Born to Gawk

Gawking has become one of my favorite words to describe Earthlings. Being born to gawk seems to help us stay awake to the conditions of the planet, but gawking has yet to allow us to know anything for sure; rather, we Earthlings are excellent at noticing something and experimenting with it, including a climate. Neoteny (nee-ah’-teh-nee) perhaps best describes human beings.

Physiological or somatic development of an animal or organism may be slowed or delayed. Ultimately, neoteny results in retentions of juvenile (intellectual, psychological) characteristics well into physical maturity. Refer Wikipedia.

Humans are the only species that can describe our own neoteny, a tendency for stupefaction: a glorified, arrogant sense of satisfaction while at best only marginally conscious.

Despite our educations, credentials, and celebrated cerebral skills, we are still only marginally conscious of our physical Universe. Our presumed avoidances of atmospheric and environmental disruptions are only one popular way we may observe ourselves. As neotenous beings, we keep forgetting those who rule our convictions by spoken and written words are those, the testosterones of our species, that make up delusions about Earth’s atmospheres and environments. They dare us not to believe their solutions to their delusions! That rather sounds like the convoluted psychology of guilt-laden religions, and I gawk, galled.

If we weren’t so neotenous, Earthlings would gawk at the optimum climates we’ve experienced during the most recent thirty years—warmer temperatures, more rainfall, increased carbon dioxide—enabling us to grow more food in more places by consuming less energy.

Obviously, too many Earthlings, born to gawk, forget to read about the possibilities of experiencing a throw-back into a little Ice Age of the 1960s and 70s, a period in which crop failures and famines were common, and nations consumed more energy for heating. We may look back at the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries as the golden years, fueled not by men but by the Sun.

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I’ve found it!), but ‘That’s funny...’
~ Isaac Asimov (b 1920), American author, biochemist who loved explaining complicated things in ordinary language

Our constant curiosity is key
to watching what’s being created.
~ David Moorhead