By In the TV show True Detective , the character Rust Cohle says, “I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self aware, nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creatures that should not exist by natural law…We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, a secretion of sensory, experience, and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody is nobody.”
While I was reading Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut, this was the quote that kept coming back into my mind.
About the Book
Title: Galapagos
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Published: 1999
Genre: fiction, speculative fiction, satire
My Rating: 3.5/5 stars
My Thoughts
Galapagos is ultimately a cheeky play on the idea that humanity is the best result of evolution over millenia.
It follows a group of people who become stranded on the Galapagos islands (a Darwin reference, of course) and, thanks to a disease that spreads throughout the rest of the world rendering everyone infertile, become the ancestors of a “new” human race which de-evolves over the years.
A recurring theme is the idea that the intelligence we as humans so pride ourselves on is actually not necessarily a positive development. Sardonically, Vonnegut points out the ways in which humans have used our large brains to come up with things like war and weaponry, and there are no longer such problems in the new human race that emerges in the Galapagos. For anyone who has contemplated what a miracle it is that we managed to survive as a species after developing nuclear weapons (Great Filter Theory/Fermi Paradox, anyone?), this concept will be familiar.
There’s also a mention of how without such intelligence and awareness, humans would not have to worry about their own deaths.
Unironically, I do believe that it is a curse to have this kind of self-awareness and have always been rather jealous of for example my dog who doesn’t need to think about these things.
“Why so many of us knocked us major chunks of our brains with alcohol from time to time remains an interesting mystery. It may be that we were tring to give evolution a shove in the right direction – in the direction of smaller brains.“
Have you read Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut? What did you think of it? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
Other Vonnegut reviews:
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Yeah I read it. In principle interesting, and I concur with your analysis. I think it’s making you question the need for intelligence.
I didn’t like “some” of the aspects of the book, like how this “new” race is created. Maybe you should warn about that 😉
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