Sometimes I feel like we have become quite arrogant and self-centered in the way we live on this planet over the last few centuries. We self-proclaimed "Homo sapiens" which means "Man Wise" whereas we are just as much intelligent as the current point of reference we can compare ourselves to. As James Cartwright puts it in his article "How to Think Beyond Ourselves", the storytelling around our species gives us the impression that we are dominant when, in reality, there are so much things we know we can’t explain and, by consequence, probably even more things we don’t know that we don’t know. Over the past centuries, we were able to make significant discoveries and achievements but as James reminds us, we are just starting to scratch the surface. We must not forget that, millions of years ago, other species had already built things that we have achieved ourselves only very recently. For instance networks of mycorrhizal fungi shared information millions years before we created the internet and bacterial bioluminescence brought light to the oceans long before Thomas Edison’s work made it available to our homes. And still, some species can do things human can’t even do and explain today. "There exists a humbling amount of complexity, progress and innovation happening every second outside the confines of our species, and many millions of achievements that rival and surpass our own." says James. Despite that, we bluntly impose our understanding of the world on them. Our confidence have permitted many successes but also left many damages. "Many of the qualities that define our species and have permitted its success throughout the millennia are now causing its undoing." James writes. The truth is, we take a lot but we rarely give back compared to the many species we share this planet with. We, humans, are not dominant, we simply have a bigger power of nuisance and destruction. We should not forget that many of the species that surround us participate in maintaining a habitable environment for us to live in. The humbling and eye-opening article from James Cartwright article is a good reminder.
Everyday, we all use a large number of tools to input and output content the way we need it, and all of those tools have a default way of working. The purpose of a default configuration is to be able to use the tool straight away for what it is made. And it works! But the trade off is often a bit less obvious. In fact, the end result is not always fully optimized for what you just need because it includes a lot more things you didn’t even know or expected. Of course, it’s easy for the creator of the tool to overlook the default and make it the most impressive it can be. But he must be aware that 50% of the people are going to use it by default without asking questions, even if it’s not fully optimized for their use case. Unfortunately, what we usually end up with is a less good experience for the end user. As Jason Lengstorf summarized it well, "By making the default to do just the right things, you immediately improve whatever ecosystem/community you’re part of."
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1. Human wise(ass)
Sometimes I feel like we have become quite arrogant and self-centered in the way we live on this planet over the last few centuries. We self-proclaimed "Homo sapiens" which means "Man Wise" whereas we are just as much intelligent as the current point of reference we can compare ourselves to. As James Cartwright puts it in his article "How to Think Beyond Ourselves", the storytelling around our species gives us the impression that we are dominant when, in reality, there are so much things we know we can’t explain and, by consequence, probably even more things we don’t know that we don’t know. Over the past centuries, we were able to make significant discoveries and achievements but as James reminds us, we are just starting to scratch the surface. We must not forget that, millions of years ago, other species had already built things that we have achieved ourselves only very recently. For instance networks of mycorrhizal fungi shared information millions years before we created the internet and bacterial bioluminescence brought light to the oceans long before Thomas Edison’s work made it available to our homes. And still, some species can do things human can’t even do and explain today. "There exists a humbling amount of complexity, progress and innovation happening every second outside the confines of our species, and many millions of achievements that rival and surpass our own." says James. Despite that, we bluntly impose our understanding of the world on them. Our confidence have permitted many successes but also left many damages. "Many of the qualities that define our species and have permitted its success throughout the millennia are now causing its undoing." James writes. The truth is, we take a lot but we rarely give back compared to the many species we share this planet with. We, humans, are not dominant, we simply have a bigger power of nuisance and destruction. We should not forget that many of the species that surround us participate in maintaining a habitable environment for us to live in. The humbling and eye-opening article from James Cartwright article is a good reminder.