<I mean, men just come up with the craziest ideas, don't they?>
That's for sure! 10 bad ideas and one good one. As Gorby said of his economists, he had 10 economists, with different opinions, but only one of them was right and he couldn't tell which one. He said Reagan had 10 economists too, but only one of them was wrong.
Knowing which idea is good is the problem. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Globalstar was a great idea, but the marketing ideas attached to it were financially fatal.
Globalstar is still functioning, gaining customers and continuing to develop. You will one day use a Globalstar phone, perhaps not by that name, and probably not using the first constellation. But there is still no other adequate way to provide universal coverage.
Women are risk averse, men are risk seekers [which is why the Darwin awards are mainly made to men - I'm guessing; I haven't counted].
That's the nature of DNA. DNA and the ideas attached to it are thrown into the harsh exigencies of the cosmos. A merciless winnowing process allows only the lucky, sensible or intelligent through to the next round.
It has been a never-ending, cruel process, run every second, minute, hour, day and year for a billion years with untold petatrillions of living things have lived and failed, being winnowed out by being unlucky or not coming up with a plan of success, such as running like mad or outmanoeuvering the cunning opposition.
Even the DNA itself is attacked and mutated, so the next generation doesn't necessarily get a carbon copy of the previously successful ones.
Into this process steps Man's Mind.
It only takes one male to supply a lot of females with babies. So to overcome challenges, it's worth it to tribal males to take on any problem with weight of numbers, trying anything at all in an attempt to succeed. If 1 in 10 succeed, he goes on to fertilize all the females and pretty soon there are a whole lot more males [half the babies] ready and willing to be like Dad and take on the next challenge, which isn't usually long coming.
Those males who don't try, don't succeed because doing nothing is not a successful strategy. One will be overcome by the opposition who have been having a lot of babies who will try.
Coming up with a good idea has very high value. It's the difference between life and death. A successful crop feeds a lot of people. A tribe living on the same old pathetic wheat strain soon gets hungry while the hybrid strain tribe thrives. The guy who comes up with a machine gun isn't going to lose to the guy who figures out that throwing a rock is better than battering the other guy's brain with a bone or branch.
The guy with a Globalstar phone and decent house can entice the female who is sick of living in an adobe hut with a pot of gruel for food.
So the billion year winnowing process has brought us here, with risk and "bright" ideas built into male design. It is obviously a successful process because here they are, alive today, after an unbroken chain of success from generation to generation for a billion years. Never in all that time has the chain from father to son been broken [or mother to daughter during the eons before there was sexual reproduction invented by nature].
Sure, there were unimaginable numbers of siblings who died in the attempt, but that one lucky, quick, smart, biologically resistant, individual in every generation got through the winnowing process.
Now, with geographic barriers defunct and tribal boundaries blurred, we are off on another process, which is the integration of humanity into one big tribe and the overlay of that with cyberspace and the process which Ted Kaczynski tried to stop. We will also take over genetic design ourselves, or women will, as they always have, to a greater or lesser extent - being limited in their choice by who were the successful males.
Some people are keen to maintain the old tribal ways, but they are fighting a rearguard action. The risk-takers are out there, setting the scene for the next dramas in the long road to Utopia.
Cyberspace, CDMA, CDNA [TM], NUN will be the next winnowing process. Those who can cope and use those things will do okay [if also lucky].
Blokes are in their sheds right now, inventing and figuring out how to be part of the success, coming up with the craziest ideas. Some of which aren't crazy. Ted Kaczynski is in gaol. Osama is hiding somewhere. Saddam is in a captive. His sons will not be passing on any more DNA.
There you are, now you've got the answer to what's up. Any more questions? We males have the answer to everything.
Mqurice
CDNA [TM] = cyberdeoxyribonucleic acid meaning genetic engeering of the human genome. Women won't tick the IQ 80 box on the menu. They'll have fries with that and double-size it.
PS: While I'm ranting, I have CNN reviewing D-day and Warswaw uprising etc. There was a LOT of DNA filtering going on. There were some mad ideas put up and destroyed. |
