Humanities Extinction

It has been awhile since Hollywood has come out with a really good “end of the world” type movie.  Come to think of it, the last ones I can remember came out when I was still in high school.  Movies like Armageddon, The Day After Tomorrow, and Independence Day come to mind.

I would venture a guess that most human beings don’t think about the end of the world. Like death, I think we all know it will happen someday, but choose not to think about it. A problem for future generations to deal with.

The end may be sooner then you think, and worse it doesn’t look like the end of humanity will come by asteroid, alien invasion, or deadly storm.  The end, it seems, will come at the hands of humanity itself.

6975466-end-of-the-worldIn a recent interview Stephen Hawking theorizes that 1,000 years may be all humanity has left.  He warns that with advances in science & technology bring with it “new ways that things can go wrong.”

I am inclined to believe Hawking, but maybe for different reasons.  Humanity is becoming increasingly distracted to the realities of what is going on around them.  Social media, TV, and cell phones have lowered our attention spans significantly.  Obesity is at an all time high, and our schools and educational systems are eliminating the very things that make life worth living such as music, art, photography, theater, and more.

If humanity was to be wiped out tomorrow how would we want our species to be remembered?  If we only have 1,000 years left we should focus on more important things besides how many Facebook friends we have, or how many “likes” we got on our last Instagram photo.

Life is to be lived, felt, believed, and remembered.  If humanity only has 1,000 years left I hope we make those years ones of great significance and importance.  And I truly hope, before the end, that we can put our differences behind us, and come together as one species united.

35. What Kind Of Geek Are You?

Thanks to my Brother-In-Law Matt for sending me this comic.

A Geeks life is a classic story of becoming comfortable with themselves. Its funny that Matt sent me this particular comic, because as I looked at it I saw my own journey into becoming a Geek. As a kid some of my best memories are watching Star Trek: The Next Generation every week with my family. That eventually lead to watching X-Files each Sunday, and lets not forget there were the Star Trek Movies that my parents introduced me to. But this was never something I felt I could share with anyone at school or any other social group I found myself in. It didn’t matter if, as in the comic, someone else brought the subject up, I still felt like it was uncool to talk of such things.

As I got older and moved into High School I started feeling more comfortable talking about some of the Geek trivia I had picked up over the years, but I wanted more. I remember a class project we were all given once. The assignment was to write about a collection we had, bring in an example of something out of that collection, and give a short presentation on your collection. I don’t remember what my paper, example, or presentation was on, but I do remember one student brought in his Star Wars Action Figures. His paper and presentation talked about how he had started collecting when he was a small child. His collection ranged from out of the box figures that were either missing a limb, light saber, or blaster, to mint condition rare figure still in their display boxes.

I could tell from where I sat in the classroom that he was nervous. I don’t know if he was nervous because he was speaking in front of a crowd of his peers, or because he was speaking about something that was so clearly in the Geek category. Regardless of why he was nervous, the longer he spoke the more confident he became. I remember being very jealous of his collection, and wishing I had the money to start my own collection. It was not long after that that I started picking up geek paraphernalia.

Now fast forward to the present day, and any one of my friends will clearly tell you how I am an Uber Geek willing to not only talk about my geeky obsessions, or share books, comics, or toys from my Geek collection, I will also from time to time stray from reality and truly wonder what my life would be like if I owned a light saber and had control of the force.

I think all Geeks go through this process. I say this because as I have showed this comic to my friends they have all started laughing and commenting about how that is totally them. While each Geek may be different there is a common bond that keeps us all connected to each other.