Human Communication and Vagaries of Truth

The foundation of the human species, Homo sapiens, is the trait of intellect, the ability to use intelligence in creative and communicative modes. This requires a great deal of “brain power," which was critical to early humanity's survival. Evolution provided the human brain with the volume and structure to create the beginnings of intellect in the early pre-human primate species. It took the development of both intellectual and physical attributes over a million years to provide the species Homo sapiens with the intellectual and physical characteristics that gave humans the ability to survive and conquer planet Earth. Humanity’s close cousins, chimpanzees and bonobos, and other primates and many other animals as well, use elementary forms of communication that provide survival and evolution of their species over millions of years, but they lack advanced intellect.

Homo sapiens did much better than all the other animals. Animal survival depends on evolving to fit changing environments by adapting to changes in reproduction and also in finding and consuming food and water to adapt to changing environments. Plant life must also adapt to changing environments. In biological simplicity, herbivores consume plants and can feed and survive in vast numbers when enough vegetative food is available. Because meat provides more energy than plants, predators evolved to kill and eat other animals and when the environment provides ample food for herbivores, predatory carnivores also survive in large numbers.? Of course, life on Earth is more complex than the balance between herbivores and carnivores, but that basic relationship of life is the foundation of the existence of life on Earth.

Individual early humans were easy prey for large predators and tribal life in cooperative numbers was essential for the survival of the species. Tribal life demanded cooperation and exchange of information. The biological imperative for survival directed the evolution of the human species. This evolutionary path of survival for the genus Homo stimulated the evolution of human intellect as it developed and expanded into a form of tribal human interaction that eventually dominated animal life on Earth.

The advance of intellect was dependent on the development of bipedalism and language. The forelegs of some species of early primates evolved from quadruped movement into a bipedal competence for climbing trees in jungles, and then in the genus Homo into full bipedalism and erect stature on the hind legs. This freed the frontal limbs to develop into arms and hands with manipulative capability and gave the hind legs full control over locomotion. This allowed the development of hands with opposable fingers and thumbs that allowed intricate physical interaction with the environment. Essential to the physical capability that erect stature and manipulative capability provided was the development of intellect and the functional connection between mind and environment. ?Intellect provided for the creation and use of weapons, tools, and complex interactions with other members of familial and tribal societies.

The essential key to the survival and domination of Homo sapiens was provided by these evolutionary developments and the detailed and interactive communication between individual humans. This, along with a greatly evolved mentality, provided for verbal communication and planning between individuals as well as the guidance of tribal activities. This was the beginning of spoken language. Without the evolution of language that could provide complex meanings, humanity would not have evolved much beyond the level of modern chimpanzees.

Language, in all its varied forms and complexities, was and is the key to the survival and positive and negative behaviors and community structures of modern humanity. In these modern times, everything we do is usually dependent in one way or another upon human interactions based on a common language and often interactions with other languages at several points along the way. Language is composed of words that together provide detailed meaning and also guide the individual mind's control of physical and mental activities. Language has always developed, grown, and changed within and between the interactions of human cultures. This was a cultural necessity, especially as humanity expanded into many geographic areas and as cultures merged and separated. There are a great many words in every language, and they are the basis of human existence and activity.

The development of written language allowed humanity to advance into interactive and expanding cultures and preserve records of history, culture, trade, religion, people, countries, and social interactions.? Preserving information on clay began with Sumerian scribes in Iraq. Known as cuneiform writing, a form of wedge-shaped indentations in clay tablets somewhere around 3,200 years ago. The history of many wars and the directives of many religions are embedded in early written words. The Sumerian epic poem ‘Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta’ embedded in clay in 1800 BCE is considered to be the first known preserved early writing of a text. Words from the past provided an understanding of history and stimulation of writing in historical and current times.

As humanity quickly realized, the value and importance of the written word were embedded in the cultures of every country, every language, and every religion. The written word became the individualized recorded history and culture of every nation. Politics and wars were written in many languages and that truism, “It is the winners that write the history books”, became an analysis of history.? The element of real truth became more of a puzzle to be analyzed and solved rather than “the Gospel truth” created by imagination and authority.

As humanity became aware that manipulation of truth could result in a favorable situation for the manipulator it became difficult in many ways to rely upon the validity of a truth expressed by some people in various situations. It became necessary in some circumstances to question and sometimes even deny the truths expressed by people who had supernatural authority. An inaccurate truth that was found out to be perhaps an error, or a mistake could be corrected or dismissed. But an untruth deliberately created for a nefarious purpose would become known as a “bald face” lie that enriched the liar and or enhanced status in the community. And even though religion expressed absolute truth as obtained from God himself, sometimes it could be seen that the quoting of the absolute truth of the Gospel was often fabricated to enrich those with the authority that God supposedly granted them.

So… how many versions of real and artificial TRUTH are there? Well, be assured that the following comments are the absolute truth! I know that because I created them. I hope you can understand my thoughts on this, there are certainly better ways to express it, but this is my take. I’ll charge you for it later. Chuckle…

First of all, there is real truth. It is unencumbered by unverified proofs, not proven by complex data of uncertain origin, not created or confused by a hidden human purpose, and it cannot be unproven by human conjecture alone. It is TRUTH that would be correct and true even if life and humanity had never evolved. It is the real truth that is beyond the machinations of humanity and even other evolutionary and behavioral aspects of untruths in animal life. Real truth, such as the Earth revolves around the Sun, is always there, always right, and although such real truth is often hidden under the blankets of human imagination and human ignorance, it is basic to the existence of all life.

Real truth, the first truth, is not compromised by the untruths of ignorance and lies. It is always there, waiting to be discovered, waiting to be identified as real truth, and then given its rightful place in human knowledge. The second truth, the most common, would be a simple untruth based on human ignorance, imagination, and falsity created by incomplete analysis based on the phrase ‘must be’. It is often a result of human supposition based on erroneous human analysis or human superstition and does not carry the intention to deceive or mislead a fellow human. However, an untruth created to dupe and/or take financial, intellectual, or emotional elements from another human is the third truth, a base form of untruth, usually described as a bald-faced lie, which is a deceitful misuse of the concept of truth.

A lie, of course, is a physical or verbal expression that is contrary or incomplete to the real truth, is known to be untruth, and is designed to communicate a false assessment of a real truth to other life, usually in a way that benefits the liar. A “good” lie does not have a harmful intent. It can be expressed in humor, or because of a misunderstanding, or with full knowledge of untruth, but expressed to benefit the recipient and not the creator of the lie. Such as, “My, that’s a beautiful bonnet” or “The doctor said that your cancer can be cured”. Such a statement of an untruth is delivered with the intent of compassion, but still, with the full knowledge of the untruth status, it could be considered a lie, in fact, there is a category for such a lie, it’s called “a little white lie”.

The three truths, real truth; untruth without knowledge of untruth; and a lie with intellectual intent to deceive; are difficult to identify and explain because the real truths of all life are deeply entwined in the evolution, behaviors, and existence of almost every species, and the life of many species, pretty much all life in the battle for survival, depends on creating convincing untruths. However, humans with the intellect provided by evolution, can discern many untruths. Human life is, to a great extent, a dance with the truths. Most species, both plants and animals, don’t have the intellect to create actual lies. Instinct rather than intellect is the foundation of their behavior. Chimpanzees may be an exception, there is evidence of chimps sequestering food and then denying its existence to others.

Humans are animals with intellect and have the well-used capability to create actual lies to benefit their existence in various ways. For example, I’m not lying to you now, I’m simply expressing what I think are truths, but I may also be expressing some untruths. Not that I want to do that, but only because I probably don’t know the complete truth of everything that I am professing, and in the world of humanity, an untruth can be just a correctable error, or… ?an error that results in great loss or even death. When it’s a lie that creates great loss, it can be criminal; when it is not true, it’s just an honest mistake. In serious situations when law and justice are required to find truths, untruths, or lies…, well, things can get complicated.

The sky is blue (when there aren’t any clouds or obstructions), water is wet, matter is composed of atoms and electrons (although that is a simplification), and you don’t have a million dollars (although that may change). Trees grow in forests. These statements are true, that is truth without human malfeasance or error, and they would be true with or without human evaluation. We live with this kind of truth. It is the basis of our existence. Unfortunately, it can become infested with the other kinds of truth and untruth.

Lying with intellectual intent is not found in animal life on Earth, humans excepted, but expressing untruth for the benefit of one species at the expense of the life of another species is very common. Most plants and animals are not aware of the universal second truth of life. The truth is that a great many plants and animals express untruths in behavior and structure to aid their survival and in that process, destroy the survival of other life. This fact of life is well expressed in the axioms ‘Kill or be Killed,” and “Eat or be Eaten”, and as Charles Darwin so eloquently phrased it, “survival of the fittest” ?

The structure of the animal kingdoms is often identified by their dietary structures. The two major kinds of animals, herbivores that eat plants and are primary consumers, and carnivores that eat meat are secondary consumers. Omnivores are tertiary consumers and feed on both animals and plants. And on yet another level there are decomposers or phytoremediators, some animals, plants, and microorganisms that break down waste organic matter such as the remains of dead animals and other organic wastes to gain nutrition.

Plants and animals are not aware of the physical and behavioral misrepresentations that evolution has created to enhance the survival of their species. For example, some plants lie, although what they do is just an expression of untruth since they have no cognition of what they do, thus no understanding of truth and lie. They do what evolution has designed them to do, and in doing so, they often “lie” to insects and other species that give them life.

Over many millions of years of evolution, species of plants and insects have established many ‘give and take’ relationships. A plant provides nectar and pollen for the insect and in return, the insect carries pollen that fertilizes the eggs of other plants of the same species, thus providing for the reproduction of that species of plant.? There are even carnivores in the plant world, some plants, about 700 species, have used this relationship to evolve into carnivorous plants that capture unaware insects, digest them, and use the energy of the insects to augment the energy produced by photosynthesis. They “lie” to the insects by creating a trap of leaves and flowers, and “baiting” it with a sweet, sticky, liquid. The insects enter the “one-way” structure of the trap, are captured, die, and are digested by the plant. The plant uses a lie of the promise of sweetness to entice the insect to its death. The Cobra Lily, the Venus Flytrap, the Picher Plant, and the Monkey Cup are all species with lethal attractions to insects.

Animals that use untruths to capture other animals for food are legion. A thick book could be, probably has, been written on that subject. One well-known example is the angler fish. There are over 200 species of angler fish. They have a tentacle that extends from the head out to over the mouth. They wiggle this worm-lie extension in a life-like manner, and sure enough, sooner or later a small fish will see this worm as lunch and when it gets close enough, the nonmoving, stationary angler fish in one quick movement consumes the smaller fish. The angler fish presents an “untruth” to the undersea world and gains a meal to the great misfortune of many hungry little fish.

The third kind of truth is the use of untruth to convince another life form of information that is untrue when the liar consciously knows that the truth here is not true. Camouflage is another form of untruth widely used in the animal world to both protect against predation and also to enhance predation. Camouflage can serve two purposes. A carnivore often hides in areas where its coloration and markings make it difficult to discern and then strikes when the lamb comes just close enough. And the newly birthed white spotted deer fawn hides still and silent in concealing vegetation as the wolf passes without seeing or sensing the presence of the newly birthed deer fawn.

Motion, color, and design have developed in many species to provide them with a chance to avoid becoming a meal to a hungry predator. Many fish have colors and designs that provide an escape from predation. Some fish have an eye spot near their tail. Larger predators of smaller fish will strike at the head of their prey and in doing so, capture them near the head preventing escape. The “eye spot” near the tail draws the strike of the predator to the tail of the fish allowing the fish to move quickly, and avoid a strike at their head. There are many other ways that color in animals protects them from predation.

The development of the human brain and the accompanying development of intellect created a species unique to life on Earth. Humans can discern the difference between real truth, the understanding of reality; untruth, error without intention to mislead; and a ‘bald-faced lie’; intentional untruth for nefarious purposes. Intellect both enriches and complicates human behavior. The phrase “sorting out the truth” describes the difficulties that humanity has had to deal with in the development of civilization. Obviously, we have many more miles to go before we establish a comfortable, intelligent, and universally interactive civilization.

Those are the thoughts I had in writing this essay. Do you lie, or should I ask when and why do you lie? And if you do lie, what are the consequences of that lie? Do you stay out of trouble with the law, friends, and family? Do you make money with the lie? Or is it part of a fun game where everyone laughs and there’s no harm done. In the exquisite deep privacy of your mind, have you ever thought about the lies you have told, and everyone has hidden lies, some great and some very small? I also think schools should teach the truth about truth. It would help young people know who they are.

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Martin Moe