![shaftwhores only by [EXE]dann](/files/avatars/2007/51852-shaftwhore.gif "shaftwhores only by [EXE]dann"){kind=small}
What is the point? Should we egomaniacly celebrate our human accomplishments? Is there really something special about being able to run half the speed of a cheetah? As we look around the world today, we see sillyness everywhere. People striving to achieve mediocrity, and then getting rewarded for being slightly less mediocre than every other human. Shouldn't awards be used to support and motivate?
The award ceremony itself should be brief, so people can get back to work. Many people dislike work. Most people have slave-like jobs fit for robots. If you find the right work, it is highly rewarding, in and of itself, with or without financial gain. When you add financial gain, you might find yourself becoming a work-aholic.
There is a lot of work to be done... a whole Universe to explore. Awards should be as least distracting as possible. In general, motivation, exercise and support should be the only purposes of sport. Fun is important, of course, and that is part of support and motivation.
If you ask what should be exercised and encouraged, you find almost all sporting things fail qualification. Swimming 1/16th as fast as the slowest fish is no accomplishment (and serves no practical use). What does qualify, are all things of the intellect: science, engineering, constructing, manufacturing, researching, machine-operating, designing... all things which go relatively unrewarded compared to brutish sports of nothing but personal and financial value. Why don't we change our sporting ways? Why don't we create some kind of scientific sport? You could have teams of scientists and engineers, competing against each other for billions of dollars. It would certainly give the world of science the kind of money necessary (and the kind currently only going to things of uselessness). What could these teams do with the exercise, motivation and support we give to professional or Olympic 'athletes'? Sure, those 'athletes' can jump a fraction the height of a frog (proportionately speaking), but what possible use can that serve, especially when considering the jumping machines we could create, which jump far higher than frogs, humans, or anything else organic? Our jets fly faster than the fastest bird. Our cars run faster than the fastest cat. Even though this is clearly and obviously true, humans persist with their contests of running and jumping... rewarding these inane things as if they should be rewarded.
The direction we are going, and should be going, is perfectly clear. Why then do so many humans continue moving in the wrong directions? Why do we reward metaphors for human achievement instead of rewarding the actual thing?
The award ceremony itself should be brief, so people can get back to work. Many people dislike work. Most people have slave-like jobs fit for robots. If you find the right work, it is highly rewarding, in and of itself, with or without financial gain. When you add financial gain, you might find yourself becoming a work-aholic.
There is a lot of work to be done... a whole Universe to explore. Awards should be as least distracting as possible. In general, motivation, exercise and support should be the only purposes of sport. Fun is important, of course, and that is part of support and motivation.
If you ask what should be exercised and encouraged, you find almost all sporting things fail qualification. Swimming 1/16th as fast as the slowest fish is no accomplishment (and serves no practical use). What does qualify, are all things of the intellect: science, engineering, constructing, manufacturing, researching, machine-operating, designing... all things which go relatively unrewarded compared to brutish sports of nothing but personal and financial value. Why don't we change our sporting ways? Why don't we create some kind of scientific sport? You could have teams of scientists and engineers, competing against each other for billions of dollars. It would certainly give the world of science the kind of money necessary (and the kind currently only going to things of uselessness). What could these teams do with the exercise, motivation and support we give to professional or Olympic 'athletes'? Sure, those 'athletes' can jump a fraction the height of a frog (proportionately speaking), but what possible use can that serve, especially when considering the jumping machines we could create, which jump far higher than frogs, humans, or anything else organic? Our jets fly faster than the fastest bird. Our cars run faster than the fastest cat. Even though this is clearly and obviously true, humans persist with their contests of running and jumping... rewarding these inane things as if they should be rewarded.
The direction we are going, and should be going, is perfectly clear. Why then do so many humans continue moving in the wrong directions? Why do we reward metaphors for human achievement instead of rewarding the actual thing?
Edited by iniiiiiiii at 13:04 CDT, 21 September 2009 - 719 Hits
