and sapience, but not of humanity. In fact I strongly believe the word "human" must die if there is to be any sort of progression. Either the word dies or the species it represents dies.

Now I understand the need for segregation and compartmentalization is paramount in the need to comprehend the Universe around us, but there needs to be a point of realization that this is simply a means to comprehend. This is a case of sentience falling in love with the process of understanding rather than simply understanding.

Humanity is a word that segregates us from our environment and will always have implications of anthrocentrism. This is also the case with the word "God." When we say humanity or God, we still assume hierarchy. We still assume that there is some moral superiority, and we still assume that when attacked by something that is not human, our existence is somehow favorable. I'm sorry but this assumption has to die.

We are easily expendable.
We are not the most creative.
We are not the most social.
We are not the fastest.
We are not the strongest.
We are not prettiest.
We were not the first.
We are not the most destructive.
We are not the most social.

But we are the most intelligent...

Ok.

But how does intelligence fare against the shark?
The Crocodile?
Cnidarians?
Hell, even bacteria have survived longer than us.

Let's face it, intelligence isn't all that great.
It has almost shown up in other species, but no living creature has depended on it to survive millions of years.

Our strain has only been around for the past 1.3 million years.
Kangaroo rats have been around for longer.

So in case you haven't already guessed, my point is,

There is nothing special about humanity or intelligence.

But...

There is potential.

Now in 4 billion years of biological evolution, can you imagine all the failed life forms that never had the chance to display their true potential?

The troodon, The ammonite, the gastornis?

We are the 1% of all life that has ever lived on this planet. And by we I mean everything. Bacteria, Reptiles, Marsupials, everything.

But we do have something they did not...awareness.
We are aware of our possible demises.
And if we survive the next big change in our environment...
We have to keep predicting it.

I'm sorry everybody, but like it or not...we have to ditch Earth.
I know, I know, how anti-green of me, but hear me out.

Just because the word "Space" and "Technology" is unnatural to us, it is not unnatural to nature. Our planet is going to change regardless of what we do to it. We could try to preserve everything and it will still change.

The Earth has been many different colors other than blue and green. It has been red, and orange and yellow and even black.

To try to keep the Earth in a state where it can accommodate us is like trying to keep a teenage boy pimply and voice-crackly for the rest of his life.

The Earth will change and die...but that doesn't mean that we have to as well.

So wait...am I saying that we shouldn't preserve the Earth but we should preserve humanity?

Not at all.

That's why I hate that word...because it assumes we will be as we are, forever.

We will change.

We will mutate.

And we will adapt...I hope.

Like the dinosaurs before us.

That name did not go on.

But the word, "bird" did.

We are in the stages where we are writing how we want to go on.

Do we want to be remembered as those creatures that contributed plastic shards to the Burgess shale?

Or as the people we used to be...

- Adrian