Words and parses must compete, evolve, split into species, go extinct etc. All knowledge and social phonomonons must reproduce and compete. You are able to go live the primitive life if you want to. The whole world has not been close to covered yet. You could live like Thoreau but you would surly want to bring a few of the great advancements with you.
Humans are about as much smaller than the universe as they are bigger than the smallest things.
We are in the middle, which is naturally where the most complexity occurs.