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I think this behavioural pattern is hardwired in our genes so that there can always be progress.Choosing the best mate gives best genes and oppertunities to your young just like the need to be seen in specific clothes/cars/houses motivates people to achieve and so on, the same force at work. Dreams and desires is what makes the world go round, the money is purely a by-product. [/b]
It is a can of worms but it's definitely something in there that inspires us & drives us on to reach for what's just out of our grasp. It's why we've done so well.
Look at things like the way we've managed to spread & adapt to every corner of the globe...why did people set out and end up in places like Easter Island....or ever the moon. Why do we keep having to invent better things...it's not a survival thing.[/b][/quote]
I think all these things are simply an extrapolation on this basic instinct of survival, even though at times it's actually counter-productive. The basic need for early homonid's to mass produce tools from stones as long ago as 2 million years was simply the beginning of trying to exceed the demands of the environment and ensure their survival. Over years of evolution and progress we seem very prosperous but with all the prosperity comes new demands that potentially endanger our survival, therefore the need to continuously develop better technologies and break the limits, just like a glorified stone axe, otherwise we would've stopped once we reached utopia. The grass is greener because our bellies get bigger
The counter-example to this is the Ausrtalian aborigines....they just got somewhere and found out how to live adequately on it. It's really notable how little they set about changing everything to make their lives easier.
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Good point. There is exceptions to the rule..... or maybe it's just exceptions to our perception of the survival rule because we the majority have manipulated the environmental demands so much that they can't adapt fast enough to the new demands. The argument that the Aboriginals evolved seperately from the human species has only recently been settled by the genetic links found between them and the natives from Papa New Guineau, suggesting that they are part of the out of africa group we're all decendent from, but, once settled in Aus they evolved in isolation and were faced by their own unique set of demands on their survival until Europeans arrived. Up to then they were probably in very good nick, the masters of their universe.
To understand what's going on with the Aboriginal people you need only to look at what the case is in Aus at the moment. The WHO had recently released a report which suggests that their health is on par with the health of European Australians before the discovery of penicillin, the average life expectancy of Aboriginal males in areas is as low as 33. Either the logistics of getting health out into the outback is impossible or simply nobody cares, which sort of puts apartheid to shame. The alternative is that they simply can't adapt fast enough to meet the survival demands of the world as dictated by ourselves because we've changed the goalposts of survival and introduced so many new stresses to their environment that they simply can't catch up.
There is a story about a missionary who ended up with a tribe somewhere in the amazon, these people used open fires in the middle of their huts, the result of this was that they had some major healt issues with their lungs and eyes or something to that effect. The guy left and returned with a type of stove with cimneys that can get the smoke out of their huts safely. He then returned several years later to find a ghost village with only a few survivors because the smoke used to protect them from disease by killing insects and keeping the grass on their roofs dry. Nowadays it's not only physical survival that encourages us to do things but also social survival, if you don't have the right car or job or clothes you can't belong to this or that group or whatever, even our urge of curiosity and thirst for knowledge can be drawn back to our basic need as mammals - survival of the species, passing on the genes.
*information about aboriginals and WHO report taken from New Scientist magazine
