This is an accurate, beautiful and succinctly written article about the systemic facts of pathogens and their inevitable interplay (or potentially checkmate) for biology on this planet. Politicians, pundits and serious scientists spray the words “existential threat” like graffiti regarding atmospheric change (mostly global warming) as well they should — it’s a legitimate concern. There are, in fact, numerous “existential” threats to life and intelligence on this planet. Shall we start a list? Nuclear holocaust, substantial solar radiant aberration from our star, collision of the planet with an large asteroid, significant shift of planetary axis/magnetism/lunar inter-relationship, unintended runaway bio/nuclear or chemical processes, extraordinary dystopia generated by even elementary formulaic machine learning, the list goes on.

What is my point in both complimenting this Medium Article and going on to list just the non-black swan possibilities for apocalypse? To plead a case that goes along the lines somewhat with some of Jordon Peterson’s arguments. We have real stuff to be concerned about. Tribalism, demonizing, stereotyping and non-cooperative intolerant non-compromising ideological animosity is the last thing we need if we are to make progress in learning to deal with inevitable true “existential” challenges. Be an individual, the real “resistance” is to exit the temptation to simply blend to intolerant and intransigent far left or far right ideological identity and be a part of solution to our tenuous progress as human beings and spiritual ambassadors to this tiny space time spot amidst an infinite sea of cosmos.