A look at human behaviour and how it impacts the world
Transcriber: Thanh Nguyễn Đức Chí
Reviewer: Shimaa Nabil
Human life is so short,
and during this time,
it’s always going to be our choices
that affect what we do
and who we become.
At the center
of these choices is our brain.
Now, our brain is a symmetrical pattern,
a mesmerizing maze of hundreds
of billions of neurons.
It’s just mind blowing. No pun intended.
This mere abundance of tiny particles
has literally shaped the world
around us as we know it today.
Briefly straying away from this thought.
There are many things that
we just take for granted.
This could be ice cream, music or books.
If we were to think about it.
Why were these things invented?
Were they just created by
the tiny particles in our minds?
No, they were created because of
the way we chose to live over the years.
Here’s an example.
Music was created because
the human lifestyle,
which was a form of entertainment
every now and then.
An example of this is one of
the earliest forms of music
played in the courts of kings
in the palaces when they were bored.
Another example of this is beds.
Simply invented because humans wished for
a comfortable place to sleep.
So basically, as we adapted to different
ways of life, there were some outcomes.
If you want entertainment, you got music.
If you want comfort, you
can get sofas or beds.
But if you were to take a step
back and take a closer look,
we can see that sometimes as we adapt
to different ways of life,
there can be some negative outcomes.
This applies to the modern world
more than ever nowadays.
Our behavior, our lifestyle hasn’t
done much justice to our planet.
We humans have taken actions
that have started diseases
and spread havoc across the world.
We’ve taken actions
that have spread fear
and we’ve taken actions that
have closed the world.
We may even be leading ourselves
to an imminent extinction.
So why is this happening?
The answer is simple.
The way we’ve chosen to live
has decided this for us.
It is a part of some cultures to eat
potentially infectious animals.
And due to this, diseases can spread.
We humans have chosen to use
the material like plastic
and therefore we risk cluttering
the world and plastic pollution.
Our choices are responsible for the bad
things that are going on around the world.
Linking with the behavioral aspect,
society also plays a huge part in our
impact on the world around us.
What society?
Naturally, that comes peer pressure.
We can see the effects of peer pressure
since times of kings.
Kings would often go poaching for
animal skins and heads from them.
Owning animal skins and maybe
even hanging animal heads
on your wall would seem popular and
fashionable since the King viewed it
as a symbol of royalty and power.
This may seem very alien to you now,
but it’s in play this very second.
If a famous celebrity was to endorse
a particular bugger company,
that bugger becomes the new trend.
The new hot item, you could say,
and the effects of this
could be disastrous.
I’d like to mention that these
things have been created
because of norms that we face in society.
If we were to implement democracy,
which is about collective opinion.
Why can’t we use this democracy to
create laws which will help society?
What aspects of
our modern lives would be unacceptable
in the eyes of a climate activist,
for example?
In conclusion, I would like to say
that good luck to human kind.
We’ve got this far already, and
I hope that one day we shall see change
in our attitude towards the planet
and our lifestyles.
But before we can go
and jump that huge leap and change
the world around us, we must look
deep inside and change ourselves.
Thank you.
(Claps)