Survival of the Inevitable
Human beings have come a long way surviving the hostile but forgiving world. So far, they have done a good job in figuring out how to stay together in order to improve food production and to fight off diseases, to discover the laws of Nature in order to exploit its resources and improve their living conditions, and to come to term with their roles in life in order to fulfill their destiny of reaching out to the stars. Today, human beings are no longer contended to live just to survive but to lust for companionship, knowledge, the meaning and purpose of life. They have survived natural disasters, disease epidemics, and wars among themselves. As their population is on the increase every second, the next hurdle is to outlive the limited resources on Earth.
Survival of the Fittest
In the rest of the living world, their lives are comparatively much more straightforward. Their daily routines consist of searching for food, participating in the reproduction rituals, and serving as a link in the food chain in an ecosystem that checks and balances a healthy environment. Only the strong, the healthy, and the well-adapted are able to survive long enough to pass the genes to the next generation. The meaning and purpose of their lives are no more than their daily routines. But, since there are so many different sizes, shapes, and characteristics of the living things in the ground, above the ground, and in the sky sharing and interacting in the same environmental conditions, a deeper meaning and higher purpose about life are surfacing. They do not become obvious till the appearance of the human beings.
Survival of the Intelligence
The emergence of the human beings changes the daily routines. They are able to grow, harness, and store food to feed themselves at their leisure. As a result, the human population has multiplied and the Earth’s landscape has been altered. Buildings are erected, roads are paved, tunnels are dug, machined are created, and medicines are developed. These are all employed to enhance the human's living conditions. The new generation of the human beings is free from the worries of a sudden death due to natural disasters, disease epidemics, and hungers. They are taught to live a life of meaning and purpose. Some have fulfilled their dream to be a doctor, scientist, teacher, millionaires, or the leader of a nation. The most amazing thing is that all the human’s accomplishments come from the richness of the seemingly unassuming lands. They cannot do what they are doing without the thinking, learning, and intelligent brain.
Survival of the Knowledge
Even though human beings no longer have to search and hunt for food, they do have to seek and be qualified for a job in order to survive in a man-made world. It is a world that is getting increasingly complex. Big governments and sophisticated corporations spring up to keep up with the demands of an exploding population. So far, the human beings are able to keep pace through the knowledge of:
1) How to grow more food in a given area,
2) How to produce more and make efficient usage of energy,
3) How to fight off diseases and health problems.
To acquire this immense knowledge and put it into use required the willing participation of all the able bodies in the population. The human civilization is like a freight train and the knowledge is the fuel that will keep it moving forward and on the right track. Without this knowledge, its survival is in jeopardy.
Survival of the Earth
As the human population grows to a certain size that begins to threaten the integrity of the environment since more is taken out and less is returned to ensure a healthy regenerating process, the human reproduction rate has to be under tight control. As the Earth’s resources are being depleted, the human society has to be managed with increasing automation to be more efficient and less wasteful. The human beings daily routines have become going to work in a monotonous setting, eating processed food, and living in a temperature controlled enclosure. Their life begins to lose meaning and purpose as there are few incentives and challenges in a well-organized society where every human need is anticipated and taken care of. As the human beings acquired more knowledge about their surroundings, they realize that they are the final results and in the last stage of the evolution of the living things on Earth; a process that started around 3.5 billion years ago. They can now see that Earth is just a planet in a solar system in a universe that harbors billions of such solar systems. It is a matter of time for them to train their visions to this universe as the new frontier waiting to be discovered, explored, and colonized much like Columbus when he set sail into the Atlantic to seek new land on the other side of the vast and unknown horizon.
Survival of the Process
Evolution and the will to survive may have reached an end on Earth. But, nothing is going to prevent the process to continue in the outer space where a considerably large and unknown playground is awaiting the human beings. They will be facing new environments and challenges that will gradually transformed their physical and mental characteristics into a new entity who, in time, will look back upon the humans with curiosity and compassion much like how the humans are treating many of their close relatives - the monkey, chimpanzee, gorilla, etc.
