A friend postulated a novel thought today - what if we are the first species in the Universe to develop intelligence, the Ancient Ones that all future beings will know from legend, for good or ill? In many Science Fiction stories there are references to ancient civilizations, either brilliant engineers who colonized the known galaxies or stunted fools who fouled their planets and extinguished themselves long before they should have due to their own arrogance. It's a daunting thought that we might be "the first", but it seems pretty unlikely we'll be the last. And if we keep up our present attitude and actions, it also seems pretty clear that we'll end up as the cautionary tale for future races: the example of how to squander one's advantages rather than capitalize on them (despite our dominant culture of capitalism). But I digress, and in a fairly depressing and disappointing way. I mean, really, what does it matter? I'm alive now, I won't be alive all too soon, and there is virtually no chance that I will see the end of my planet, much less the end of my species - I mean, not to sound selfish, but I'll be long dead before the human population is likely to be faced with immanent extinction. I want to affect the course of my species, but I am really very unsure how I might effectively do that.
However, while we might not extinguish the planet anytime soon, we may all be in imminent danger of freezing - it's well below zero in Denver, freezing rain in Portland, Oregon, there are blizzard warnings for the western Columbia River gorge, and most of the center of this continent will be experiencing deep winter conditions for the remainder of November! I wish it would snow here, it's still not really acting very wintery in Northern California (with only one Tahoe ski resort open - and they made most of their snow).
OK, it is now time for me to build some more of the garden shed: I was hoping to get it finished before the weather really changed, but they are predicting rain today, and it may be raining again towards the end of the week, so it's time I get to it!!