Metastatic Modernity #6: Accidental Tourists

This is the sixth in a series of 18 short videos aiming to put modernity (another word for civilization) in perspective. In terms of cosmology, evolution, biology, ecology, and time, modernity is highly unusual and inherently self-terminating (i.e., fated to collapse). Eventually, a cancer metaphor is used to describe the tumor we witness growing out of control, spreading to all parts of the globe (metastasizing) and initiating a sixth mass extinction. Humans are not the cancer, but the infected organ within the community of life where the cancer took root. This sixth video points out that humans are not the pinnacle or end-goal of evolution: we just happen to be here, as new members of the Club of Life. We would be wise to (re-) learn the Club's rules and play by them.

A parallel write-up (more polished; extra details) can be found at https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2024/07/mm... and the series page is at https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/metastatic...

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:19 Here by Accident
01:41 Tree of Life
02:41 Lots of Dead Ends
03:20 Evolution has Terrible Aim!
03:46 The Club of Life
05:17 Non Sequitur?
05:34 Unsustainable Trajectory
07:14 Closing & Do the Math