Superbees

1. Most people believe that progress is a one way process, so that things can only get better and better, as if we were ascending a straight line towards the future.

2. However human history has proven otherwise. Periods of progress and prosperity are followed by periods of natural disaster and social backdrop.

3. As far as our times are concerned, we are used to saying that everything is fine, although in most cases this is an excuse for our inability to cope with everyday routine.

4. A way to get over such a social bottleneck in modern societies, which is mostly due to overconsumption and overpopulation, and the scarcity of products which is consequently created, is to forget about the problem, watching TV and taking pills.

5. Some people may now think that the problem of overpopulation can be treated by manufacturing more productive agricultural units and building taller skyscrapers.

6. However the environment has its own carrying capacity, which in fact we have already surpassed- huge areas on the planet have already been desertified, while the climate is drastically changing.

7. Another problem with respect to overpopulation is that technology has made possible the elongation of human lifespan. While infant mortality has been significantly reduced, more and more people die at old age.

8. This however has as result that modern advanced societies are composed of more and more aged people: In 2012, 809 million people, or 11% of the world’s population, were over 60. By 2050, about 2 billion people are expected to be over 60, which represents 22% of the world’s population. [1]

9. But is the progress of a society based on how long individuals live, most of which are retired, or should it be based on how productive an individual is, presumably having an average age which does not exceed 40 or 45?

10. Someone now might argue that old persons are necessary in society because they are the carriers of wisdom.

11. However nature proves otherwise. Take for example a superorganism such as bees. A worker bee lives on average 30- 40 days most of the year. But bees have been hanging around for some hundreds of millions of years- providing incidentally an excellent product, honey.

12. Are bees less intelligent because there are no very aged individuals in the hive? On the contrary, social coherence in the hive is achieved with what is called ‘spirit of the hive.’ What an individual bee learns is not important as long as it passes the information to the other members of the hive- with the famous bee dances. Thus collectivity and self- sacrifice is what prevails in the hive.

13. Unfortunately the opposite is true in human society. Individualism is so strong among people that often an individual will profit against all the rest. Egoistic instead of altruistic behavior is the main reason that human societies are often plunged into financial crisis and war. The uncooperative nature of our behavior even deprives us from learning from the mistakes of the past.

14. Should we therefore keep on breeding like some pest on the surface of the planet, also expecting at the same time to live forever, against the laws of nature and the meaning of life itself? Is there anyone or anything to drive us away from the addictive, dazzling and dizzying, modern way of life? 

15. Or is it just that we will finally be replaced by a more balanced and humble creature- like some alien superbees? 

 [1]: [https://www.businessinsider.com/population-over-60-map-2014-5] 

11/23/2018 

Image: [https://fineartamerica.com/featured/alien-invasion-at-dawn-phil-perkins.html]