The Desire for Novelty: Are We Slaves to Our Instincts


 

As stated in a previous blog, humans decided to take charge of fire even though they fear it. It was that innovation that helped us progress this far. Where did it come from? How were we able to stop ourselves from flinching at the mere sight of fire? In fact, cooking is one example of human beings overcoming their instinctual fear of fire by exposing themselves to it regularly.

All of this suggest that humans are the only species in this planet who can resist their instincts and act beyond them. We are not bound by our instincts. Unlike animals, we have a choice on whether or not to indulge in our instincts. We are the conquerors of instinct.

But I believe that we are not species that can go beyond instincts but rather it is our instinct to desire novelty.

A human is a species whose chief enemy is boredom. By some freak of nature, this species was cursed with the desire for novelty. The hands of a human will forever itch for something new.

Give food, water and shelter to a human and the next thing he does is invent the wheel because why not? He needs to transport things; a wheel makes it easier. Except it raises one question: why even transport things? Why not eat what you find and sleep where you can?

Again, a human cannot be satisfied with whatever he has. He always looks for something else. Anything that keeps him busy and ends up in some creation or the other would bring him great joy.

Through one action of cooking, the human has created various needs which other creatures do not have. Necessity is the mother of invention and thus, it resulted in various inventions.

Barter system – a way for human to enjoy things they don’t possess by giving up on what they possess. A very weird behaviour. It has no practical purpose aside from human gratification.

Money – a very abstract concept. Humans placed value on metal pieces and used them to buy objects. A piece of iron is placed with the value of so and so amount and is exchanged for an actual tomato. It got worse with paper currency. Hundreds of papers are exchanged for a piece of metal. One day the government decided to demonetize them and the papers became papers overnight.

Arts, science and technology are further testimonies of how humans can never be satisfied. This instinct of novelty is so great that we are willing to doom ourselves by creating artificial intelligence. The love for novelty is so great that we are willing to create something that could potentially destroy us. Animals wear themselves away by reproducing constantly. They are slaves to their instinct of reproduction. Are we any different?

So, let’s ask ourselves. Do we humans win our instincts or is it our instinctual desire for novelty to which we have been slaves to all along?


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