SCIENTIFIC HUMANISM: Facts (X)

10. Cycles of Vital Necessity (CNV)

Defining what life is is essential because it allows us to set its limits and to base most of our human actions on it. As eukaryotic beings of the animal kingdom, we can reduce our complex vital activity to the same needs that a single cell has: respiration, hydration, nutrition, excretion, locomotion, reproduction, communication, and perception. In this sense, we behave like a single cell.

All these activities have something in common: they are essential to life, that is, they are necessities. We cannot do without any of them without risking our physical and psychological health, and even our lives. When the body detects one of these needs, it begins what we call a vital need cycle (CNV). Its structure is simple, although its exact functioning can be very complex.?

Energy is what drives this cycle, and its flow is created by negative entropy, that is, the need for energy created by living structures.

CNV (Cycle of Vital Necessity)

To understand this cycle of necessity, I will describe each of these needs.

Breathing:

Breathing is the most recurring need and fulfills the cycle perfectly. If we stop breathing, immediately a need is created (high part of the cycle), and with it begins anxiety and pain (following the clockwise cycle), which eventually becomes so intense that it forces us to breathe, whether we want to or not (low part of the cycle), thus obtaining a certain pleasure. The pleasure ends the cycle and immediately a new one begins when the need is felt again (lack of oxygen). Death by suffocation occurs in about 5 minutes at most, so breathing has a shorter CNV. Breathing occurs on average about 14 to 15 times per minute and each time it is performed it gives us less pleasure compared to other needs. The pleasure derived from each completed cycle of a need is proportional to its importance for the survival of the organism, but inversely proportional to the frequency with which it must be satisfied.

Hydration:

Since our bodies are about 60% water, hydration is a short-term need. If we become dehydrated, we die in about 5 to 6 days. We have all experienced the symptoms of mild dehydration and know that they prompt us to rehydrate as soon as possible. If we don't, we experience anxiety, headaches, dizziness, etc. In addition, we cannot forget the pleasure of drinking fluids when we are very thirsty.

Nutrition:

Food is the most representative need of all. We are hungry and need to eat about 3 times a day. This need is very powerful because we get the energy and nutrients necessary to develop all other needs and activities.?

Food rewards us abundantly (pleasure of taste and satiety), and lack of it can provoke reactions that end in violence and antisocial behavior motivated by the survival instinct. We can starve to death in a few months without eating anything (except water), in a long and painful process in which our body consumes itself, starting with glucose, then fats and finally muscle tissue, until we run out of energy and defenses and succumb to the first invader (bacteria, virus, etc.).?

We all know the pain in its mild phase: anxiety, dizziness, nausea, hunger, and when we eat we get a pleasure that we greedily enjoy. And so the CNV cycle begins again. Since this need provides energy for all other needs, it is essential for social cohesion. When a person is hungry or fears hunger, he or she will do whatever it takes to satisfy that need, even resorting to violence.

Excretion:

Excretion, or the elimination of waste, is an important need that does not seem to be associated with much pleasure. This may be due to the fact that in wild animals this need was unrestricted, wherever it was necessary, and therefore there was almost no pain, and therefore not much pleasure.?

In humans, living together in small or large societies has motivated the need to regulate excretion and to perform it in appropriate places. Even so, we experience some discomfort due to restrictions and feel relief when we satisfy this need.

Locomotion:

Another basic need is locomotion. Even viruses and bacteria can move, and it is undoubtedly the essential characteristic of eukaryotes, since they have to "seek and find" food, since they do not have photosynthesis or chemosynthesis.?

When we move, practically all systems are activated: hormonal, muscular, cardiovascular, gastrovascular, lymphatic, cerebral, etc. In addition, our body is constantly in balance to maintain this movement. When we stop using a part of the body, either by accident or disease, that part begins the process of autophagy and is drastically reduced, even losing mobility. This has been experienced by anyone who has been immobilized by a fracture and had to undergo painful rehabilitation of the affected body parts due to immobility.?

Because this necessity is constant, there is little pleasure associated with it.

Reproduction:

Reproduction is undoubtedly the CNV with the most developed reward and pleasure, due to a long process of selection in the history of living things in which species with less reward simply disappeared in the face of the greater number of more rewarding organisms.?

This need is the central core of our survival over time, so its containment can cause various psychic and physical changes that can lead to violence (psychopathies), hatred and antisocial behavior.?

Sexuality, linked to the need for reproduction of the species, is one of the most powerful sources of pleasure and happiness.

Communication:

The need to communicate arises from the need to reproduce and is primarily regulated by hormones. This is due to the need to assemble complete DNA through reproduction, as each sex possesses half of the DNA.?

A person who is completely deprived of communication becomes insane, falls into depression, and eventually dies. Communication depends on perception, which is derived from the functioning of all sensory organs organized by the central nervous system (brain).?

In fact, the needs of reproduction and nutrition gradually created and perfected perception (sensory organs).?

These needs drove the creation of communication as a means to promote and improve reproduction and nutrition.

Perception:

Perception is a basic need of life. Without perception, there can be no communication, and without communication, there can be no reproduction.?

Perception occurs in several overlapping forms: chemical, biochemical, photosensitivity (light), osmotic pressure, and other forms. In addition, organisms have visual, auditory, and tactile perception.?

Any living thing deprived of perception cannot communicate or identify nutrients and will eventually die.

CONCLUSIONS:

Thus, the origin of "evil," which has occupied centuries of philosophical and theological discussion, derives entirely from the necessities of life (CNV), particularly the eukaryotic needs for predation (nutrition) and reproduction.?

The process of predation also poses an ethical dilemma regarding the justification of pain and death of other living beings. Because of this need for survival, every living being commits predation with total impunity, without any possibility of justice or fairness, thereby limiting the life of the preyed upon living being and reducing it to the category of mere "food", despite the fact that both are identical as sentient and self-aware living beings.?

There will never be justice for the suffering and death of any living being that is in the trophic pathway and is food for another living being.

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Bibliography:

Abraham Maslow - "A Theory of Human Motivation" (1943): Maslow is known for his Hierarchy of Needs theory, which identifies different levels of human needs and how they influence motivation and behavior.

Sigmund Freud - "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" (1920): In this work, Freud discusses how the life instinct and the death instinct influence human behavior and how the pleasure principle and the reality principle interact in our actions.

Erich Fromm - "The Fear of Freedom" (1941): Fromm analyzes how basic human needs such as security and belonging affect the search for freedom and individuality in modern society.

Francisco Varela - "De cuerpo presente: The Cognitive Sciences and the Human Experience" (1991): Varela is a biologist and philosopher who explores the relationship between the body, the mind, and human experience.

Martin Heidegger - "Being and Time" (1927): Heidegger is a philosopher who addresses ontological and existential issues, and his focus on understanding human beings and their relationship to the world reflects vital needs.

Peter Singer - "Animal Liberation" (1975): Singer is an ethical philosopher who advocates animal rights and criticizes the exploitation of other living beings to satisfy our needs.

Aldo Leopold - "An Ethic for the Conservation of Nature" (1949): Leopold is an ecologist and philosopher who reflects on how we should view our actions and our relationship with nature from an ethical perspective.