Prelude
Before you invest your time in this article I need to let you know that this article is not so much about its conclusion. It is more about enjoying the kaleidoscope of abstraction that our amazing mind is capable of. It will toggle you across perspectives of space–microcosm to the macrocosm, time–the distant past, present and way into the future; and consciousness–from the mundane to the profound.
Life Matters
How does life on Earth matter? According to science only 5% of our gigantic Universe consists of matter organized as atoms–pardon the pun.
If I believed that my existence is solely the product of the collectively coalescent atoms that make up my body and that death is simply the disorganizing of these atoms, then the purpose of my life is to keep my atoms intact. Interestingly while atoms don't age my body made of nothing but atoms does (let's ignore the few mildly radioactive isotopes like Carbon 14). Science tells us aging is because our atoms are formed as cells which are affected by time and while there are many possible explanations for why the body gets old–irreplaceable cells in the body become damaged, the bodies metabolic factory becomes less efficient with age, lifestyle, environmental toxins, free radicals, genes etc.–by and large a conclusive theory on aging remains a scientific mystery.
If the most basic instinct of life on Earth is driven by matter, more precisely cellular matter, then the purpose of life is straight forward. My goal of life would be first and foremost to keep my cells intact and healthy for as long as possible, the second and equally important goal would be to create progeny. The basic instincts of survival and reproduction are the strongest urges in all biological life. Of these two, survival is the king of urges since reproduction is an evolute of survival. Somehow our genes know that while it has a chance to exist for a long time, it cannot stop the aging process of the cells it is in. Its survival solution against aging is to create a new package and move into it, thus rejuvenating its survivability as its old package disintegrates. This is eternal life for genes and it works very well.
Query Wikipedia "history of life" and a timeline appears that shows that Earth began forming 5 billion years ago. About 1 billion years from its birthing (more precisely 3.6 billion years ago) life started as simple cells–prokaryotes or bacterium. DNA organized into genes have existed almost from the get-go of Earth's history. Since then genes have gone through a colorful and resilient history of evolution. Genes have had lots of fun coming up with a myriad of creatures of amazing shapes and forms, they became masters of the waters and the skies; colonizing the harshest of environments from the deserts to the crushing ocean depths; living through disasters and rejuvenating from cataclysms. Isn't it amazing to think that every single organism on Earth today is a testament to the immortality of its genes. Each of us are products of this resilience. God only knows what creatures the atoms of our DNA have been in, in bygone days before assimilating in us.
Science however doesn't acknowledge God or that an intelligence might be behind the formation of DNA. In the primordial chemical soup that our seas were billions of years ago proteins formed by chance and accidentally organized itself as DNA; and there is the math to prove how likely all this chance occurrences could have happened. An intelligent designer driving DNA is hard if not impossible to proof but when you look at fossil records and muse on all the amazing creatures that have been created through the eons and the diversity of life in the present it is a hard buy to accept mindless or heartless random happenings as a cause. So I look hard for ways to proof that the sum of my existence is not just my dear collection of atoms. What could possibly clue us to an intelligent force behind DNA.....I ask......Lo and Behold! I see space....outer space that is.
No, it is not about aliens planting seeds of life on Earth though when considering plausibilities it is not out of the question. Instead my hypothesis about the intelligence behind life on Earth has to do with our effort to explore outer space. I believe that our push into space has as much (if not more) to do with the survival of our genes as it is with quenching our curiosity for exploring the unknown.
We now know for a fact that the Earth is not going to last forever and though our DNA has lived through climate change, catastrophic space collisions and whatever-else disasters, for now the only place we / our genes can call home is Earth; and the prospect that Earth could be destroyed when our Sun becomes a Red Giant or simply gives out–some billions of years away–and Earth becomes as cold as Uranus must shudder genes with End-of-Days like horror. Keep in mind also that for our genes a billion years is nothing. They have survived billions of years already and a couple billion years more before Earth becomes defunct for life is a relatively short time.
The ability to conceive time spans beyond the present through memory evolved in the animal kingdom a long time ago and in fact in this department certain animals like elephants, chimpanzees and the porpoises have shown amazing capabilities comparable to humans. However what makes us a class of evolution above the rest is our propensity for recording history and our ability to wonder about the future. From the days of cave painting to now we have always endeavoured to leave behind some kind of recorded legacy. Whether it is through art, literature, or heirlooms I would dare say that some of us care more about how people will remember us after our time than the generation we leave behind. The simple habit of maintaining history has worked wonders in humankind's civilizational evolution by allowing us to continue threads of development without having to 'reinvent the wheel'; of one generation learning and improving from its predecessor. Add our insatiable desire to wonder, explore and learn to this equation and we get the indomitable human spirit. From the time seamen dared to challenge the notion of a flat-earth to the brave people who dared to sacrifice their lives to usher in the space age, the human spirit has brought us to the doorstep of a new technological era–that of artificial intelligence.
Possibly an aberration in the pattern of evolution of creatures over thousands of millenniums, we humans are among the most unusual of creatures (check out the best list of unusual prehistoric creatures I could find on the web). Physically we are not built for natural survival like other animals and if not for the fact that we possess more brains than them we would not have survived and otherwise thrive as we are today. Four legged predators can easily out run us and in the water any fish can out swim us. We can't climb anything very well and don't fly. Instead evolution invested us with three non-brawn winning characteristics. One is that we can learn and find solutions to problems by making tools no matter the complexity; we are endowed with the most amazing hands of all animals that make us capable tool makers instead of just food grabbers and thirdly our very versatile vocal chords which allows us to create complex and articulate languages. This jump in evolution to endow us with brains instead of brawn is unusual in the evolution of organisms if the goal of our genes is purely survival on Earth because there is no need for brains, brawn has proven sufficient through the test of time.
Nevertheless in the countless number of animals and plants that have appeared on Earth evolution's bet on brains over brawn is proving to be a winning solution for the survival of our genes. Seven billion in population and counting; we are crowding out so many other organisms and consuming so much of life sustaining resources that we have taken on a role of nature to become an effective extinction force for other animals and plants. According to scientists the rate of extinction of species of animals presently is faster than ever discovered–up to one thousand times higher than in fossil records–nothing to be proud about but I can't speak for my genes–survival of the fittest and all that. Perhaps all this extinction is exactly in line with the grand plan of our genes. Perhaps genes do not care anymore for the evolution through variety of biological streams simply because it just takes too much time. After all 5,000 years ago we could only walk, run and were building rudimentary rafts. Within just a few millennium with our astounding technological genius we are flying all over the world at close to the speed of sound; way faster and higher than any bird and drifting around in space, an environment that is impossible for genes to muster up a biological creature. Then again it could be DNA's master plan for survival after Earth.
The United States and the former USSR scrambled to explore space and spent billions of dollar for the technology, which at the time must have seemed questionable. With nations still struggling to recover from World War 2, the quest for getting into space was spurred by oneupmanship between the giant nations. Of course its benefits now, in ease of global communications, navigation meteorology makes it all well worth the effort. But we haven't stopped with shooting up satellites, instead humankind is exploring life in space, colonizing it and looking for life on other planets. A quick check on NASA's website and you will discover that it is currently working on a telescope technology to be able to see exo-Earths; planets of similar size to Earth and distance to its star which is like to our Sun (click here to learn about NASA's Next-G space telescope in the works). To find a planet that might harbour life like ours is a holy grail of space exploration–we've already identified three candidates, check it out–click. We are already ahead of the game with the International Space Station and its precious research on living for extended periods in space but propulsion to travel the light years of distance to reach a planet in a different system is still elusive. One thing we can be sure of is that before our gem of a planet gives out, we will at least be able to continue our civilizations in space platforms like those gigantic ships in Battlestar Galactica–drifting in space looking for a new Earth. Could it be that our genes are spurring our technological genius in its quest for eternal survivability?
If you are thinking that this is an unusual or weird perspective, I agree. The suggestion that DNA or our genes could conceive of possible events way into the future and develop a creature to overcome the challenges posed by these events is hard to swallow, let alone digest. Scheming nanoscopic designers of the future is stuff of science fiction; we are more comfortable thinking of our physical makeup as inert and our consciousness as supreme. Even scientists will feel squeamish of the concept of intelligent atoms with 'plans' as it would be off-kilter to the scientific position of randomness and chance events. It all just sounds too bizarre.
In any case I don't like to think that I live my life as a slave to my genes but have you ever wondered what your relationship is to your genes? We know that we are our genes and the fact remains that after the death of the physical body what is tangibly left of us is the generation to whom we have passed our genes, yet how many of us really believe that we are nothing more than our genes. Sure, we can relate to the colour of our eyes and other physical characteristics, even some personality traits to genetic inheritance but don't you think of yourself as a unique individual, distinct from your parents and free to aspire for a one-of-a-kind life. Who'd think (or want to think) they are pursuing their life for the sake of such inert stuff as a bunch of protein molecules; that's too uninspiring!
If human consciousness / self-awareness and intelligence are a products of our genes then its code has to be found somewhere in the less than two percent difference between our genetic makeup and our closest 'animal' relative the chimpanzees and while the genetic origins of our profound self-awareness remains a scientific mystery, we revel in its existence and enjoy the choices it affords us. We happily adorn ourselves with our ability to mark time and create anniversaries–birthdays, annual remembrances, jubilees–to celebrate or in some cases to mourn and we wonder ceaselessly about possibilities–not just for practical reasons but for fun. Verily humanity can just as well be defined by its imagination, for in this too do we revel. The ability to create fiction and simply enjoy it with care abandon is as much our defining characteristic as is our technological prowess. We will enjoy a good story no matter how outlandish or improbable it may be; it just needs to be interesting or entertaining. Which is why it is very difficult to accept that such complex intelligence, that can traverse the borders of the logical and return to produce art and express love, could arise from something so cut and dry–so seemingly soulless–as strands of protein.
The origins of human consciousness aside nothing is more tangible than our existence from moment to moment. Nothing matters more to us than our individual experience of life, even for the most self-effacing and humble person committed to a selfless life, personal fulfillment is his driving force. It matters to us that we get more out of life than passing on our genes. It also matters to us that our life matters to others or some idea or cause; one could say we dwell more in seeking fulfillment from our abstract concepts of life than basic survival. In fact we are so are passionate about our philosophy, art, religions and politics that have little to do with genetic survival that if these abstractions are products of some chemical function of proteins it is biological evolution gone way overboard. Overboard because some of us can decide to prioritize the abstract above the basics by ignoring the basics completely and voluntarily decide not to bother about genetic survival.
So where do all these abstractions leave us?
The undeniable fact is that we–as individuals arising from consciousness–with every breath we take and every thought we conceive affirm to ourselves that we are self-conscious beings capable of choice and enjoying the nuances of our preferences. That we are the product of our genes has a bearing on the quality or kind of life we may live on Earth but not entirely on the life we choose to live. Whatever that makes us individuals who want to count, to make our presence matter in the time that we have makes us the most unique creature to ever to appear on Earth. We celebrate and lament life–not just survive; we are not passive players in passing time, we play with time itself. We have appeared on Earth, we are unique in ways that only each of us individually can fully appreciate; where one in seven billion is same as one in one; where our time on Earth matters as much as our life on Earth. Perhaps this is who we are: An evolutionary chance that has become Creation's dearest.
This article was inspired by Nyaya-Vaisheshika methods of reasoning namely pratyaksha (perception) and anumaana (inference).
Before you invest your time in this article I need to let you know that this article is not so much about its conclusion. It is more about enjoying the kaleidoscope of abstraction that our amazing mind is capable of. It will toggle you across perspectives of space–microcosm to the macrocosm, time–the distant past, present and way into the future; and consciousness–from the mundane to the profound.
Life Matters
How does life on Earth matter? According to science only 5% of our gigantic Universe consists of matter organized as atoms–pardon the pun.
If I believed that my existence is solely the product of the collectively coalescent atoms that make up my body and that death is simply the disorganizing of these atoms, then the purpose of my life is to keep my atoms intact. Interestingly while atoms don't age my body made of nothing but atoms does (let's ignore the few mildly radioactive isotopes like Carbon 14). Science tells us aging is because our atoms are formed as cells which are affected by time and while there are many possible explanations for why the body gets old–irreplaceable cells in the body become damaged, the bodies metabolic factory becomes less efficient with age, lifestyle, environmental toxins, free radicals, genes etc.–by and large a conclusive theory on aging remains a scientific mystery.
If the most basic instinct of life on Earth is driven by matter, more precisely cellular matter, then the purpose of life is straight forward. My goal of life would be first and foremost to keep my cells intact and healthy for as long as possible, the second and equally important goal would be to create progeny. The basic instincts of survival and reproduction are the strongest urges in all biological life. Of these two, survival is the king of urges since reproduction is an evolute of survival. Somehow our genes know that while it has a chance to exist for a long time, it cannot stop the aging process of the cells it is in. Its survival solution against aging is to create a new package and move into it, thus rejuvenating its survivability as its old package disintegrates. This is eternal life for genes and it works very well.
Query Wikipedia "history of life" and a timeline appears that shows that Earth began forming 5 billion years ago. About 1 billion years from its birthing (more precisely 3.6 billion years ago) life started as simple cells–prokaryotes or bacterium. DNA organized into genes have existed almost from the get-go of Earth's history. Since then genes have gone through a colorful and resilient history of evolution. Genes have had lots of fun coming up with a myriad of creatures of amazing shapes and forms, they became masters of the waters and the skies; colonizing the harshest of environments from the deserts to the crushing ocean depths; living through disasters and rejuvenating from cataclysms. Isn't it amazing to think that every single organism on Earth today is a testament to the immortality of its genes. Each of us are products of this resilience. God only knows what creatures the atoms of our DNA have been in, in bygone days before assimilating in us.
Science however doesn't acknowledge God or that an intelligence might be behind the formation of DNA. In the primordial chemical soup that our seas were billions of years ago proteins formed by chance and accidentally organized itself as DNA; and there is the math to prove how likely all this chance occurrences could have happened. An intelligent designer driving DNA is hard if not impossible to proof but when you look at fossil records and muse on all the amazing creatures that have been created through the eons and the diversity of life in the present it is a hard buy to accept mindless or heartless random happenings as a cause. So I look hard for ways to proof that the sum of my existence is not just my dear collection of atoms. What could possibly clue us to an intelligent force behind DNA.....I ask......Lo and Behold! I see space....outer space that is.
No, it is not about aliens planting seeds of life on Earth though when considering plausibilities it is not out of the question. Instead my hypothesis about the intelligence behind life on Earth has to do with our effort to explore outer space. I believe that our push into space has as much (if not more) to do with the survival of our genes as it is with quenching our curiosity for exploring the unknown.
We now know for a fact that the Earth is not going to last forever and though our DNA has lived through climate change, catastrophic space collisions and whatever-else disasters, for now the only place we / our genes can call home is Earth; and the prospect that Earth could be destroyed when our Sun becomes a Red Giant or simply gives out–some billions of years away–and Earth becomes as cold as Uranus must shudder genes with End-of-Days like horror. Keep in mind also that for our genes a billion years is nothing. They have survived billions of years already and a couple billion years more before Earth becomes defunct for life is a relatively short time.
The ability to conceive time spans beyond the present through memory evolved in the animal kingdom a long time ago and in fact in this department certain animals like elephants, chimpanzees and the porpoises have shown amazing capabilities comparable to humans. However what makes us a class of evolution above the rest is our propensity for recording history and our ability to wonder about the future. From the days of cave painting to now we have always endeavoured to leave behind some kind of recorded legacy. Whether it is through art, literature, or heirlooms I would dare say that some of us care more about how people will remember us after our time than the generation we leave behind. The simple habit of maintaining history has worked wonders in humankind's civilizational evolution by allowing us to continue threads of development without having to 'reinvent the wheel'; of one generation learning and improving from its predecessor. Add our insatiable desire to wonder, explore and learn to this equation and we get the indomitable human spirit. From the time seamen dared to challenge the notion of a flat-earth to the brave people who dared to sacrifice their lives to usher in the space age, the human spirit has brought us to the doorstep of a new technological era–that of artificial intelligence.
Possibly an aberration in the pattern of evolution of creatures over thousands of millenniums, we humans are among the most unusual of creatures (check out the best list of unusual prehistoric creatures I could find on the web). Physically we are not built for natural survival like other animals and if not for the fact that we possess more brains than them we would not have survived and otherwise thrive as we are today. Four legged predators can easily out run us and in the water any fish can out swim us. We can't climb anything very well and don't fly. Instead evolution invested us with three non-brawn winning characteristics. One is that we can learn and find solutions to problems by making tools no matter the complexity; we are endowed with the most amazing hands of all animals that make us capable tool makers instead of just food grabbers and thirdly our very versatile vocal chords which allows us to create complex and articulate languages. This jump in evolution to endow us with brains instead of brawn is unusual in the evolution of organisms if the goal of our genes is purely survival on Earth because there is no need for brains, brawn has proven sufficient through the test of time.
Nevertheless in the countless number of animals and plants that have appeared on Earth evolution's bet on brains over brawn is proving to be a winning solution for the survival of our genes. Seven billion in population and counting; we are crowding out so many other organisms and consuming so much of life sustaining resources that we have taken on a role of nature to become an effective extinction force for other animals and plants. According to scientists the rate of extinction of species of animals presently is faster than ever discovered–up to one thousand times higher than in fossil records–nothing to be proud about but I can't speak for my genes–survival of the fittest and all that. Perhaps all this extinction is exactly in line with the grand plan of our genes. Perhaps genes do not care anymore for the evolution through variety of biological streams simply because it just takes too much time. After all 5,000 years ago we could only walk, run and were building rudimentary rafts. Within just a few millennium with our astounding technological genius we are flying all over the world at close to the speed of sound; way faster and higher than any bird and drifting around in space, an environment that is impossible for genes to muster up a biological creature. Then again it could be DNA's master plan for survival after Earth.
The United States and the former USSR scrambled to explore space and spent billions of dollar for the technology, which at the time must have seemed questionable. With nations still struggling to recover from World War 2, the quest for getting into space was spurred by oneupmanship between the giant nations. Of course its benefits now, in ease of global communications, navigation meteorology makes it all well worth the effort. But we haven't stopped with shooting up satellites, instead humankind is exploring life in space, colonizing it and looking for life on other planets. A quick check on NASA's website and you will discover that it is currently working on a telescope technology to be able to see exo-Earths; planets of similar size to Earth and distance to its star which is like to our Sun (click here to learn about NASA's Next-G space telescope in the works). To find a planet that might harbour life like ours is a holy grail of space exploration–we've already identified three candidates, check it out–click. We are already ahead of the game with the International Space Station and its precious research on living for extended periods in space but propulsion to travel the light years of distance to reach a planet in a different system is still elusive. One thing we can be sure of is that before our gem of a planet gives out, we will at least be able to continue our civilizations in space platforms like those gigantic ships in Battlestar Galactica–drifting in space looking for a new Earth. Could it be that our genes are spurring our technological genius in its quest for eternal survivability?
If you are thinking that this is an unusual or weird perspective, I agree. The suggestion that DNA or our genes could conceive of possible events way into the future and develop a creature to overcome the challenges posed by these events is hard to swallow, let alone digest. Scheming nanoscopic designers of the future is stuff of science fiction; we are more comfortable thinking of our physical makeup as inert and our consciousness as supreme. Even scientists will feel squeamish of the concept of intelligent atoms with 'plans' as it would be off-kilter to the scientific position of randomness and chance events. It all just sounds too bizarre.
In any case I don't like to think that I live my life as a slave to my genes but have you ever wondered what your relationship is to your genes? We know that we are our genes and the fact remains that after the death of the physical body what is tangibly left of us is the generation to whom we have passed our genes, yet how many of us really believe that we are nothing more than our genes. Sure, we can relate to the colour of our eyes and other physical characteristics, even some personality traits to genetic inheritance but don't you think of yourself as a unique individual, distinct from your parents and free to aspire for a one-of-a-kind life. Who'd think (or want to think) they are pursuing their life for the sake of such inert stuff as a bunch of protein molecules; that's too uninspiring!
If human consciousness / self-awareness and intelligence are a products of our genes then its code has to be found somewhere in the less than two percent difference between our genetic makeup and our closest 'animal' relative the chimpanzees and while the genetic origins of our profound self-awareness remains a scientific mystery, we revel in its existence and enjoy the choices it affords us. We happily adorn ourselves with our ability to mark time and create anniversaries–birthdays, annual remembrances, jubilees–to celebrate or in some cases to mourn and we wonder ceaselessly about possibilities–not just for practical reasons but for fun. Verily humanity can just as well be defined by its imagination, for in this too do we revel. The ability to create fiction and simply enjoy it with care abandon is as much our defining characteristic as is our technological prowess. We will enjoy a good story no matter how outlandish or improbable it may be; it just needs to be interesting or entertaining. Which is why it is very difficult to accept that such complex intelligence, that can traverse the borders of the logical and return to produce art and express love, could arise from something so cut and dry–so seemingly soulless–as strands of protein.
The origins of human consciousness aside nothing is more tangible than our existence from moment to moment. Nothing matters more to us than our individual experience of life, even for the most self-effacing and humble person committed to a selfless life, personal fulfillment is his driving force. It matters to us that we get more out of life than passing on our genes. It also matters to us that our life matters to others or some idea or cause; one could say we dwell more in seeking fulfillment from our abstract concepts of life than basic survival. In fact we are so are passionate about our philosophy, art, religions and politics that have little to do with genetic survival that if these abstractions are products of some chemical function of proteins it is biological evolution gone way overboard. Overboard because some of us can decide to prioritize the abstract above the basics by ignoring the basics completely and voluntarily decide not to bother about genetic survival.
So where do all these abstractions leave us?
The undeniable fact is that we–as individuals arising from consciousness–with every breath we take and every thought we conceive affirm to ourselves that we are self-conscious beings capable of choice and enjoying the nuances of our preferences. That we are the product of our genes has a bearing on the quality or kind of life we may live on Earth but not entirely on the life we choose to live. Whatever that makes us individuals who want to count, to make our presence matter in the time that we have makes us the most unique creature to ever to appear on Earth. We celebrate and lament life–not just survive; we are not passive players in passing time, we play with time itself. We have appeared on Earth, we are unique in ways that only each of us individually can fully appreciate; where one in seven billion is same as one in one; where our time on Earth matters as much as our life on Earth. Perhaps this is who we are: An evolutionary chance that has become Creation's dearest.
This article was inspired by Nyaya-Vaisheshika methods of reasoning namely pratyaksha (perception) and anumaana (inference).
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