Wooly Mammoth
When I was younger and more foolish I made a list of predictions for the coming year. It was in the late ’80s and my late great friend, Captain Haggerty was organizing a new year’s publicity event around his dog training business and asked me if I wanted to take part. He was making predictions about what would be happening in the dog fancier’s world and displaying some of his dogs. I was to bellydance for the cameras and make some predictions about what would happen in the world at large.
Most of my predictions did not transpire in that year, but in some permutation many of them became pivotal in future years. Last week I noticed in the news that Japanese scientists were actively working on recreating a mammoth from genetic material retrieved from the Siberian permafrost. I had predicted just that in the late ’80s. It is claimed that the mammoth will be born of an elephant surrogate mom by the end of the decade. The elephant is the closest surviving relative of the mammoth.
Since the time I made that prediction, I have thought long and hard about the business of making predictions. I have noticed that predictions I’ve made often occur but seldom in the time frame I expected. Often people are looking for predictions about the personal lives of the rich and famous. I have no interest in that whatsoever.
I am concerned that in making a specific public prediction one can change the course of events. Simply put, if I write that Mr. X will be killed and a sizable group of individuals read that and think about it, does that make it more likely that Mr. X will perish? I suspect it will. It will affect the collective mind of humanity.
There is another reason I am not making a lot of predictions: my world view has become increasingly dark and I do not wish to infect others with my state of mind. I am not depressed, really, I’m actually fairly happy. It’s just that my “Weltanshauung” (world view) is very negative.
What I have to say next is going to sound very politically partisan but in actuality it is not. I was very hopeful about the world until the day after the 2000 US Presidential election. I was never very politically active previous to this time. I was and am an active environmentalist. Yes, I admit it I am a treehugger. After “W” was elected it seemed as though the whole world went to hell in so many ways, both related to the election and not related to it at all, and it has not recovered.
I will make only one prediction now, and it will be very general. The more you do to improve or save the environment, the happier your future will be; and conversely if you degrade the environment you can be sure the future will be awful for your old age and those that follow you.
Sometimes I wonder how people (are they really humans?) can be anti-environmental. I do understand a certain shortsightedness on the part of those who might lose their incomes as sanctions are put into place which would cause them to lose their jobs. There is a fairly simple answer for this. They should be retrained for green jobs. There is lots of money to be made in renewable energy, for example, and this is just the beginning.
It is a fantasy of mine that those who are politically active against the environment are reptilian alien shapeshifters who want the Earth to be turned into a hot awful wasteland so that they can immigrate their population from their wasted reptilian planet light years away and enslave the few remaining humans. In reality those belonging to the anti-environment group are probably simply greedy and rapacious sociopaths who don’t care a whit for anybody or anything beyond dying with the most toys.
Fahrusha's Weblog 
January 25, 2011 at 4:0 1
I was unaware that the Japanese were trying to recreate the Wooley Mammoth. Interesting, but more interesting is how time seems to be so problematic in predicting the future. I recently read Joe McMonegal’s book “The Ultimate Time Machine.” So many of the things he sees further out into the future I felt were much closer upon us. I then wondered if his writing about the future actually postponed many events. I have heard that the true purpose of predictions or prophesy is so that we may make needed changes. Does every action that each of us take based on information received speed events up or slow them down? I guess only time will tell!
Shelia
January 27, 2011 at 4:0 1
Dear Shelia,
Thank you for your comment. Clearly you are part of the solution (not the problem) with your way of thinking. As for time, I believe it is part of being in the physical world. It is a function of movement through space, therefore as Einstein said it is relative. A true act of will by the dynamic human can change the collective destiny.
January 26, 2011 at 4:0 1
When you say that you are no longer “very hopeful about the world” and its future, I think it is useful to be clear about the meaning of the term “world”. It is clear to me, for example, that the forms of human consciousness that created what we call “civilization”–and, in the process, radically estranged us from nature–have basically run their course, and (to borrow a biological term) are now in their senescence. That, say, China and India will soon supplant the U.S. culturally, economically, and politically is really of little moment, as the acceleration of cycles of change created by the technology we all now worship and lust after will just age them that much quicker, like one of those science-fiction stories where the scientist drinks some potion that turns him into an old man in a matter of hours, as opposed to years. They will soon be where we are right now—living on wealth created in the past, producing nothing, and consuming vast quantities of consumer goods and mass entertainment designed to titillate the senses and anesthetize our critical faculties. But this can’t be sustained. So something else is coming, and it will be very different from what we have now. Perhaps humans will no longer be the dominant species on earth. But will this be the end of the world? I don’t think so. Maybe it will mark the end of our inflated sense of our own self-worth, but maybe also the beginning of a more harmonious relationship to the planet, to each other, and to our selves.
January 27, 2011 at 4:0 1
Dear Joe,
Thank you for your comment. Yes, you are correct. By “world” I guess I more specifically meant our biosphere. The Earth has many more years of existence before Our Sun goes supernova.
And yes, China and India have come late to the party and will only push us over the environmental (and population) edge sooner as a result of the excesses involved in plundering the planet. Sadly, population excesses are perhaps the most damning factor. Eight billion is not a sustainable number.
January 27, 2011 at 4:0 1
Humans have done (and continue to do) damage to the biosphere. But I have great confidence in Gaia’s ability to rectify the situation. The problem for humanity will be when the bill actually comes due and must be paid in full. Those in political power all over the world who presently downplay or naysay “the environmental issue” will be regarded as, shall we say, a tad shortsighted and misinformed. Greed, ideology, and stupidity will be all too clear–in hindsight. “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear,” however, as it is so aptly engraved on my passenger’s side rear-view car mirror. The remnants of the human race will have to adapt to the new reality we have been creating over the past 10,000 years. But this will present new opportunities, as well. Pessimism and optimism can peacefully coexist.
January 29, 2011 at 4:0 1
Thank you for your comment. Some scientists believe that Mars once had a biosphere both similar and different to that of our Earth. Now the atmosphere there is largely gone, it is thought, due to loss of the magnetosphere. Have you seen the news stories lately about our magnetic North Pole shifting 50 miles in 2010? This year it seems it may move even more. Something to think about…
January 30, 2011 at 4:0 1
I don’t discount the possibility of large-scale earth changes, but my main interest is in our continuing obsession with them. I think the pervasive fear conceals the real feelings, however. I am reminded of the spoiled child who throws a tantrum when the parents, having reached their limits, finally put their foot down and say “no”, and the child, in a fit of pique, wishes them dead. We are the spoiled child, of course. And we are up against our limits with Mother Earth and are beginning to recognize that we are not omnipotent after all. But the anger that spurs the death wish is in part healthy on the child’s part, for it embodies an unconscious desire for such limits to be restored or imposed–for proper parental discipline, in other words. The child wants the defective relationship, in which it has the upper hand, to die. Such a restoration for humanity as a whole (or its remnant) would mean an end to greedy materialism and a return to a more balanced relationship to nature and spirit.
January 29, 2011 at 4:0 1
Hatti told Matty bout a thing she saw. I actually saw a wooly bully in the Rockies near Payonia in Colorado.
January 29, 2011 at 4:0 1
Dave,
Can you elaborate on your sighting?
Thanks!
January 31, 2011 at 4:0 1
The animals I noticed were grazing at an altitude of between 7500-8000 foot level. They were bulls with a sheep like hide the same color as their overall hide but like sheep. These were large animals.I’ll do some poking around and try to find a picture. My sighting was July 1992..Daryll was with me at the time…
February 1, 2011 at 4:0 1
Very interesting indeed!
February 4, 2011 at 4:0 1
It’s worth reading COLLAPSE by pulitzer prize winner Jared Diamond to see how various cultures have collapsed because of environmental depredation in the past, including cultures many New Agers tend to idealize – the Mayans, for example, completely devestated their environment with overpopulation and deforestation, and eventually degenerated, as a result, into continual internal warfare, and finally cannibalism. They may have been able to prophesize star alignments, but they had no ability whatsoever as to how to get along with each other, or to change as their environmental and population situation became dire.
I think what Joe said in his first post was wise – we will either change in a new adaptation to a new global humanity, or we’ll go the way of the Mayans, degenerating into little tribes in the midst of massive ruins, slowly returning to the real source of everything – the Earth.
February 4, 2011 at 4:0 1
I think I will put COLLAPSE on my reading list. The food riots will no doubt intensify as the year progresses and if the weather continues to be extreme this will further impact food production.
Thanks for the Comment.
February 4, 2011 at 4:0 1
You were right… your writing on predictions is similar to mine! I really like your examples of predictions. It is so true that the timing is just not what someone should focus on. Thanks for putting this out there. I will continue to check into this blog.
February 4, 2011 at 4:0 1
Thank you. And I will keep reading your blog as well. How could I not, considering the similar poses in our gravitars? 🙂
February 4, 2011 at 4:0 1
Note to answer Joe’s last post above: I think what you are saying about humans as spoiled children is true for a certain segment of the population. It is clear that you have thought a great deal about these matters.
February 5, 2011 at 4:0 1
The “spoiled child” analogy is imperfect and somewhat crude. There are two levels. The first, more superficial level is the sense of arrogance and entitlement that some (especially reasonably well-off middle-class suburban types) actually feel and manifest in their demeanor. For example, someone cuts in front of you at the store, cheats you out of money, or puts chemicals on your lawn (without your permission) because they have an obsession with dandelions, and if you call them to account for their actions, they will become nasty and vindictive and act as if you have the problem. They feel entitled to lie, cheat, and steal, and just be plain rude and inconsiderate. But the second level is deeper and more insidious. There are imperatives built into the very structure of our civilizations that have nothing to do with how people consciously feel or act. One can feel and act with humility and concern but still be controlled by these imperatives. For all our systems require constant growth of economies and populations. Whatever fosters this growth is then defined as virtue; whatever impedes it is vice. Aggressive, rapacious, no-holds barred deregulated capitalism is good; concern for the less well off and the environment, market and industrial regulation, etc. is bad. But it’s not just in the political sphere that these imperatives are operative. One suspects that many religious restrictions regarding procreation (against abortion, birth control, etc.) that adherents consciously justify on lofty moral and spiritual principles having to do with “the sanctity of life” etc., are really (i.e., unconsciously) ways to foster population growth of one’s particular group and thus assure eventual cultural and social dominance. Control of the female and her reproductive process, control of food resources (the agricultural revolution) and control of nature (the scientific and technological revolutions) are all part of the same process, which transcends individual will, personality, etc.
August 8, 2013 at 4:0 1
[…] Some years ago in the late ’80s, I predicted that biologists and geneticists would be able to breed mammoths and possibly mastodons by using frozen DNA which would be found in the Arctic regions. I wrote a blog piece which touched on this a while back: https://fahrusha.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/mammoth-prediction/ […]