Academia MING DAO

28/10/2024

THE SHAME OF BEING HUMAN
https://media9.ro/rusinea-de-a-fi-om/

This was one of those experiences that stays forever. I was in the cemetery, to sit at the grave of the being that was dearest to me: my daughter. The cemetery was large, so the silence was unbelievable for a place in the heart of the city…. The only consistent source of noise was the flocks of crows that made their way through the half-wild trees that had grown among the graves.

One of the crows caught my attention by its behavior: it periodically returned to a grave about 20 meters from me. She seemed to leave something in one of the (apparently empty) flowerpots and occasionally pick something up from there to nibble on the cement rim of the pot. The scene repeated itself until I became intrigued and decided to investigate what was going on. Here are the results of the investigation: at the bottom of the bowl there was a layer of water several centimeters deep, in which the clever crow placed pieces of dry bread collected from the generous garbage of the city to soak. When he came back with a new dry piece, he assessed the state of softening of the pieces there, chose a juicy one and... the feast was ready!

Such intelligent behavior can only intrigue us because for millennia we have considered the rest of living beings as biological automatons that wander here and there in search of what is important to them: security, food, reproduction. Automata of great importance to man in that, when domesticated, they provided him (by force, of course) food, fur, traction, and more. Let's not forget that those in the wild were targeted by hunters, ardent practitioners of the "noble sport of hunting."

The attitude towards animals is yet another area, and perhaps the bloodiest and saddest, of the limitless robbery that man has practiced on the planetary biosphere. And a privileged domain of the moral responsibility that humanity has in turning this planet into a slaughterhouse without limits and without stops. And this despite the fact that, almost 200 years ago, Charles Darwin said it as clearly as possible: "There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in terms of their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness and suffering".

Recently, studies devoted to animal intelligence have begun to crowd. I knew about chimpanzees, gorillas, crows and rockfish, octopuses and cuttlefish. Research on finding consciousness has also extended to other species, especially aquatic ones (these creatures being the real benchmarks of the lack of consciousness). And even on bees: Professor Lars Chittka, from Queen Mary University of London, demonstrated that these insignificant insects can count, recognize faces and use tools.

In his supremacist conceit, the human being has jealously "guarded" for himself all the qualities, attributes and rights associated with intelligence and consciousness. Following Cartesian influence, consciousness has until recently been associated with two human attributes: speculative intelligence and articulate language. Typical human supremacist attitude: in fact, the attribute of intelligence is characteristic of all species of living things, be they plants or animals. Intelligence being nothing but the ability of living organisms to adapt to environmental conditions, finding solutions that make survival possible. And they, not us humans, are good examples of intelligence, because there are plenty of species that ensure their survival for hundreds of millions of years (the ctenophore champions are estimated to be 700 million years old).

For me, the intelligence of living matter is a closed topic with a clear conclusion: intelligence, understood as the power to adapt to the environment, exists at all levels of organization of living matter. Then, the picture of living matter presents an aspect that has so far escaped the views of the man embarking on planetary robbery: the complexity of organization, coexistence and communication between the elements that make up the living part of an ecosystem. When we break into an ancient forest with chainsaws or bulldozers, we completely ignore the fact that those trees constitute a community that, chemically or electrically, communicates, coordinates, reacts and defends itself together. It has been unequivocally proven that plants have a "sensitivity" of their own, reacting not only to the states of their fellows but also to the emotional states of the human experimenter.

A whole universe of sensations, experiences, even memories - this is the hidden, unseen existence of non-human life that surrounds us in every corner of the planet. A life that preceded us made possible the evolution of our species and its full development, which we regard with smug superiority ("take, there, some animals..."), denying them any attribute of complexity and any shred of life aware Research has shown that after a force-lactating cow is separated from her calf (which is actually destined for shredding for dog food…) she spends up to 3 months in a state of deep mourning, suffering intense. This is the price of the glass of milk, "good and fresh", which we lovingly give to our human child!

And this, in a nutshell, is the story of how man came to dominate this planet and how cynically and cruelly he used its resources. Ultimately, when we talk about the ecological crimes of humanity, we are mainly referring to the inanimate resources of the planet and we continue to neglect the present, intense and palpable suffering that man imposes on the planetary biosphere, through the cynicism of his acts, through his gross unconsciousness and by chasing "economic" advantages at all costs. If there really was a "karma," then the crimes committed against our fellow-dwellers on Earth should have long ago bent us into the yoke of suffering and remorse.

But it is not so; humanity continues its triumphant march towards new horizons of prosperity. And the billions of beings who, with cruelty and carelessness, are slaughtered for our immeasurable lusts in immense slaughterhouses from which flow blood and suffering, go into non-being in bewilderment, with an unspoken question: "Why did you need my life?"

Now you understand the title of this article. When I think about all this, I feel ashamed...

25/10/2024

https://media9.ro/moarte-cu-repetitie/

Au trecut taman 25 de ani de când îmi susțineam public teza de doctorat în științe economice. O lucrare în fapt „transdisciplinară” (după cm a catalogat-o un distins coleg), în care încercam să ofer o viziune nouă, mai cuprinzătoare și mai realistă, asupra spinoasei tematici a r...

19/10/2024

RESOLVED: IT CANNOT BE DONE!
https://media9.ro/s-a-rezolvat-nu-se-poate/

In those days which we call "of sad memory," (the communist regime in Romania) human spirits were crushed and weakened by an insidious and obscure disease, which we jokingly called "the flight of responsibility." The professor of labor organization in the faculty used to joke, when we met for a "student beer", that Romanians' working time is divided into two: in the first half they do nothing, and in the second half they look for justifications for not they worked in the first part!

More in jest, more seriously, such an observation may accurately capture the general attitude of humanity, which has failed to move far enough away from the animal status of "necessary labor." A large, even overwhelming, part of humanity works only to be able to obtain the necessities of life: food, a roof over the head, some entertainment. The others, those who pull humanity along or push it from behind (depending on what kind of leaders they are...) are the ones who decide the destinies of humanity, through their enterprising spirit and relentless resilience. And what they all have in common, leaders or followers, is a sovereign indifference to the ill effects of human activities.

A recent study published in the journal "Nature" summarizes the current state of humanity's living environment. We all know the problems, I don't need to make a mess of them here. The conclusion is very simple: global warming is inexorably running its course, with all the cohort of extreme climatic events and all the changes occurring in the way of life on Earth. The overall conclusion, supported by scientific data, is clear and worrying: the ambitious goal that humanity set almost 10 years ago - limiting the increase in global temperatures to 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial period - has become virtually IMPOSSIBLE to ACHIEVE . Global temperatures have already crossed this threshold, and their increase is more intense than the increase in stocks on Wall Street. Overlapping natural climate cycles (El Nino/La Nina), the impact of human activities has become a major factor in altering the balance of the planetary ecosphere.

And this balance is constantly deteriorating. It is enough to look around me in the Philippines, my home country. Here, as in all of Southeast Asia (a region that holds half the planet's population, if you include China) there is a frenzy of consumption that is matched only by the sovereign indifference to the ill effects of human activities. Don't accuse me of exaggerating: marine plastic pollution in the Philippines is, in volume per capita of Filipinos enjoying life, 50 times that of China and the same as that of India. The only explanation is carelessness: towards the relevant laws (which are quite modern and would also give results if someone cared to implement them), towards the common sense measures that can protect the health of the environment and the population (collection is symbolic, the most common method of "treating" waste being its wild burning), to the fairytale beauty of these places that still speak of the unparalleled splendor of this planet.

Of course, Europe has an important lead over the "developing" world in terms of interaction with the natural environment. In Europe you get a hefty fine if you burn plant debris – here, the general rule is free burning of all by-products, including household waste. When traveling by plane, it's impossible not to notice plumes of smoke billowing merrily into the (seemingly) immaculate sky. In Europe, you don't get a building permit if your building doesn't have a drainage or sewage treatment system – here, the general rule is that household water drains neatly through ditches, finding its way to rivers and the world's largest ocean. the planet (in which the quantities of fish caught decrease from year to year, and the amounts of plastic increase rapidly...).

So, in just 50 years, humanity's major existential problem – the accelerating degradation of its living environment – ​​has moved from Europe to what we call "Asia Pacific". The share of coal consumption of this region increased from 31% of the world consumption to 83%, while the total consumption, in the same period of 50 years, increased 2.5 times. China alone consumed 56% of the world's coal in 2023, and forecasts for 2025 show that China will need more than 2.2 times more energy than the U.S. The conclusion is clear: the economic growth of the "new tigers" in Asia has been almost exclusively due to the intensive use of fossil fuels. Between 1995 and 2015 China's GDP grew 35 times (for comparison, the GDP of the US, the most dynamic "developed" economy, grew 2.2 times). Going back to the horizon of 2025, the combined estimated needs of China and India will be 4.5 times higher than those of the European Union.

In this context, the laudable efforts of the EU to "green" its energy production are relevant only on a demonstrative level: "look it's possible". It is possible, but it is only possible for those who eat caviar at the table and sip champagne; those who daily gorge on rice and dried fish will continue to burn fossil fuels, building on this foundation their dreams of living like in "civilized" countries. And Europe's efforts seem to be really futile, because this summer, and even recently, extreme climatic phenomena have devastated Europe. And these extreme phenomena are not caused by "European" thermal pollution, but by the huge amounts of fossil fuels burned in the new retorts of the world's "economic progress". You now have the sad opportunity to understand what some call the “butterfly effect”…

Moreover, statistical data show that, on the scale of our planet, the rate of global warming has tripled since 1980 (and the rate of melting of the Scărișoara glacier seems to have accelerated 10 times...). And we have no solution, because any energy production process involves heat dissipation in the environment (tools for "clean" energy production heavily pollute the environment through their production process...). In this context, pompous statements calling for the limitation of global temperature increase to a maximum of 1.5°C have no more power than the incantations of a medicine man in front of a hurricane. Anyway, we've already crossed that threshold, even though there were plenty of arguments in favor of imposing it as the norm for humanity's ecological behavior… and no one really cared anymore…

But now we can at least breathe a sigh of relief and sleep peacefully on the right ear: we have no chance to reverse the course of history, to influence the global ecological crisis. We are finally at peace.
Because it has been resolved: it cannot be done.

01/10/2024

https://media9.ro/s-a-rezolvat-nu-se-poate/

În acele vremuri pe care le numim „de tristă amintire,” spiritele omenești erau măcinate și debilitate de o boală insidioasă și obscură, pe care în glumă o numeam „fuga de răspundere.”

15/09/2024

BLOODY MONKEY
https://media9.ro/maimuta-sangeroasa/

We live in a horrifying and disgusting hypocrisy. The reflections below are inspired by my arduous viewing of the year's most brilliant box-office hit: "Deadpool and Wolverine." A sinister romp, with vague traces of humor, with visual excess and refined swagger. The only aspect that seemed somewhat "remarkable" to me was the ingenious and rich choreography by which the poor enemies of the heroes of the story were hacked, destroyed, destroyed - in short, killed in the most explicit and gory way possible. And, to top it off, I didn't find anywhere any protest or even a disapproving opinion of this carnage, worthy of the most sinister C-movies (you know... zombies, insane criminals, bloody monsters, etc.).

Have you watched "Leon"? An excellent film (brand Luc Besson), which has been neglected by the official critics and those who give awards overseas for a simple fact: between the professional killer and the 12-year-old girl he saves, a strange and tender story grows of love. Moreover, the version distributed in the USA completely excludes this aspect, impoverishing the emotional charge of the film. The reason? That is an episode of pe******ia, something that the American mentality cannot accept even when it is suggested, not explicitly. Conversely, in the same film (production 1994) dozens of people die in the most violent way possible, shattered by bullets or explosives, but no authority demands their elimination.

For what? Because displaying guns and using them without restraint is part of the cowboy mentality that excels in the American cultural space where there are more guns than brains (as of 2020, violent death by bullet is the leading cause of death for American children and teenagers) . For within each of us lurks a "bloody monkey" (Jerome K. Jerome), who emerges from his fetid hiding place every chance he gets and digs his lustful fingers into the wounds of those who bleed. All the victims on the globe, thousands and thousands every day, are provoked by these bloody monkeys, who have a habit: they unite and organize themselves into brotherhoods, groups, organizations, even states. All bloody, all murderous.

How did this "blood monkey" become so powerful? First of all, it has always been strong, because humanity immersed in nature and faced with numerous dangers needed hormonal and behavioral support for the violent process of survival. Secondly, because the same warlike spirit, domineering and bloody, has excited the admiration and veneration of all mankind - turn to a textbook of history, which is a long book of bloody battles and the loss of thousands or millions of human lives. The doers of good or peace are presented sporadically and exclusively in counterweight to the kings of war...

The warrior spirit is still, unfortunately, at the foundation of human culture. It is enough to understand that life is constantly presented as a competition. It is true, sometimes it is also presented as an exercise in balance, or giving up (much, much less often...). But in the "normal" world, the one in which at least 95% of people live, the only thing that really matters is supremacy, dominance, victory and glory. The "winners" celebrate with pomp and fanfare, the "losers" put their heads in the ground and chew bitter words between meals. In the last confrontation for the important world football trophy, Argentina and France were head to head, wheel to wheel, until the last second. It was necessary that, in the penalty shootout, two Frenchmen succumbed mentally, for the balance to tilt definitively in favor of Argentina.

Should that be enough for some to exult and others to despair? Apparently so. In a crooked world, where the winner takes everything and the loser is forgotten, the pinnacle of glory is very narrow - you can stand on it only in one leg, which will someday begin to tremble... And I wonder: where does this fierceness come from ? I can see that it comes from the same ancient times, when the victor jumped for joy and the vanquished lay bleeding in the dust. What really worries me is that I don't detect any kind of moral "evolution" from the days when blood had to be shed to make things "clear". Of course, humanity understood how important and useful it is to keep the bloody monkey at bay, and religious education was one of the preferred instruments of this important activity.

Unfortunately, this kind of education has been a total failure. Worse, some of the most gruesome and bloody crimes have been committed in the name of religion—and most of all in the "civilized" world, or by the people of that area. What was achieved, however, was that religion and faith were removed from war and criminal proceedings – but this is more a success of secular society. Then, at least as a principled approach, bloody violence with criminal intent was ostracized from the cultural space, remaining mostly in the form of a huge splash of red paint and killings that seem like simple fun games, as in the aforementioned "Deadpool and Wolverine."

The "fighter" spirit remained, however, and is intensely adulated and publicized in all areas of human life. In Sibiu, an off-duty policeman (but educated, presumably, as a defender of life and human rights) punched and kicked a young man who was harassing him. And it horrified us. But it doesn't horrify us when MMA fighters get covered in blood, some of them being scarred for life. It doesn't horrify us when footballers literally break their legs. It doesn't make us cringe when we raise in glory one meritorious graduate of a level of education (in the Philippines, at the end of the schools, banners of congratulations and cheap exultation spring up on all the fences).

And so we get to the hypocrisy we wallow in: we are holy when we have to present ourselves, when we set forth our "guiding" principles... after which the adrenaline-hungry monkey automatically consumes all-screen bloody violence and biting violence of adrenaline in all sports confrontations. After which we become saints again and ostracize footballers or fighters who, impregnated with the adrenaline that we asked of them, become violent in discotheques, or indulge in senseless rapes (see the recent cases of Dani Alves and Robinho).

We should decide once and for all what is better for humanity: bloodshed or true moral evolution.

Mihai E. ŞERBAN

15/09/2024

MAIMUȚA SÂNGEROASĂ
https://media9.ro/maimuta-sangeroasa/

Trăim într-o înfiorătoare și dezgustătoare ipocrizie. Reflecțiile de mai jos îmi sunt inspirate de vizionarea greu dusă până la capăt a celui mai strălucitor succes de box-office al anului: „Deadpool and Wolverine”. O brambureală sinistră, cu vagi urme de umor, cu exces vizual și cu scălâmbăială rafinată. Singurul aspect care mi s-a părut oarecum „remarcabil” a fost coregrafia ingenioasă și bogată prin care sărmanii inamici ai eroilor din poveste erau hăcuiți, nimiciți, distruși – uciși, pe scurt, în modul cel mai explicit și mai sângeros cu putință. Și, culmea, nu am găsit nicăieri niciun protest sau măcar o opinie dezaprobatoare față de acest măcel, demn de cele mai sinistre filme de categorie C (știți voi… zombie, criminali nebuni, monștri sângeroși etc).

Ați vizionat „Leon”? Un excelent film (marca Luc Besson), care a fost neglijat de critica oficială și de cei care acordă premii peste ocean pentru un simplu fapt: între ucigașul de profesie și fata de 12 ani pe care el o salvează se înfiripează o stranie și tandră poveste de iubire. De altfel, varianta distribuită în S.U.A. exclude cu desăvârșire acest aspect, sărăcind încărcătura emoțională a filmului. Motivul? Acela este un episod de pedofilie, lucru pe care mentalitatea americană nu-l poate accepta nici măcar atunci când este sugerat, nu explicit. În schimb, în aceeași peliculă (producție 1994) zeci de persoane mor în cel mai violent mod cu putință, spulberate cu gloanțe sau cu explozivi, dar niciun fel de autoritate nu cere eliminarea lor.

Pentru ce? Fiindcă exhibarea armelor și utilizarea lor fără măsură face partea din mentalitatea de cowboy care excelează în spațiul cultural american, în care sunt mai multe arme decât creiere (din anul 2020 încoace, moartea violentă prin glonț este principala cauză de deces pentru copiii și adolescenții americani). Fiindcă în fiecare dintre noi stă ascunsă o „maimuță sângeroasă” (Jerome K. Jerome), care iese din ascunzătoarea sa fetidă de fiecare dată când are ocazia și își înfige degetele pofticioase în rănile celor care sângerează. Toate victimele de pe glob, mii și mii în fiecare zi, sunt provocate de aceste maimuțe sângeroase, care mai au o meteahnă: se și unesc și se organizează în frății, grupări, organizații, state chiar. Toate sângeroase, toate criminale.

Cum de a ajuns această „maimuță sângeroasă” atât de puternică? În primul rând, ea a fost întotdeauna puternică, fiindcă umanitatea imersată în natură și confruntată cu numeroase pericole avea nevoie de o susținere hormonală și comportamentală a violentului proces de supraviețuire. În al doilea rând, fiindcă același spirit războinic, dominator și sângeros, a stârnit admirația și venerația întregii umanități – ia răsfoiți un manual de istorie, care este un lung pomelnic al luptelor sângeroase și al pierderilor de mii sau milioane de vieți omenești. Făcătorii de bine sau de pace sunt prezentați sporadic și exclusiv în contrapondere cu regii războiului…

Spiritul războinic se află încă, din păcate, la temelia culturii omenești. Este suficient să înțelegem că, în permanență, viața este prezentată ca o competiție. Este adevărat, câteodată este prezentată și ca un exercițiu de echilibru, sau renunțare (muuult, mult mai rar…). Dar în lumea „normală”, cea în care viețuiesc cel puțin 95% dintre oameni, singurul lucru care contează cu adevărat este supremația, dominația, victoria și gloria. „Învingătorii” celebrează cu fast și pompă, „învinșii” lasă capul în pământ și mestecă cuvinte amare între măsele. În ultima confruntare pentru importantul trofeu fotbalistic mondial, Argentina și Franța au fost cap la cap, roată la roată, până în ultima secundă. A fost nevoie ca, la loviturile de departajare, doi francezi să cedeze psihic, pentru ca balanța să încline definitiv în favoarea Argentinei.

Să fie atât destul pentru ca unii să exulte, iar alții să fie cuprinși de disperare? Se pare că da. Într-o lume strâmbă, în care învingătorul ia totul, iar învinsul este uitat, vârful de glorie este foarte îngust – poți sta pe el doar într-un picior, care va începe cândva să tremure… Și mă întreb: de unde vine atâta înverșunare? Parcă văd că vine din aceleași vremuri de demult, în care învingătorul țopăia de bucurie, iar învinsul zăcea însângerat în țărână. Ceea ce mă îngrijorează pe fond este că nu detectez niciun fel de „evoluție” morală față de vremurile când trebuia să curgă sânge pentru ca lucrurile să devină „clare”. Desigur, umanitatea a înțeles cât este de important și de util să țină maimuța sângeroasă sub obroc, și educația religioasă a fost unul dintre instrumentele preferențiale ale acestei importante activități.

Din păcate, acest gen de educație a fost un eșec total. Mai rău, unele dintre cele mai înspăimântătoare și mai sângeroase crime au fost comise în numele religiei – și mai toate în lumea „civilizată”, sau de către oamenii din zona respectivă. Ceea ce s-a reușit a fost totuși că religia și credința au fost eliminate din procedurile războinice și criminale – dar acesta este mai degrabă un succes al societății laice. Pe urmă, măcar ca abordare de principiu, violența sângeroasă cu intenție criminală a fost ostracizată din spațiul cultural, rămânând mai ales sub forma unei stropeli imense cu vopsea roșie și cu ucideri care par simple jocuri distractive, precum în amintitul „Deadpool and Wolverine”.

Spiritul de „luptător” a rămas însă, și este intens adulat și mediatizat în toate domeniile vieții umane. În Sibiu, un polițist aflat în afara programului (dar educat, se presupune, ca apărător al vieții și drepturilor umane) a sărit cu pumnii și picioarele pe un tânăr care l-a șicanat. Și ne-a oripilat. Dar nu ne oripilează când luptătorii de MMA se umplu de sânge, unii rămânând nenorociți pe viață. Nu ne oripilează când fotbaliștii își rup, la propriu, picioarele. Nu ne oripilează când ridicăm în slăvi pe câte un absolvent cu merite al unei trepte de învățământ (în Filipine, la terminarea școlilor, răsar pe toate gardurile bannere de felicitare și exultare ieftină).

Și, uite-așa, ajungem la ipocrizia în care ne bălăcim: suntem sfinți atunci când trebuie să ne prezentăm, atunci când ne expunem principiile „călăuzitoare”… după care maimuța ahtiată după adrenalină consumă la foc automat violență sângeroasă pe toate ecranele și violență mustind de adrenalină în toate confruntările sportive. După care redevenim sfinți și ostracizăm fotbaliștii sau luptătorii care, impregnați de adrenalina pe care noi le-am cerut-o, devin violenți prin discoteci, sau se dedau la violuri fără noimă (vezi recentele cazuri Dani Alves si Robinho).

Ar trebui să ne hotărâm odată ce este mai bine pentru umanitate: vărsarea de sânge sau adevărata evoluție morală.

13/09/2024

https://media9.ro/maimuta-sangeroasa/

Trăim într-o înfiorătoare și dezgustătoare ipocrizie. Reflecțiile de mai jos îmi sunt inspirate de vizionarea greu dusă până la capăt a celui mai strălucitor succes de box-office al anului: „Deadpool and Wolverine”.

19/08/2024

THE SHAME OF BEING HUMAN
https://media9.ro/rusinea-de-a-fi-om/
This was one of those experiences that stays forever. I was in the cemetery, to sit at the grave of the being that was dearest to me: my daughter. The cemetery was large, so the silence was unbelievable for a place in the heart of the city…. The only consistent source of noise was the flocks of crows that made their way through the half-wild trees that had grown among the graves.

One of the crows caught my attention by its behavior: it periodically returned to a grave about 20 meters from me. She seemed to leave something in one of the (apparently empty) flowerpots and occasionally pick something up from there to nibble on the cement rim of the pot. The scene repeated itself until I became intrigued and decided to investigate what was going on. Here are the results of the investigation: at the bottom of the bowl there was a layer of water several centimeters deep, in which the clever crow placed pieces of dry bread collected from the generous garbage of the city to soak. When he came back with a new dry piece, he assessed the state of softening of the pieces there, chose a juicy one and... the feast was ready!

Such intelligent behavior can only intrigue us because for millennia we have considered the rest of living beings as biological automatons that wander here and there in search of what is important to them: security, food, reproduction. Automata of great importance to man in that, when domesticated, they provided him (by force, of course) food, fur, traction, and more. Let's not forget that those in the wild were targeted by hunters, ardent practitioners of the "noble sport of hunting."

The attitude towards animals is yet another area, and perhaps the bloodiest and saddest, of the limitless robbery that man has practiced on the planetary biosphere. And a privileged domain of the moral responsibility that humanity has in turning this planet into a slaughterhouse without limits and without stops. And this despite the fact that, almost 200 years ago, Charles Darwin said it as clearly as possible: "There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in terms of their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness and suffering".

Recently, studies devoted to animal intelligence have begun to crowd. I knew about chimpanzees, gorillas, crows and rockfish, octopuses and cuttlefish. Research on finding consciousness has also extended to other species, especially aquatic ones (these creatures being the real benchmarks of the lack of consciousness). And even on bees: Professor Lars Chittka, from Queen Mary University of London, demonstrated that these insignificant insects can count, recognize faces and use tools.

In his supremacist conceit, the human being has jealously "guarded" for himself all the qualities, attributes and rights associated with intelligence and consciousness. Following Cartesian influence, consciousness has until recently been associated with two human attributes: speculative intelligence and articulate language. Typical human supremacist attitude: in fact, the attribute of intelligence is characteristic of all species of living things, be they plants or animals. Intelligence being nothing but the ability of living organisms to adapt to environmental conditions, finding solutions that make survival possible. And they, not us humans, are good examples of intelligence, because there are plenty of species that ensure their survival for hundreds of millions of years (the ctenophore champions are estimated to be 700 million years old).

For me, the intelligence of living matter is a closed topic with a clear conclusion: intelligence, understood as the power to adapt to the environment, exists at all levels of organization of living matter. Then, the picture of living matter presents an aspect that has so far escaped the views of man set for planetary robbery: the complexity of organization, coexistence and communication between the elements that make up the living part of an ecosystem. When we break into an ancient forest with chainsaws or bulldozers, we completely ignore the fact that those trees constitute a community that, chemically or electrically, communicates, coordinates, reacts and defends itself together. It has been unequivocally proven that plants have a "sensitivity" of their own, reacting not only to the states of their fellows but also to the emotional states of the human experimenter.

A whole universe of sensations, experiences, even memories - this is the hidden, unseen existence of non-human life that surrounds us in every corner of the planet. A life that preceded us made possible the evolution of our species and its full development, which we regard with smug superiority ("take, there, some animals..."), denying them any attribute of complexity and any shred of life aware. Research has shown that after a force-lactating cow is separated from her calf (which is actually destined for shredding for dog food…) she spends up to 3 months in a state of deep mourning, suffering intense. This is the price of the glass of milk, "good and fresh", which we lovingly give to our human child!

And this, in a nutshell, is the story of how man came to dominate this planet and how cynically and cruelly he used its resources. Ultimately, when we talk about the ecological crimes of humanity, we are mainly referring to the inanimate resources of the planet and we continue to neglect the present, intense and palpable suffering that man imposes on the planetary biosphere, through the cynicism of his acts, through his gross unconsciousness and by chasing "economic" advantages at all costs. If there really was a "karma," then the crimes committed against our fellow-dwellers on Earth should have long ago bent us into the yoke of suffering and remorse.

But it is not so; humanity continues its triumphant march towards new horizons of prosperity. And the billions of beings who are cruelly and carelessly slaughtered for our immeasurable lusts in vast slaughterhouses from which flow blood and suffering, go into non-being in bewilderment, with an unspoken question: "Why did you need my life?"

Now you understand the title of this article. When I think about all this, I feel ashamed...