Thoughts on Humanity

What is man, that thou are mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? Psalms, 8

 The psalmist echoes the mystery of mankind. Through the ages we have cried out to know who we are and what is our purpose? The concept of purpose has been central to humanity since the dawn of our species. Long before we had the cognitive capacity to define purpose, it was central to the survival and development of humanity. To have purpose, one must be able to foresee the probable result of an activity and the benefits that can accrue from successful completion of that action, and when this began to occur, however meager and seemingly insignificant at the time, it was the birth of technology and rational thought.

Foreknowledge and consideration of the probable results of purposeful activities of oneself and others; a carefully thrown stone, a sharpened stick, a prepared defense, a plan for the hunt, soon leads to cities, social structure, material trade and abstract thought. Accumulation and interrelation of purposeful actions becomes intelligence, rational thought, and awareness of individual existence and mortality; and this awareness demands explanation.

Anthropomorphism is the imbuement of human characteristics and purposes to nonhuman life forms and inanimate objects. The owl is wise, the sea angry, ants are industrious and nature can be kind or vindictive in the human centered universe. Although it may please us to think this way, human motives and behavior are not shared by plants and animals. These concepts, however, have been part of humanistic expression since the beginning of thought and will always be with us on an irrational basis. Purpose is so central to our existence, not only in the grand plan of our lives, but also in each daily activity that we readily conceive that all things have a human centered definable purpose or motive, even if no purpose is apparent. Humanity also seeks explanation for its own awareness and existence, and has found a purpose for individual and collective human presence in a wide variety of beliefs and social structures.

The rational and imaginative faculties of mankind have struggled for thousands of years with the perplexities of existence and the true nature of humanity. Collectively, we have always believed that we are part of a greater whole, that our individual being is more than just "a transient, biological expression of a gene pool"—a sentient being, to be sure, but still only a pawn in the mindless battle for survival among rival species of DNA molecules.

I, for one, believe? that humanity is much more than just a biological phenomenon. An acorn can only become an oak tree and a fertilized human egg has only the potential to become an individual human being. But human beings are aware and can knowingly shape the future—a potential that other creatures do not possess. Whether or not the growth of humanity, from the acorn of potential we represent today to the tree of maturity we can but dimly imagine, is a product of divine guidance or a pathway mankind will follow as a seedling seeks the sun—I do not know—but I know that great potential exists, and that humanity and its individual expression of life are in the process of becoming more than just a biological phenomenon if we can control the biological heritage that formed our species.

What then is a human being—an organism that is as integral a part of a social structure as an ant or a herring, and yet more alone and individual in mind and action than any other creature? There are more answers and speculations to the question than one could ever read and many millions of individual opinions. Our governments, religions and social orders are all founded to a great degree on philosophies and doctrines written in the past in answer to this basic query. Like others that ponder such questions, I have my own thoughts on the matter.

An individual human being is composed of four aspects of existence: the genetic code that forms the basic physical and mental structures; the experiential history that molds the cultural expression of the individual; the current consciousness, the "now" of the individual; and the unconscious, the intangible aspects of each individual's being.

The physical presence of a person, the special organization of matter that forms the body, brain and organs of a human being is the product of the genetic code that is formed at conception. This physical aspect of mind and body is only part of the totality of a person, but it is the foundation of existence and it is the direct result of the structural guidance of the genetic code. Physical structure, chemical reactions and bioelectrical activity develop and interact according to inherited instructions. The genetic code must first be formed before the potential for a specific individual can exist. Thus, before an individual personality can form, the lottery of life that occurs at conception must be played and won. The genetic code defines the basic structure and the physical and mental capacities and limitations of the individual. We cannot be more than our inheritance allows, but we can easily fail to achieve the best that is within us. We begin with a basic potential, a specific pattern for physical and mental development, and as each new page of our book of life is turned, we and the world around us, coauthor the history of our existence.

Our experiential history and our world line in time begin at conception, the moment the sperm enters the egg. The resulting individual may exist for only a few minutes or for over a hundred years. Each new individual is influenced in many ways, physical, nutritional, and chemical, during the time of development in the womb. Even though the child and mother are separate entities, genetically and physically, the child must obtain all nutrients for development from the mother and share with her the stresses and abuses of her existence through the chemical exchange between them. In many instances, the prenatal period detrimentally affects the remainder of life and surely in myriad other instances, good prenatal conditions enhance the quality of life that follows. The experiential history of a person: prenatal conditions, birth, early education, relationships with parents, development of skills and talents, political conditions, religious training and beliefs, friends, lovers, occupations and the aging process molds the essence of each individual with increasingly rigid patterns of thought and behavior. The experiential history includes all events of every day; some are of seemingly little significance and quickly slip away from conscious recall, while other events are of such great import that they remain forever at the surface of memory.

Every decision that one makes, important ones such as marriage, occupation, friends, investments; and seemingly insignificant decisions, menus, clothes, trips, reading material and entertainment quickly become part of the person that we were, and guides us into the person we will soon become. An experiential history rich in education, travel, accomplishment, associations and experiences produces a personality of greater scope and flexibility than would result from that same genetic potential under conditions of deprivation. Events of long ago become dim in memory or fade beyond recall into the unconscious mind, but they influence in some small way the individual we are today. Our response to a situation at any given moment is determined by the result we desire and the capabilities provided by our past experience and our genetic code. Physical and mental training and indoctrination insure the proper response to any anticipated situation. Every human culture provides structured and unstructured training and conditioning that prepares each member for a functional interaction with the community.

Abrupt changes in cultures often occur in modern times and the young adapt to new cultures far more readily than do the old. Thus we become in large measure the result of our experience, and we change from moment to moment, year to year into different contemporary expressions of our individual genetic endowment. The mind changes with age as does the body and expressions of the same life separated by time represent, in a contemporary sense, different identities connected only by memories that diminish greatly over expanses of time. A man of 60 years is the same person that he was at 20 only in memory. The line of continuity between the expressions of self that are separated by time is strong, and memories and anticipations may be vivid—but we actually exist only as we are at the present moment.

The current consciousness is where we live. It is the "now" of each human being, the individual awareness that nature, fate and volition create anew at each instant in each life. Our current consciousness experiences, plans ahead, and meets and merges with the immediate future, and as we move through time, the current consciousness is blended into our experiential history. The current consciousness consists of the instant of now and extends forward in time only to the extent of expectation of the immediate future; anticipation of the feel of an object reached for, formation of the next thought to be uttered, a decision to make a casual movement or enact a preplanned series of moves. It extends into the past only as a residual of the next new instant of existence; the pleasant feeling after an accomplishment, the implications of the last point on the next to be played, the emotions released in conversation, physical sensations that slowly ebb from the moment of experience; things such as these affect the immediate future as they slip slowly into the past.

Our concept of self, the understanding of who we are at any given moment, is a major part of our current consciousness. Our self-concept gives definition to our consciousness and binds the elements of our psyche into a stable personality. Self-concepts are developed only through interactions with other people. An understanding of self cannot be developed except through our evaluation of the responses of others to our own presence. Regardless of the potential that hereditary intellectual and emotional capacities may give us to create a positive self-image, initial self-concepts are formed when others react to our existence. Approval, rejection, adulation, ridicule—all take their place in our understanding of who we are, and these interactions are most influential when our first self-concepts form in response to the few people that attend us in early childhood.

Self-concepts are somewhat flexible, however, and change slowly as we journey through life, or occasionally, precipitously, when we encounter situations that impact us greatly. War, prison, crime, serious injury, sudden wealth and sudden poverty are rapid changes that can alter self-images for better or worse. Strong, positive, but realistic, self-concepts are resistant to rapid change while weak dependent self-concepts are subject to vacillation and manipulation. Self-concepts tell us what we can do, what we cannot do; and perhaps more importantly, what we should, and should not, attempt to do. Thus false self-concepts can limit our innate potential or create impossible demands on our capabilities.

It is a fleeting, constant thing, this immediate experience of self, and yet there can be great variation in how we perceive it. Current consciousness can seem to be very compressed and intense, consisting only of the moments immediately preceding the present and an anticipation of just a few instants beyond actual experience. Physical combat, intense and immediate danger, rapid competition—all times of great concentration and fast action produce a compression of current consciousness and the impression of rapid interaction with the movement of time. At the other extreme, the flow of time fading away from the point of now may seem to extend some distance back into a lazy afternoon, or weak concentration on a repetitive task may seemingly slow the movement of time and blur the transition of past to future.

Current consciousness is only part of existence, for we gladly give it up each day to sleep and yet our identities, according to memory, persist as before when we awake. The brain is still quite active as we sleep, we experience dreams that we may or may not recall, but the experience of self, of consciousness, is very vague, “dreamlike” as one would say. Without the experience of conscious reality we are not fully aware of our existence, and without this awareness, the activity of the unconscious mind lacks control. Thus, our active, current consciousness is actual existence, new again in each instant yet totally dependent on what we were before, and able to anticipate the future only in terms of the past.

The mind of a human is much more than just a wave of consciousness cresting over the ocean of our being. Beneath the surface of our thoughts lies an unknown frontier more profound than any we have, or may yet explore. Through our consciousness, we have only surface contact with the most complex of organs, the essence of our identity, the brain. Although we know that the brain functions on many levels, we have only the readout of consciousness to inform us of these functions.

The unconscious mind communicates with us in many ways so subtle that it is difficult to analyze its functions. But it is possible, in a general, unscientific way, to consider the content of the unconscious mind. It includes, but is not restricted to everything that an individual knows but that is not at the moment at the level of conscious thought. It includes everything that was once present in the conscious mind but is now seemingly forgotten as well as information that can be recalled but is not present in current thought processes; everything perceived by the senses, but not consciously noted; everything that is involuntarily felt, desired or emotionally experienced; and all the subconscious activity that is forming, without conscious effort; the attitudes and actions that will in time become conscious.

The unconscious includes instincts; however hidden they may be within a cultured structure; emotions, learned mental reflexes, the possibilities of above normal psychic abilities and archetypes (the possibility of inherited ideas and predispositions). Many believe that a soul, a part of a human entity that has a real and permanent existence beyond mortal life, is woven into each personality. The soul, if it does exist, cannot be separated from or defined within the living personality and so it must also be a part of the unconscious mind.

Although current consciousness is the awareness of identity and the actual interaction of an individual personality with the environment, the unconscious is the foundation of the personality. It is a product of the formation and function of the brain as structured by the genetic code and programmed by a particular experiential history. The unconscious mind also matures with time as body and brain age, and reactions to events and perceptions change according to accumulations of past experiences and also due to genetically and environmentally influenced changes in brain functions as aging progresses.

The brain, of course, is the organ that gives mankind dominion over the earth through intelligence and individual awareness. Identity, memory and personality are among the functions of the brain. The anatomy of the brain is well mapped, even the smallest, most insignificant structures and areas have names and, in general terms, many of their functions are known. The workings of the brain are both electrical and chemical, thus anatomical study reveals little about actual function. Only in recent years with highly sophisticated and advanced surgical techniques, electronic equipment, radiology, computers, and psychiatric techniques have we been able to learn something of the way the brain functions. And even now, our knowledge of brain function is just beginning.

The size of the human brain, in terms of discrete functioning elements, is enormous. There are over a hundred billion nerve cells in a human brain, each with an axon fiber and numerous dendrite fibers. And if the synapses, the connections between axons and dendrites, are actual elements of the information processing system of the brain, an estimate of one hundred trillion elements is not impossible. No man made computer can match the general potential of a human brain. We now know that each half of the brain, connected above the brain stem by only the corpus callosum, serves different functions and has different mental capabilities. The left side is the verbal brain and controls speech and language, words and musical notes. The seat of reason also appears to be in the left brain. The right brain is nonverbal. It controls three dimensional evaluation, emotion, recognition (a relatively large portion of the brain is devoted to recognition of faces), musical rhythm, complex visual patterns and abstract thought. In a normal healthy mind the two halves work well together and a single, persistent personality results. The two halves of the brain, however, are capable of functioning independently and may even have different perspectives and different points of view when consulted separately.

It is possible that information from the right brain may, under abnormal conditions, be perceived by the left brain as communication from an external source. Although specific functions have been identified with certain specific areas of the brain, memory is apparently diffused throughout much of the brain. Injury to part of the brain does not necessarily result in specific memory loss. For example, a loss of 25% of brain tissue does not result in a 25% loss of memory. Depending on the site of injury, all memory remains even if loss of brain tissue is extensive. Some injuries can affect the function of memory, but established memories are not partially destroyed.

The memory reserve of the brain is amazing—only a relatively small piece of brain tissue seems to contain the entire complement of memory. In this way the brain functions similar to a hologram. A hologram uses the interference patterns of monochromatic (laser) light to record and reproduce three dimensional images. Only a small portion of the filmed interference pattern is needed to reproduce the entire image in complete detail. Similar interference patterns are produced in the brain when brain waves move along the billions of synaptic nerve cell junctions. This holographic theory of how the brain processes information may explain the vast storage of information and the rapidity of information correlation that the brain can accomplish. If this is so, it may at some future time be possible to record brain waves in holographic form to preserve memory and perhaps even transfer memory from one individual to another.

A human personality, brain and physical body, of course, cannot be separated into specific parts. A human being is a continuum and does not exist, as a human being, except as an integrated entity moving through the dimension of time. What then can be preserved of a human being? At this point only the genetic code and a record of significant memories, attitudes and beliefs can be preserved of each person. The value of this is twofold.

First, it is the nature of humanity to celebrate birth and existence; and to deplore, deny and rage against the cessation of our brief lives. In the face of the inevitable, however, we desire a trace of our existence to survive in memories and accomplishments—the fact that we existed should remain even when we are no longer present. The recorded life history profile, preserved and maintained, can provide this opportunity where little now exists. The works of mankind are collected and preserved in museums and libraries of every country. The history of nations and remarkable individuals are carefully researched, analyzed and cataloged for posterity. Even frivolous fiction eventually finds a place in the archives of libraries. Each individual should have the opportunity to preserve the record of their life, if for no other reason than the fact of their existence—for there is no human life that is without value or without some knowledge that should be preserved as part of the history of humanity. And now, so much more so than in 1980, the computer revolution has given us the tools to do this, and so much more.

Secondly, preservation of the genetic code can fulfill a basic human desire in evidence since the dawn of civilization. Almost all cultures, exemplified by the ancient Egyptians, have been driven to preserve bodily remains after life is done. There have been, and are today, many varied reasons for attempted preservation of the body, but even if it could be preserved without physical and mental dissolution, the physical body at the time of death represents only the final embodiment in the time line of that individual's life. The body is temporal and changes as life progresses, but the genetic code that develops the individual through life does not change. The potential of the entire individual at every stage of life is incorporated in his or her particular genetic code, and that genetic code can now be preserved.

Preservation of the genetic code also creates the possibility that it can be reactivated at some future time and the human being programmed by that code can exist again. Of course, if such a recreation does eventually take place, it would not be exactly the same individual that existed before. There would probably be no continuity of consciousness between the current and future embodiments of the genetic code. However, the importance of that continuity of existence may not be as great as one would suppose. The present, the current consciousness, that flows through all life stages would exist again, and we live in the present, not in the past and not in the future. For example, a child of 15 relocated from a small Asian village to a large western city undergoes many changes in a period of 40 years, and the resulting adult at age 55 is not the same in mind and body as he was 40 years before. Nor is he the same individual he would have become had he remained in the village of his birth.

The person that exists today, the "you" that is present now would not be extended into the future, unless great advances are made in recording and preserving the memory elements of the brain within your lifetime. The future personality would be "you", again; in a new culture, with a new consciousness and with the knowledge of who and what you were in a previous existence. The consciousness created once by a particular genetic code would exist again, as molded by a different experiential history, and the exhilaration and wonder of existence would be enhanced by the knowledge of a prior life.

Multiple expressions of human genetic codes exist today as identical twins, and more rarely, identical triplets. Identical twins are incontestably different individuals, separate expressions of the same genetic code, but the remarkable similarity of their physical, mental and behavioral traits demonstrates the great importance of the genetic code in the fundamental expression of each individual human being. Dr. Thomas Bouchard, a St. Paul psychologist, studied identical twins separated in infancy and grown to maturity without contact with each other. The similarities in life patterns and behavior are quite striking. Individual twins often behaved very much alike, expressed the same phobias, the same manner of dress, had the same habits, chose similar occupations, and even gave their children the same names.

The mental abilities of the twins he has studied have been more similar than their physical traits. The study indicates that a great deal of human behavior is genetically influenced, more than has been generally realized. Thus, a strong homogeneity may exist between the patterns of life of an individual of today and the life of an individual recreated from the same genetic code far in the future. The same talents and skills, competencies and intelligence would contribute again to the human species in a new context and be rewarded then, as now, by the pain and pleasure of existence. It may be a better life, however, a life without the infirmities and difficulties that may plague one in these times.

The human brain is a product of evolution, biological evolution influenced by the development of culture in human communities. Survival of early human communities was evidently enhanced by cultural developments—languages, cooperation, division of labor, development of reason and intelligence and a working understanding of natural processes. Brain development and social interaction in human communities may be connected by a sort of "feedback mechanism". Successful early hominid communities nurtured development of those mental qualities that made advances in cooperation and technology possible, thus the stimulus existed for extremely rapid evolutionary development of the human brain. This interaction between social and biological development in mankind is still at work today (some might say that our social skills lag far behind our technological prowess), and in recent years a most significant threshold has been reached. We have the technical capacity to change and even destroy our species, and most important, many of us are fully aware of it.

Our species, Homo sapiens, is generally considered to be about 100,000 years old although basic traits of what would become our species appeared about 300,000 years ago. At about 100,000 years ago, physical traits very similar to modern man were characteristic of human populations. And what we would sort of recognize as our species, Homo sapiens, appeared about 50,000 years ago. However, the essence of humanity was present long before this. The oldest tools identified so far are 2.6 million years old and language appeared in human culture about 1 million years ago. Human evolution can be traced back at least 15 million years, although most of the significantly human traits appeared within the last 5 million years.

The most important of these distinctly human traits are generally considered to be locomotion on the hind legs with arms freed for carrying food, babies, tools, and other uses; dependence for survival on the manufacture of tools and equipment; enlargement and reorganization of the brain; development of speech and language; and development of cultural controls on aggression and sexual activity and division of labor through social behavior. Thus long before the dawn of civilization we had developed the major characteristics of humanity. Most important were tools, garments, and shelter; language and abstract thought, written symbols, rudimentary astronomy, and religion—and the concept of ownership, the idea that an object could be a personal possession—a concept so integral to human function that it is seldom recognized and considered as perhaps the most fundamental of human attributes.

There are other concepts in human culture that are also of great importance: love, beauty, patriotism, altruism, religion—but I submit that the concept of personal possession is the most fundamental of all, and in fact, responsible for the emergence of other human traits. Mankind is not alone in the use of tools. Dogs and other animals can be trained to use tools to achieve a desired effect; some birds use sticks to probe termite holes and wild chimpanzees can manipulate objects to extend their reach. Trained chimpanzees, of course, have great facility with tools, and with extensive training, chimpanzees can even use the rudiments of language and exhibit a fundamental concept of self. But in nature, humans alone can own as well as use a tool. Ownership can be shared, given and exchanged; animals do not conceive of possession and do not own objects in this sense. Without training, an animal's relationship to an object is impulsive, instinctive, and momentary.

Creation and use of tools is considered the spark that propelled mankind into the cycle of physical and mental development that led to culture and civilization. A tool, however, cannot be maintained and improved until the creator of the tool understands the meaning and value of possession. Somewhere before the dawn of early man, some individual may have gained a strong survival capability by recognizing the value of keeping a particularly useful stone or club with him for continued use. This realization could be passed to others who could learn by imitation what they could not conceive themselves.

What is civilization, if it is not the development of the concept and technology of ownership? What is technology, if it is not the development and refinement of possessed objects? What is marriage, if it is not the definition and acknowledgement of a commitment to mutual possession? "This tool is mine, therefore I exist." may predate, or at least be contemporary with Descarte's "Cogito ergo sum"—I think, therefore I am. The basic concept of ownership extends to all facets of being. This is my shirt, my pants, my shoes. He is my husband. She is my wife. This is my land; you may not come upon it. This is my money and my property. My God will take care of me because I belong to Him. I will protect, maintain and keep what I perceive and claim to be mine. If I kill you, your land and property will become mine. The concept of ownership conveyed a great survival value.

Ownership and culture marched step for step through the ages of evolution. "I am dying my son; I give you my stone ax that has served me well, my warm bear skin and my spear. Go and be greater than I." "I am dying my son; my lawyer will read my will. I give you my business, my money, my property, go and be greater than I." The concept of owning a possession is so fundamental to mankind's being that it is difficult to conceive of existence without it, and it is so integral to our nature that it is taken for granted or overlooked when the nature of mankind is considered. Modern societies that espouse communal ownership of property seldom succeed and the concept of ownership is still present but is vested in governmental authority, usually tyrannical and despotic. 

Ownership readily extends to mutual control of objects and territory by family and tribal groups. Survival was enhanced by group ownership concepts and cooperation. For example, agriculture could not begin until a special sort of relationship with a particular area was conceptually defined. The territorialism of animals is similar, yet fundamentally different. The territorial nature of many animals is an extension of the presence of the animal itself rather than delineation and acknowledged ownership of a particular area. Animal territorialism is an instinctual control of an area extending outward from the animal a certain defensible distance. The territory moves with the animal and exists only when the animal is present and able to defend the claim. Man, however, in the claim of ownership, carefully defines the area and exercises total control. This control is acknowledged by society and exists even when the owner is not present. It can be transferred to another individual through gift, barter or even forceful acquisition.

If mankind's culture and technology rose from the root of the concept that a thing could be owned, then the darker side of mankind's nature sprang from that same root. If a thing of value could be owned by one individual, then it could also be owned by another individual with the strength and/or cunning to acquire it in any way possible. Covetousness, greed, envy, jealousy, extortion, and theft are all human elements with the same behavioral roots as love and generosity.

Ownership can be permanent and inheritable such as property and heirlooms that pass from generation to generation and often have a personal value far above the market price—or it can be extremely transitory and intangible and exist only momentarily for pleasure or entertainment. Most games are based on a concept of possession and a conflict to maintain or regain ownership of an intangible, or to invade and capture ownership of a symbolic territory. Consider the US national game of football, where each team has a territory to protect, an object highly coveted by both teams, and a desire to prevail by strength and cunning in an invasion into the heartland of the enemy territory. If no one cared who were the temporary owners of the football and the ends of the playing field, the game would have no meaning.

Even card games depend on the reward of ephemeral ownership of a trick or accumulation of cards won by fair battle in the realms of chance and cleverness. One cannot eat, wear or sell a checkmate or a touchdown, but the idea of prevailing in mock combat to gain symbolic ownership of these can often be terribly important. The concept of ownership is an integral part of mankind's nature and it cannot be denied. It has served us well and if we can be its master, we will take it to the stars.

Chapter 5 from my book; Preserving the Essence of Human Life