Ingenuity and Invention

Something I've noticed (and, as displayed by today's quote, I'm not the only one) is that humankind has always been creative. We've always pushed our boundaries to reach beyond what others say is possible, and grab some of the impossible possibilities. Sometimes this has been a good thing, and sometimes a bad thing, but I think that's one of the defining things about humanity. We know our limits, then we ignore them anyway because we consider them not the boundaries of what can be done, but as merely the limits of what has been done.
Some things shouldn't be done. I honestly don't believe in cloning - that will release a lot more problems than even our present number. I am a great fan of modern medicine, although there are some things I think we really don't need vaccines for, they only help the bacteria to mutate into something more dangerous. I am a little wary of the lasik surgery they have now for eyes, but I think it's a good idea, just potentially dangerous. I do believe it is getting better though.
I believe that the modern machinery of war that we have now makes everything so impersonal that you can forget what you're fighting for and just go and blast the brains out of some country you never even saw before, if you really want to do that. I believe that nuclear weapons should have never been developed, but in the same token I'm glad we came up with them first (even though they really should have been more careful about it) because that's the shame about some forms of technology. Sometimes you have to develop something that should never be used, merely for the reason that it will keep others who have developed it from using it on you. Granted, we did drop two atomic bombs on Japan - I don't agree with that part of our history. I don't claim to know whether or not it was the right decision, there are good arguements for both sides, but it should never have been seen as necissary in the first place.
Nothing beats humanity's quest for survival, and the ingenuity we find when seeking the best way to survive. There are unmanned planes flying now, manned by the Air Force, and yet they still have a human to give commands. The will for human survival is much stronger than any programming, and the Air Force wants to make sure that those expensive UAV's come back as often as possible. The human mind can calculate how best to survive, long after a computer will deem something statistically impossible. The human brain is the most powerful computer in the world. It can calculate the trajectory of a ball and determine the position the hands must be in to safely catch it, all without knowing the original trajectory or velocity of the ball, or the relative humidity of the day, the velocity of the wind, and the exact value of gravity at that particular place in the world. And all without numbers, calculated accurately in the few seconds the ball is in the air. There may be no numerical answer at the end, but the correct answer is apparent when the hands have successfully caught the ball. Have you ever stopped to think about how amazing that is?
The human mind is the most powerful computer in the world, able to survive for more than eighty years without becoming completely obsolete. It can store and remember things from when it was young, calculate complex equations without any math whatsoever, and maintain a living, breathing human being without any conscious effort. The brain is a fascinating thing, especially the human brain, and there are so many things it can do I can't even list them all. All I can say is there's nothing quite like the ingenuity of a good brain.