I’ve been assuming as such and deriving most of my political, ethical, economic and spiritual beliefs around this “seemingly obvious” notion.
I woke up today and it occurred to me that I have never really challenged or examined this notion. I’m creating this thread to do just that.
Now when I say human brains, I think of them a bit like diamonds. There are diamonds in the rough, which are “meh”-looking" and not particularly useful (say, a baby’s brain), and polished diamonds which are very shiny, sharp, sparkling. (say, an older, more educated brain).
I feel it is in our best interest as a species to make sure we have as many diamonds as possible and to polish as many of them as much as possible we can to create more wealth (of all kind, material, artistic, etc.)
Do you agree or do you consider something else the world’s most precious resource?
We do have enough people in the world…probably too many. So “more brains” isn’t exactly the right answer. More education is the right answer. Human brains are precious, but they’re raw material. Educated human brains have vastly more leverage, and that’s what it takes to move the world.
Huh? Well, earthican lifeforms, from the tiniest virus to the largest tree or whale, are certainly precious. They are insanely useful to do all kinds of things, from remedies, to recreational drugs, to advancing science in infinite ways. (biomimicry is only one of them, and the possibilities seem endless there).
Define a precious resource, you say? Hmm, very well.
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Wow, that is a harder question than I thought.
I suppose it is something scarce (unlike air or salt water) that helps humanity attain its goals and fulfill its aspirations . It seems to me that some of the universal things humanity seeks are happiness, freedom, immunity from disease, immortality, superhuman abilities and generally attempting to become something close to Gods of old.
Certainly if you compare us to the first humans, these are definite trends. We live longer, we can fight more diseases, we can make some of our senses better (Lasik or radars), we can move faster, speak across continents, etc. I’m afraid this question can take up a thread all of its own
Another way I think of it is that human brains provide the largest Return On Investment when you invest in educating them, so our priority should be to make sure every child on earth be given the best possible education. We should minimize the chances that we’ll miss out on the next Newton, Tesla, Einstein, Archimedes or Avicenna out there.
Does it have a cash value … I didn’t think so … it’s just a part of a machine … a part that isn’t replaceable … so just a brain in hand isn’t worth much.
The machine it comes from is very valuable, priceless even, it’s able to make more machines which themselves can make more machines … children are the world’s most precious resource.
That is a circular definition (i.e. human brains are the most powerful thing because they help enable human brains to the goals that they aspire to). Other animal species have similar qualities except humans keep tampering with the intrinsic mechanisms that enabled them to succeed before we showed up.
All of this argument is too humanistic to me and I reject humanism completely. It is self-congratulatory and basically a just-so story. The fact remains that the Earth and the universe would still work just fine, and possibly even better, if humans didn’t exist. That was the reality until just a blink of an eye ago in relative terms and it will be again soon enough.
Your question is just a rephrasing of the self-evident observation that humans seek to maximize things that benefit themselves. So do monkeys, snakes, frogs and even bacteria. I am sure there is some alien form of life that we can’t even begin to imagine living on the fringes of the Milky Way that is asking the same thing right now.
That’s a different question. You originally asked about the “world’s most precise recourse”. No you’re asking what is our species most precious resource. Clearly, our brain and what it can do is the most distinguishing feature of our species, but without the DNA that creates it and the ability to reproduce we would be, to keep with your gem analogy, a flash in the pan. I’m not sure you can just separate out our brains and say that is our most precious resource, because we are a system and without all the essential parts of the system, no individual part is worth much, if anything, at all.
Our brains do allow us to create technologies that can replace some of those essential parts, and eventually we may be able to replace all of them. Even the brain. Then what?
Depends on how you define ‘important’. Yeah, no trees, no oxygen, but earth will truck on just fine along without trees. Or without life of any kind, actually. Humans (and other life forms) may be somewhat inconvenienced, however.
Of course, maybe we figure out some way of transferring ourselves to non-organic bodies.
But that just shifts the goalposts. What happens without any hydrogen? Or carbon? Or silicon? The basic building blocks seem pretty necessary, even if they are common.
That just brings the question back around to what the OP is looking for. When you want to ask what’s the most important resource for humankind, you actually need to limit your consideration to some selected few things you wish to compare to each other. Otherwise, it’s turtles all the way down.
Well, if you want to play the pedantry game, water, air, and food are humanity’s most precious resources. Without 'em, we die. Sunlight is, ultimately, the most valuable thing the earth partakes of.
Gravity is on the list, otherwise we just fly away into space. We can keep playing this game for a long time.
well, if you bring it back to a little less abstract, the most highly paid humans in current society don’t use their brains all that much. Sport stars, movie stars, and rock stars are all apparently worth a lot more than physicists and biologists. And most people perform jobs that don’t require much thinking, if at all.
