You Are An Alien
Filed under General • 01-11-2009 •
Is there such a thing as a native European, or are we all aliens here?
Consider this: now that winter’s approaching, how many of you fancy sleeping outside? How about sleeping outside naked?
The simple fact is, the human animal is not suited to surviving a Northern European winter. Without technologies such as hunting, fire and agriculture, our ancestors would have died out centuries ago.
We evolved in Africa, and it is only our technologies that allow us to live in Europe. Without them, we cannot survive. There is nothing “natural” about our relationship with the English countryside. In order to survive here, we are as dependent on our technologies as the first settlers on Mars will be dependent on theirs.
We are aliens here. Even the first tribes on these islands had to use furs and fires to stave off the cold. They had to use spears to hunt meat and agriculture to grow crops.
We take it for granted, but living in the UK in 2009, our society – with its power stations, supermarkets, clothes shops – is one big “spacesuit” designed to keep us alive in a hostile environment.
Therefore, on a fundamental level, we are all immigrants here. Human beings don’t belong in these chilly climes. We’re only here because we have been able to invent warm clothes, agriculture, and central heating.
Tags: environment • Technology
