Of stars and grasses

The other night I stepped out the trailer. It was clear and I could see lots of stars, a hint of the milky way and the lights of an airplane far above and I wondered, can I see the flicker of light from the dual star system that supposedly has a Tatooine like planet in their orbit?

Then I thought, “this is crazy”. I know enough to wonder about a distant planet but not enough to identify the plants at my feet. It’s kind of strange when you think about it. We know so much that we know almost nothing.

In contrast, for most of human existence my counterpart would have had no idea of a Tatooine-like planet but would have know most every plant at his feet and what uses it has. His wonder and amazement at the beauty of the night sky would have been truly complete and in stark contrast to the in depth knowledge of his everyday world.

I’m jealous of that contrast.

Ethnographical studies have shown that a hunter-gather society will know every plant and animal in their range and what it can be used for, if anything. They live in a world they truly know and understand through common knowledge. I think this must be very grounding for the individual, the combination of of a sense of belonging but also the confidence that comes with knowing what you are dealing with on a day to day basis.

We live in a world of selective knowledge where there is so much known the individual has to pick and choose what they will know and most of us don’t seem to, we get lost in the array of choice. We end up knowing very little about a lot of subjects and maybe enough to fake expertise in a few areas. Thanks to a few real experts we all benefit but most of us seem spend our whole lives adrift in a sea choice and questioning? The right partner? Right career? Right shoes? A world where even what is real is unsure and ultimately unknowable. (A solid table is actually mostly empty space and little bits flying about? Really?)

For most people the benefits of our world are hard to question, who wouldn’t want to complete a three day journey in an hour? (Forget the wider consequences) We’ve made survival easy but there seems to be an undefined cost we’ve yet to figure out.