In 2003, Nobel laureate Richard Smalley outlined humanity’s top ten problems for the next fifty years: energy, water, food, environment, poverty, terrorism and war, disease, education, democracy, and population, in that order. I beg to disagree. To begin with, his ten problems are deeply intertwined. Take the environment and population, for example. When there were about five-million humans at the beginning of the current interglacial period, there was no problem with the environment. And there was no problem with energy, water, food, and so on. Most of Smalley’s problems have to do with the current explosion of the human population, but that is a sacred cow few people are willing to touch. Although he was talking about the next fifty years only, his list shows perfectly well that it ultimately boils down to one problem, that of mushrooming human population. But the human problem goes still deeper. It has to do with the gap between the human ability to act and the human ability to understand the consequences of that action. If anything, it is only growing. Neither individually nor socially can humans close that gap, as the current problems with climate change aptly demonstrate. Humans could not close that gap when they were still living in tribes of a few hundred people, and they cannot close it now that they are living in a deeply intertwined social, economic, and political agglomeration of some seven-billion individuals. The human problem remains throughout, and it would remain even if humans spread to space. The gap between action and understanding cannot be closed. Amen.

Addendum I (June 21, 2015)

Gosh, how very polite I can be in my writing! Talking about the gap between the human ability to act and the human ability to understand the consequences of that action is an excessively polite way of talking about human intelligence deficiency. Or human stupidity, to put it simply. Indeed, the human problem boils down to human stupidity. Which is to say, the human problem is unsolvable, at least at this stage of human evolution. To solve it, millions of years will have to pass. And even then the solution amounts to no more than a dream. Nay, a biological miracle.

Addendum II (April 13, 2016)

Well, I was wrong. Dead wrong, in fact, and it is high time to admit it. Actually, not only can the human problem be solved in the fullness of time, but it can be solved right now, as well. This very second, as a matter of fact. It is enough to stop thinking about it, and it disappears as if by magic. The same holds for any problem at all. Just stop thinking about it, and it is as good as solved. Bingo! For instructions on how to stop thinking at will and for as long as desired, consult my book about yoga, which is available for free in Portable Document Format on my Ca’ Bon Gallery website (www.cabongallery.org). Problems, what problems?

Addendum III (February 7, 2017)

Having come across this piece entirely by chance, I quite enjoyed reading it. “Well put,” I mumbled under my breath when I reached the last word. The first addendum made me smile, though. Indeed, why beat around the bush when it comes to human intelligence deficiency, which may well take millions of years to get rid of? But the second addendum quite surprised me. It struck me like a bolt out of the blue sky. It is time to stop reading my Residua, I reckon. The human problem is for the birds. No matter how persuasively it may be argued, my fellow humans will have hard time understanding it. Well, they will not even make an attempt at understanding it, either. So, why waste my time with arguments of this ilk at all?

Addendum IV (September 3, 2018)

On yet another reading of this piece, which also happened purely by chance, I feel like wrapping it up for good. And the second addendum provides the right clue in this case, I reckon. The human problem is best abandoned for good. It is unsolvable. Even more important, it is incomprehensible to the bulk of the human species. In short, all hope is best forsaken without any further ado. At this stage of evolution, humans are incapable of understanding their predicament, and it is not very likely that this will ever change. It all boils down to human intelligence deficiency, indeed. Well, stupidity. It reigns supreme, and there is no way around it any time soon. It is insurmountable, to be a bit more precise. The best one can do is to accept the human problem as it is and let it be. Phew!