Have you seen the Netflix documentary about ‘Inside the Mind of a Dog’?
I’m currently completing a second book which explores the connection we have with animals. It’ll be titled How to Survive the Next 100 Years: Lessons from Nature.
Without giving away too much of the secret, there is a momentous change happening right now. It’s altering the way our planet’s ecosystemsHow ecosystems function An ecosystem is a community of lifeforms that interact in such an optimal way that how ecosystems function best, is when all components (including humans and other animals) can persist and live alongside each other for the longest time possible. Ecosystems are fuelled by the energy created by plants (primary producers) that convert the Sun's heat energy More are evolving. It’s giving human beings a greater role in our future and it marks a return to a way we used to behave. A time when we were more connected to nature.
It’s not what you might think though.
That connection is being led by animals.
A new style of cooperation
The forcing together of humans and other animals is a consequence of the same challenges we each face, due to environmental loss. While it can lead to conflict, it’s also leading to a new type of relationship. One where animals are doing what’s necessary to lead us into better behaviour, to understand our relationship with nature, through their actions. It’s the choices they are making to survive that are shining a light on a pathway to our own survival.
In the new book I will introduce you to this concept, which hasn’t (as far as I am aware) ever been broached like this. Certainly not in the perspective of humanity’s own future and the rebalancing of our planet’s ecosystems. For reasons you will hopefully find out (once the book is published in May next year) it offers genuine cause to rethink our attitudes about our future.
The Last Man
Unfortunately, hopelessness is sadly a human trait. There is, however, no evidence that the opposite idea – that we aren’t doomed – can equally be true. We’ve just never asked this. It is not in our nature to do so. Science is trapped in a cycle of seeing everything as a ‘problem’ instead of seeing opportunities.
As Mary Shelley wrote in The Last Man in 1826:
‘Disappointment is the never-failing pilot of our life’s bark, and ruthlessly carries us on to the shoals’.
So, it was wonderful to hear this quote from Brian Hare on the Netflix show:
“A new type of friendliness evolved, So, survival of the friendliest is really the most successful evolutionary strategy that has been identified. It is counter to survival of the fittest. It is not at all about being big bad alpha makes you superior, and in fact, if anything, being dominant is super costly and any species that evolves the new type of friendliness that leads to new forms of cooperation just absolutely does gangbusters in the game of life.” – Brian Hare.
Even though he was talking about domestic dogs, remember, that relationship came from wild animals. Wherever you look, you can find similar relationships re-evolving everywhere today, with a whole raft of different species:
People who spend time looking at animals know this. They are happier, more positive about the world.
Think about this for a moment. Would you rather your life’s bark be disappointment, or learn from a dog’s bark, which is a window into your own mind … a way of revealing evidence for the joy and hope that is missing in our nature?
