It’s been some time now that apiologists and horticulturalists have been concerned about the plight of bees. There aren’t as many of them as there used to be, and that’s a concern. Bees, after all, pollinate, and pollination is important for many of our food sources. While the bees have been away—on vacation? Suffering colony collapse disorder?—researchers in the Australian Almond Breeding Program at the University of Adelaide’s Waite campus have developed five new varieties of almonds, and three of those five are self-fertile.
That presents us with a new problem. If the bees return from wherever, will they have any work to do? Looks like job losses aren’t just a human issue. In Australia, where the largest export crop is almonds, bees might soon be out of work. What will happen?
Are we about to have a welfare bee class? “Busy as a bee” will no longer be applicable. Genetic modification of plants might make them a permanent welfare class. Well, maybe not. There are still other plants aplenty in need of pollination. Right? But, alas, human interference is about to step in there, also. Harvard University researchers under the direction of Robert Wood have invented RoboBees designed to replace bees as pollinators.*
Does that introduce yet another complication? To be effective thousands of such RoboBees will have to work in conjunction with one another to pollinate a field. What if they all get angry? What if they become Africanized? Oh! No! Killer Africanized RoboBees! Keep the kids inside!
Have you noticed that with respect to Nature, just about everything we do to make things “better” gives us yet another problem to solve? We’re not going to run out of problems—ever. Because we have the ability to meddle and the desire to make the world in our image, we run up against the one barrier we can’t cross: Becoming an actual god with sufficient foresight to avoid unwanted and unintended complications. We intend the unintended just by meddling.
So, if at some time in the not too distant future your self-driving car’s windshield is cracked by collisions with RoboBees as you take a drive in the country, don’t be surprised. This is the world we have made. And every attempt to unmake it simply makes another world to unmake. So, maybe the bees will be out of work, but not us. All this making and unmaking should keep us occupied for centuries to come.
* http://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-robobees-closer-to-pollinating-crops-2014-6
That presents us with a new problem. If the bees return from wherever, will they have any work to do? Looks like job losses aren’t just a human issue. In Australia, where the largest export crop is almonds, bees might soon be out of work. What will happen?
Are we about to have a welfare bee class? “Busy as a bee” will no longer be applicable. Genetic modification of plants might make them a permanent welfare class. Well, maybe not. There are still other plants aplenty in need of pollination. Right? But, alas, human interference is about to step in there, also. Harvard University researchers under the direction of Robert Wood have invented RoboBees designed to replace bees as pollinators.*
Does that introduce yet another complication? To be effective thousands of such RoboBees will have to work in conjunction with one another to pollinate a field. What if they all get angry? What if they become Africanized? Oh! No! Killer Africanized RoboBees! Keep the kids inside!
Have you noticed that with respect to Nature, just about everything we do to make things “better” gives us yet another problem to solve? We’re not going to run out of problems—ever. Because we have the ability to meddle and the desire to make the world in our image, we run up against the one barrier we can’t cross: Becoming an actual god with sufficient foresight to avoid unwanted and unintended complications. We intend the unintended just by meddling.
So, if at some time in the not too distant future your self-driving car’s windshield is cracked by collisions with RoboBees as you take a drive in the country, don’t be surprised. This is the world we have made. And every attempt to unmake it simply makes another world to unmake. So, maybe the bees will be out of work, but not us. All this making and unmaking should keep us occupied for centuries to come.
* http://www.businessinsider.com/harvard-robobees-closer-to-pollinating-crops-2014-6
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