I have no dreams, yet I must sleep

The hard part about driving in Toronto (or any other big city for that matter) is more than anything else the sheer amount of information that you have to keep track of. Once you've checked that the lane you want to turn into is clear, that the lights are in the your favour, that the bicycle coming up from behind you on your inside isn't going to try and pass you while you are turning, that the street crazy who is gesturing to the winds on the sidewalk isn't going to make a sudden lunge into traffic, that the guy in the parked car that you are just about to pass isn't going to try to pull out at the exact moment you switch lanes, that there are no signs saying turning on X day during Y to Z hours is illegal --- you've just creamed the poor slob who suddenly stepped off the streetcar on your other side.

I remember once having a discussion in University with somebody about the value of human intelligence. He felt that it was obviously the most important evolutionary trait any species could develop, specifically because it had brought us to where we are now. I argued that that was only the case if it didn't eventually also lead us to killing ourselves off. (I had this argument at the the height of the cold war, when nuclear extinction was a distinct possibility.)

I argued that dinosaurs probably would have defined size or strength as important, but it did them fuck all good when the major climate changes came that eventually caused their extinction [1]. Just so, being smart is only useful if it doesn't cause you to build and set off things that make the world go boom.

Of course this argument assumes that the measure of evolutionary success is longevity. It could also be argued that intelligence led us to our current position at the top of the food chain[2], so it's a measureable success even if our reign is shorter than that of other species.

Personally, I think our adaptability is way more of an evolutionary advantage than our brains.

Anyway. Work on the house is in the home stretch. I'm been having a dog of a time trying to get everything done that I want to do.

( monday )

( yesterday )

( today )

( tomorrow )

( friday )

( finally )

footnote [1]
It is the current favourite theory that climate change is what did in the big lizards, isn't it? I followed this stuff like a religion when I was about 10 -- and could have named all the periods, how long they lasted and who lived in them. Sod me if I can remember any of it now. Puberty has a lot to answer for.

footnote [2]
"Top" with the exception of viruses, bacteria, prions, and those guys in the Illuminati.