Artifices

The notion of fireworks is not easy to define. Man is by nature intelligent; His intelligence allows him to invent all kinds of fireworks; These artifices are therefore natural since they result from a natural function. However, any artifice by definition departs from natural situations and often contains great nuisances… This is the most blatant contradiction of the human condition, or at least of civilization. After Le Petit Robert: artifice is a skillful, ingenious, and in the most common sense: a deceptive and skillful way to disguise the truth, or even a subtlety made to deceive.

The use that human ecogenetics actually makes is on horseback between these two senses: it is here the means that man is able to invent in the face of a natural or anterior situation in order to modify it, usually to his advantage. The habit, for example, is an artifice that allows to compensate at too low a temperature, in order to increase comfort or preserve the organism. It is thanks to his intelligence that man is able to dress (no animal does it in nature). Clothing allows him to adapt culturally to cold areas of the globe, such as the Inuit to the Polar Circle (this of course has nothing to do with genetic adaptation to cold areas).

However, any artifice has disadvantages because it places organisms in situations for which they are not genetically programmed. Clothing allows the colonization of cold regions, and also leads to a weakening of organisms. Dependence on heating installations is created with their consequences for pollution, global warming, deforestation, etc.

Civilization consists of a multitude of artifices that place different organisms in new situations to which their genetic data are not in principle adapted to the origin. It is therefore necessary to examine each piece of artifice and question the adaptability of organisms: has genetic adaptation been possible? Is the potential for epigenetic adaptation not exceeded? What are, for each artifice, its origin, its raison d’être, its ecological, physiological and psychological consequences?

Human ecogenetics is taking one more step and questioning the root causes that have led men to invent and multiply each of the fireworks currently harmful to the environment. What are psychic factors that still make us dependants on it to the point of not giving priority consideration to environmental damage?

The problem is much more complex than it seems at first sight. As every time we get ready to explore a new domain: the entrance of the cave seems insignificant, and we sometimes discover a whole world of stalactites, stalagmites, and skeletons…