Humans’ desire to travel will end when humans go extinct. (Earth’s geographic diversity is enough of a baseline motivation to guarantee this, although as mentioned above, curiosity about other people is also with us for the long haul.)
]]>I see Casey’s post on Daily Galaxy as simply an extension of the continued debate over nature vs. nurture. Personally, I think one is as important as the other, and always will be. One may seem to take precedent at a moment in history – for example biotech as we speak – but the other one will always come back to the forefront at some point.
It is the ebb and flow of life, like anything. As biotech seems to reign supreme, more and more people are accessing “long-ago” biological necessities, as David noted about breastfeeding. I think we will continue to see a resurgence of true, not man-manipulated, “nature” as we figure out how to keep this species surviving.
]]>I’d say that the while our motivations for travel are generally similar on the whole – sustenance and curiosity. I don’t think our species will ever lose the desire for either. We’ll be traveling as long as we’re around.
]]>And it would be a pretty darn boring world if it does. Truly, if the world’s cultures blended such that the only thing unique to find was the terrain and the weather? Bleh!
]]>Like it’s easy to think that this, the way we live today, is the best way to live, is the only way that we could have lived. Agriculture – the end of nomadism – started 10,000 years ago. This is the root of our current civilization, how we got where we are now. But it’s quite imaginable that things could have been different, that we could have branched an entirely different way. Anyway, point is, we take for granted that this is it.
We could very well be heading towards cultural and racial homogenization, but I think long before that happens we will wipe ourselves out and a new civilization will arise, an evolved civilization that can properly live on the earth. All of the programs we implement to fix our problems are just sticks in the river, not enough to divert the flow to a new direction (yes, I am influenced by Daniel Quinn).
Besides, haven’t you seen Waterworld? With melting ice and rising seas, it’s only natural that we’ll start having gills…
]]>Also travel will never become obsolete. If you said that to someone who lives in a cold weather climate, they would laugh in your face in winter time. No people will always want new experiences and different ones.
]]>Here is a case that comes to mind: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bottlefeeding-mimics-mourning
Cultural evolution has affected many countries in this way: mothers have ‘bought into’ the concept that it isn’t necessary to breastfeed their babies.
As western medicine has generally centered on disease and not well being, scientists are just beginning to really understand the implications that things such as breastfeeding has, not only for the child but, in this case, for the mother. A quote from this article reads: “For most of human evolution the absence or early cessation of breastfeeding would have been occasioned by miscarriage, loss, or death of a child. We contend, therefore, that at the level of her basic biology a mother’s decision to bottle feed unknowingly simulates child loss.”
I believe that there are certain inviolable element of our evolutionary makeup such as the need to have immediate contact with our mothers when we’re born–There are many others. The need to explore, to find new places, to travel-it’s in there too. Maybe not as strong for some as for others, but it’s in there.
]]>