I just finished watching a quick YouTube documentary style video about people permanently living inside Japanese cafes. This is the nine minute video, and basically a man and a woman in their twenties describe how it is to live in the cafes and their reason. It is a chilling video because ultimately we are social animals and we NEED those small and seemingly meaningless interactions with our family and friends. When this is removed, sooner or later we go crazy. This is when the real problems occur such as mass shootings, abductions, rape, torture, murder, suicide, and abuse to name a few. This is terrifying but what is even more scarier is that this is ongoing as I write this. This is a significant problem that will only continue to grow for the very reason of our human condition and us not mastering our limitations but rather being slaves to it. The problem isn’t in the people because the people who end up in these cafes (accidentally or purposefully) can be trained to become outstanding citizens in the world. This goes for Japan, America, and all other countries if we do not solve the underlying disease which is our lack of recognition to our nature. Japan and America are prime examples of countries where neglected individuals falling through the cracks lead to suicide, violence, and the like. Other countries are following right behind because this is a social problem, not a resource problem.
Okay, now I will explain the situation: Earth has finite resources that life needs to survive. Before, it was abundant; however, if you don’t know, life reproduces exponentially. This is normal and expected once you understand the nature of exponential reproduction. Given enough food (a type of resource), life reproduces exponentially until the limit of life to food maximizes. There is a certain limit to the quantity of life that is able to be reproduced to any given quantity of resources (food). This is true when resources are finite such as the Earth. However, when the resource is magnitudes of times larger, the time it takes to reach this limit increases drastically. This makes it harder to put this idea into words. We have reached the point (whether ten years ago or one hundred is negligent for this argument) where the structures we have in place to create and have resources for life do not keep up with the quantity of people we have today. Yes, there is enough land to feed everyone with the right resources (I believe not cattle and animals but with insects or something), but this argument is negligible in this conversation. Going back to the original idea: The effects we experience today such as people living in cramp, social-less quarters which (significantly) increase the probability of neurotic behavior like violence to oneself or others, increases dramatically. We are at the point of human progression where the resources to life proportion is causing problems. Yes, we can create better technology to increase the output of nutritional value of food or recycle resources better, but the underlying problem (that is the human condition problem) remains. It remains because once we create that better technology that saves us a couple years, our exponential reproductive rate catches up. It is an insatiable relentless force that cannot be seen but felt. How can you solve a problem when you don’t know it exists?
My high school engineering teacher introduced me to the engineering-design process which states that the first step to solve a problem is to identify it. The blog aims to materialize the underlying problem (the “Human Condition Problem”) because although it breaks my heart to see people live in cyber cafes, that is not the problem. The problem is: we do not understand ourselves; and consequently, our probable behavior. We can’t plan ahead and break out of the cycle of greed, lust, and need. This is why I write: I want to end my suffering and all others.
I did a lot of talking but I felt like I did not address the title of this conversation: how are Manboo, New York, and reproduction related? Basically, our basic and raw nature is to reproduce. This is a foundational idea that when looking at the bigger picture of humans throughout time, it is useful. What this means is that we have reached the point of humanity where there will be places like New York where millions of people live in close quarters. This is not ideal for human life and leads to unwanted and terrible consequences such as violence because countless of people’s needs are unmet. Manboo is a tiny example of consequences from a cramp place with large amounts of people living together. New York is on a whole other scale. Land and food are expensive so cyber cafes are extremely convenient. My prediction is that there will be more and more places like New York; or maybe they are already here but New York is so symbolic and ahead of it’s time relative to population per area. This is a hard and scary idea, but by talking about it we take the first step understanding it and ultimately preventing our suffering. Thank you.