By- Naiteek Bhatt
Researchers at the University of Stockholm have outlined 14 potential "evolutionary traps" that could spell the end for humanity.
'Global' (5), 'technology' (5), and 'structural' (4) are the three primary evolutionary traps identified by the author. These traps are broken down into 14 distinct issues, 12 of which are considered to be at an advanced stage of development.
Division (world strife), growth-for-growth (pursuit of growth at the expense of well-being), ecological overshoot (consuming more resources than earth can afford), contagion (spread of diseases owing to connectivity: COVID-19), and simplification (lack of systems to respond to complicated situations).
Infrastructure lock-in (such with fossil fuels), chemical pollution, technical autonomy (tech not aligned with human goals, like AI), disinformation and misinformation, and exitential technology (tech capable of eradicating species, like nuclear weapons).
The short-termist approach prioritizes short-term economic growth over long-term sustainability. It also leads to overconsumption, biosphere disconnect (lower exposure to nature causes ignorance of environmental degradation), and loss of local social capital (fewer in-person interactions, potential loss of "capacity for collective action").
According to the study, of the 14 concerns, 10 are "evolutionary traps" that humans are not addressing effectively, and since these traps tend to reinforce one another, encountering one dead end increases the likelihood of encountering others.
We have the capacity to develop, adapt to a wide range of situations, and collaborate on unexpectedly enormous scales. However, it turns out that these powers have unintended repercussions. Lead author and anthropologist Peter Sogaard Jorgensen said, "You could say that the human species has been too successful and, in some ways, too smart for its own future good."