Biomimetics: A revolution in thinking

For the last few millennia, we humans have thought of our species as being the sole species capable of intelligence, the only species to study the world around us and devising methods of exploiting physics to achieve our end goals. We always assumed that being the most successful species, there was nothing we could learn from the natural world, that all we could do was to be the benevolent caretaker of the lesser species in the wild.
While older religions revered the natural world and considered themselves a part of the natural order. Animals and other life was considered to be at least as sacred as human life, and feared for the horrors nature could inflict on the unprepared populace. However, most religions which originated in the last few millennia placed humans front and center, as being the sole beings on whom the weight of the world is placed, either as beings made in the image of god, or as the only beings with a soul and a divine right to rule. This was reflected in the gross overuse of natural resources and the mistreatment and abuse of animals for human gain. Human superiority over other life was taken for granted and science was focused on the study of the abstract, the knowledge of the functioning of the universe, and the self. Natural forces were tamed and electricity was used to empower civilization before the gaze turned once again at the natural world. The study of animals was limited to finding better ways of exploiting them.

However, over the last few decades, there has been a remarkable transition in our approach to studying animals, and science in general. New ideas are being developed, not based on the abstract thoughts of man, but by observing animals and insects in nature. Scientists see things in nature that they wouldn't imagine possible in their wildest dreams, and try mimicking this behavior only to discover a previously unknown niche in the laws they thought they'd already fully understood. Animals are no longer studied just to better methods of exploiting them but to better understand them and how amazing they are at using physics, and how numerous are the forms of intelligence that can exist in the natural world.

The Beginning: Again

It's been a few years now since I moved to a new country, and the bookmark of this blog on my homepage is a constant reminder that I've barely written anything in the last two year. I started writing this blog as a means to help me clarify and critique my thoughts and opinions on my experiences and on ideas that i come across.

However, the last two years have left me gasping for breath as a whirlwind of events have left me in a country a few thousands of kilometers from my own, pursuing a PhD in an environment at once strange and familiar. Never more have i needed this outlet and never before have i had less time for it.

However, in the quest of finding a semblance of order in my thinking, i shall pen down my thoughts, however arbitrary and wayward they are for the next few weeks.

With that said, i look at my fellow bloggers and applaud their dedication and ability to keep writing, through thick and thin, through times that require them to stay up nights to write, through writer's blocks that make them  feel like bidding adieu to it all and cozying up with a book. Keep at it folks! You're an inspiration to the rest of us.