/lit/ - Literature

Consider that this is the mentality of a parasitic organism that doesn't know when to stop spreading.

>>6199598
thats some age of empires shit fog of war right there

>>6199598
Not a novel but you should the historian Frederick Jackson Turner on this. Coined the frontier thesis

>>6199615

Parasite only feed, they do not shape. When we cut hole through the earth, change its bones to suit our purpose and the bones of animals to lay eggs for our breakfast, are we mere parasites, or the gods of parasites?

Those who are their fate determinant.

>>6199646
You're drawing arbitrary lines here.

>When we cut hole through the earth, change its bones to suit our purpose

We haven't really done that yet, and even if we did we wouldn't be much different from a species of bacteriae, impressive, but pretending we're somehow superior to ants or water bears because we spread with "fate" is ridiculous.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the urge to expand, it's written in most known lifeforms. We don't have to pretend we're superior because we "shape" things (hint: shaping is no different from spreading widely enough and for enough time).

>>6199656

>What is a canal. What is the Panama Canal. What is Geothermal energy. What is mining.

There is a difference between us and them, and its this. We're not just expanding. We're assuming. And assuming greatly. Let's take step back for a moment.

There are two men. One is homeless. One is rich. It is understood that the rich man giving to the homeless is good. One does not expect the homeless to give to the rich. This is because the rich has transcended the limitation of material wealth, and is thusly free to give of his transcendence to those lower.

Humanity is different, not because we seek to improve, but because we fundamentally believe that with an increase in the transcendence of structures
(in our case, of food, shelter, comfort, breeding) we may freely give of these to lower animals. The notion of a pet is born. Of a zoo. Of a man feeding birds in a park cleared to benefit the trees. It is not solely our expansion and forward motion that make us God like, but the action of that will to the benefit of others species. As we scale higher, expected benficence rises accordingly. A country that is rich is expected to aid a poor country. a country that is strong is expected to protect a country that is weak. We take this idea to the infinite. God, who is supposedly infinitely powerful, is equally assumed to be infinitely good. We, in pursuit of the transcendent, seek the responsibility and good that is the being of divine.

If not now, 1,000 years from now. If not then, 10,000. Nuclear war would not annihilate us, we are too many. Plague would not destroy us, we are too strong. It may delay us, but humanity is ascendent. We are ascendent, and we expect good of ourselves.

yee

>>6199727
>sociality is unique
>interspecies sociality is unique

you need to watch more nature documentaries

>>6199598
>space, the final frontier
No, no one ever talked about that

>>6199656
>hurr humans aren't special

Kindly fuck off.

>>6199598
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
Nat Geo's Teddy Roosevelt anthology.
Blood Meridian and All the Pretty Horses.

>>6199615

So you have watched the Matrix, the virus analogy of Humans is interesting.

Why would that white American woman fly west when there are so many strapping slaves in the south?

>>6200409

She got to kill those Nativs

>>6199598
The communal sense of optimism about taming the old west is a myth, which perpetuated expansion.

It was a lawless and violent place,where alcoholics went to steal and murder each other when they werent killing injuns and mexicans. .

>>6199598
If I had decided to go into History rather than English (which I probably should have), I was going to write my dissertation on Manifest Destiny throughout human civilization and the constant westward movement of Western society.

So just go to a slightly divergent parallel universe and look me up, I guess.

>>6200172

There's levels greater. You don't expect bacteria to donate to charity. The levels of expected beneficence increases with the transcendence of the thing.

>>6199646
>Parasite only feed, they do not shape
God if I'm tired of reading the bullshit of 14 years old that think they're smart. Fuck off, moron. There are parasites that reshape the whole organism and even the brain and the behavior of their hosts.
Fucking ignorant arrogant stupid twat.

>>6200415
Yeah but the communal sense of optimism refers to among those in the East. Bringing civilisation to the West, i guess there's a religious element to it as well.

>>6201788

I'm a bio major at an institution respected in the field. They shape only to for use, not according to their whim. Its hard coded in their DNA how they'll change a system, and each proceeding generation of bacteria change the thing in the same way unless mutation occurs. The viral agent way turn a cell into a virus factory, but that's the only thing it does. Bacteria are even less, mindlessly multiplying, the sickness only the body's response to coexistence. This isn't true with people.

Creative, one generation's bridge is not the next. Nowhere in our Gs, Cs, As, Ts, Us, does it say bridge builder, canal digger, mover of stones, builder of ship. These are what we have decided to become. In this decision making aspect, we seek to be more than the procreative effort of a generation. The parasite does not adapt its shape beyond the direct utility to the self, where humans shape for the direct utility to the self, the family, the community, the abstract utility to the self, the family the community, and for shits and giggles.

>how's the ad hominem side of life? is it fun?

>>6201788
parasites are incredibly important to the ecosystem, and people talking badly about them is very grating. the function they perform is just as essential as predator's, and you don't see people acting like wolves or gharials are pathetic lowlives, do you?

>>6203417

>not understanding epigenetics

>>6203480

>thinking epigenetics makes people build different bridges, or have creativity.

If this were true, all the books you've read have less correlation to your creative capacity then the meals you've eaten over the past year. Behavior and the cancer you get can be molded by epigenetics, biut to put human ingenuity under its yoke is scientifically unfounded.

Please, if you're going to talk about biology, or attempt to correct or imply to someone on the subject, make sure you understand it.