Do Humans Have A Future?

(November,16, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) The photograph shows a futuristic depiction of a city. Undoubtedly, humans have the technological intelligence to create such a place.

But what about their psychological capacity to adjust to a completely new world, to re-invent themselves, to leave their primitive, superstitious, flawed, ego-centric, erratic, habit-ridden nature behind?

My feeling is that humans are not capable of adjusting. Most people, whether because of genetics or environment or both, are highly resistant to change. They appear to be permanently locked into the past and, like parrots, when challenged they merely regurgitate what they have been taught or what they believe. Their minds are enclosed boxes, ones where the light of originality can never penetrate.

In our terms, such people often peddle self-indulgent trivia because serious issues are beyond their intellectual or moral capabilities. But they are very fond of pontificating should anyone dare question their static thinking!

More importantly however, the real problem for mankind arises when the technological dimension outstrips the psychological dimension. By this I mean that, currently, we have the weapons to completely destroy our planet many times over but we don't have the maturity to handle such dangerous things as nuclear missiles and star-wars systems.

It's like silly children playing with matches alongside an open forty-four gallon drum of petrol.

Catastrophe is just a matter of time!