What is your life

Contradictions

The searching human mind attempts to establish a coherent explanation of the issue it is confronted with. If there is a gap in understanding, if a question about the gap must be answered with “I don’t know”, the mind is not at rest until coherence is found. It is equally unsatisfactory for the searching mind if two explanations appear possible which are not congruent among themselves, as when they explain the behavior of a person with two different and unrelated motives. Such a situation leaves insecurity.
The interesting point here is that two (or more) different motives for behavior sometimes exist at the same time. The understanding of both motives, though unrelated, provides deeper insight into that person’s multilevel behavior. For example, many people are both selfish and generous. People may donate to a charity, yet, view it as a tax deduction.
In the field of religion and philosophy, the development of single-perspective theories of existence and human society is quite common. In many important cases, the applicability of the theory is its justification. Selective observation or forced exegetic explanations are used to establish a closed system of thought and to give the theory universal significance.
As long as we do not fully understand existence in its multilevel complexity, we may be better served in accepting partial theories for partial explanation of existence in a not-closed system of thought.
In politics, there is room for both liberal and conservative thought. In looking at the world, many people find room for scientific and also for religious thought. In religion, there is room for understanding the Darwinian struggle of lower nature and also for Christian ideals for mankind, with our actual lives still being involved in both. In philosophy, there is irresolvable duality between emotional and rational decisions – and in “moral” philosophy, between self-interest and the three, sometimes quite contradictory, basic, genetically given ethical behaviors of social animals (humans included) in caring for offspring or close relatives, in loyalty or reciprocity for chosen “friends”, and in sacrifice for the social community.

Decision-Making

The decision-making process in the human brain is a weighing process, in combination with one’s own drives (passions), emotions (desires), thought (logical rationality), mental creativity (new perspectives, intuitions), and temperament (personality, character).
The weighing of conflicting choices – as presented by reason, ethical values, and personal preferences – is commonplace in our daily lives. When there is no preponderance of one choice, a succession of intuitive solutions goes in circles, and such conflicts of choice become uncomfortable. Some individuals, based on their temperamental constitution, have more trouble than others in resolving conflicts and in arriving at decisions.
The reduction of all choices to a common denominator (for instance, money in business) is analytically possible (utility theory), but it does not always work in practical life. It is, then, a matter of values and character as to what one chooses and how swiftly one chooses.
Practical analysis, scientific research, contemplation, meditation, the appeal to conscience, prayer, the counsel of a wise friend, and other approaches are used to gain better insight or to shift the burden of the decision-making process onto someone else’s shoulders.
One basic distinction between decision-makers is that between individuals who choose what they want and those who want to choose what is right (if they know what that is).
The question of “free will” comes up in this context. It will be discussed in detail in a later chapter. This question was also discussed in the author’s essays, “Ethics” and “Ethics in the Light of Brain Physiology”. As indicated there, “free will” is often meant as “free decision-making”. One limitation to this freedom lies in the limitations of the mental process.
Nature and nurture both play a role in this. However, one’s own thought is also key to mental options, as shown in the essay, “Creative Thought”.
If the limitations of thought are not the problem, external limitations can become paramount, as in job-related decision-making.
Beyond that, a person’s character is the main limiting factor in decision-making. While many people would like to have a different and, preferably, better character, changes are difficult to accomplish – but not impossible (see the essay, “Brain, Mind: Human Personality’s Stability, Variability, and Multiplicity” on the author’s website). The reference to role models is helpful (“how would my role model decide?”).

5. mORE cOMMENTS ON OBSERVATION ANd A rELIGIOUS Interpretation OF OUR EXISTENCE
The “Fundamental Questions of Existence” were presented in Chapter 2 as including:

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  What does observation indicate about reality?
  
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    The physical world
    
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    Life – and natural evolution
    
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    The human mind and human existence
    

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  Regarding a deeper and possibly transcendental understanding of existence:
  
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    Is there a controlling force behind the existing world – God, Deus, Allah, the Great Spirit, an unnamable transcendental essence, “X”?
    

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  What could the creation of the universe indicate about the creating force, the Creator, God?
  
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  Is God really the always and still active ruler of evolution and history?
  
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  Is God personally reachable by human prayer? Does God ever respond?
  
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  Is God the ultimate judge of all human behavior? Is there life after death for the souls (if there are any “souls”)?
  
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  What is the image one can have of God when considering all the evil, injustice, cruelty, and waste of lives in the world (the question of “theodicy”)?
  

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  Is there any meaning or purpose to existence?
  
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  Is everything predetermined, or is there freedom of will and action?
  
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  If there is no God or no controlling and compassionate force in existence, is there still any meaning or purpose in existence for our lives?
  

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  In view of the conflicting interpretations of existence by various religions and philosophies, what is my own position? What is the meaning, purpose, and direction to follow in our own existence? What is the path of our life, what shall I do with my life?
  

5.1. The Observed Cosmic Reality, Natural World, and Human Mind
(See also the older essay, “Cosmogony, Cosmic Evolution – Natural Evolution, Human Evolution”, or, under the new title, “Evolution: Understanding Physical and Mental Existence” on the author’s website www.schwab-writings.com).

The Physical World

What is “existence” in this world? How can we understand the fact that the physical world around us exists: energy, matter, radiation, forces, fields, the basic natural laws, uncertainty?
According to scientific theory, existence began with the “Big Bang”, the original appearance of energy – only energy – all originating in one “singular” point. This energy radiated out into the vacuum of empty space, thereby creating time and space. The radiation out into expanding space was in the form of electromagnetic and nuclear forces, and gravitation fields (including a repulsive force of space, “lambda”, “dark energy”). Electromagnetic fields can oscillate with a frequency that is proportional to the energy of their radiation. Nuclear forces and gravitation fields do not oscillate.
One of the most important steps in the creation of our universe occurred when the energy emanating from the Big Bang proceeded to “granulate” – to condense into discrete particles. One can understand particles as circular energy waves (string theory), transformable into the energy of outgoing radiation waves or being formed by the energy of incoming radiation waves in accordance with the famous Einstein formula e = mc².
At that point, a basic process of nature became apparent – evolution, based on initial granulation, basic forces, and the action of the combinatorial principle (by some researchers and philosophers defined as the principle of “emergence”). This “combinatorial principle” implies that:

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  smaller components are capable of being combined into larger components – an effect that did not necessarily have to occur (for instance, not occurring in a pile of pebbles)
  
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  the new and larger components, upon being combined out of the smaller components, demonstrate new characteristics beyond those of the original components – thereby presenting new dimensions of existence – as in composing an essay out of letters, a computer out of electronic components, or a system of thought out of individual ideas.
  

The combinatorial principle appeared first in atomic processes, combining strings into subatomic particles, subatomic particles into atoms, and atoms into the first molecules. The dust of atoms and first molecules coalesced into stars. New atomic processes occurred within stars, creating heavier elements along with larger molecules. This formation is sometimes predictable, as in chemical processes. At other times, it is subject to random events and statistical distributions, for instance, those leading to the shape of clouds and the distribution of the stars and galaxies in the sky.

Only about 5% (or, as recently thought, a little more) of the universe consists of the material we know. Another 25% (or a little less) consists of so far unknown dark matter. The remaining 70% consists of so far mysterious dark energy, driving the galaxies in the universe apart at increasing speed.
Among the new forces originating together with nuclear particles, the nuclear repelling force at short distances among particles is the most interesting. Thereby, the individuality of particles and large structures can be maintained, as essential for the evolution of the world. It is this repelling force, together with electromagnetic effects, that gives us the impression that something “solid” of a certain size is perceived to exist in the vacuum.
The scientifically trained among us (and everybody else) became used to these concepts as we grew up with them. However, we should stop and wonder how gravitational – and, more so, electromagnetic fields in the vacuum – can be understood. Is it graspable that the vacuum can show electromagnetic properties? How can the vacuum oscillate? Why would the oscillations of the vacuum, which we call electromagnetic waves, progress at an exact and constant speed, the speed of light, through the vacuum, the nothingness? If particles can be understood as circular waves (strings) and can actually be transformed into radiation, then all forms of existence are only field phenomena of the vacuum, whatever that is. All reality, all existence, ourselves included, consists of abstract field-phenomena of the nothingness.
Existence becomes a perceivable reality by the fact that the characteristics of existence – fields, radiation, waves, or particles – have an influence or impact on each other. Why, and how, do they do this? Without such influence on each other, no part of existence would be aware of any other. We humans perceive existence through sensory perception, the effect of other parts of existence on our senses.
Existence becomes understandable only through its regularity, through the rules it follows in large areas, as those of causality, the laws of nature, and their guiding principles. This regularity allows for causal understanding and predictability – and for mathematics to become the human mind’s language of nature. Without that, in a totally random and chaotic existence of all phenomena, no understanding of existence would be possible. The significance of the regularity in the otherwise virtual field phenomena of the vacuum lets this regularity appear as the key aspect of existence – while the quantum mechanical uncertainty and the randomness of distributions add unpredictability and freedom.
What is the essence of the regularity of the phenomena of the vacuum? This essence of existence is a thoroughly intellectual – one could say “spiritual” – phenomenon, possibly not sufficiently captured by either of the two words, “intellectual”, or “spiritual”. This leads to the question, how do we understand this “intellectuality” or “spirituality” of existence?
There are not only “laws of nature” but basic “principles” as well. The principle of the conservation of energy allows for the transformation of one form of energy into another – motion into heat, heat into electricity, electricity into the lifting of weights. It does not, however, allow the addition or loss of any energy in the universe. The energy that appeared in the Big Bang has never disappeared – not the slightest part of it. This principle is not the only one; there is the principle of conservation of momentum, along with other “principles”.
Then, there are the “constants” in nature. The speed of light is constant; so is the quantum step of energy and a couple of other units. The world would be totally different if these constants had been established differently or if they had different values in different parts of or at different times in the universe.
What established the laws, principles, and constants of nature in the first place, and what keeps them constant throughout the universe and time? Is that the “intellectual” or “spiritual” and “structure-forming essence of Existence”?
A superficial view lets physical existence appear narrowly controlled by links of cause-and-effect. Visions of all particles being tied to a rigid positional and dynamic determinism, as in crystals, may appear. But then came Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, quantum mechanics, and the recognition that large areas of existence can be understood only in terms of the statistical distribution of random events. Chaos Theory added the perspective that the minutest differences at a certain time in a certain place can lead to universal consequences of the largest dimensions.
The possible significance of the minutest variations, the randomness of distributions, together with the Uncertainty Principle, dissolves all rigidity of a deterministic view of this world. It actually leads to a significant openness of the possible future course of destiny in the universe and on Earth. One cannot predict; all one can do is explain afterward.
One more comment – about time. We saw time as an absolute scale until the theory of relativity taught us the relativity of time between moving systems. This may also raise a question regarding the validity of the time scale at or very close to the Big Bang or at an end of all or parts of the universe in Black Holes (unless Black Holes dissipate themselves again, as Stephen Hawking suggests they might).
As a matter of fact, the end or the fading of the universe can be expected within a vaguely predictable time interval by concentration of all matter within Black Holes and their subsequent dissipation in the form of ever colder and weaker radiation in limitless space.

Life – and Natural Evolution

The significance – and definition – of life results from the combination of three phenomena: the self-propagation of specific forms of physical existence, the utilization of resources from its environment, and the continuation of the propagation in some form of evolution.
Even the simplest form of life did not appear until a few hundred millions of years after the formation of Earth, when the planet was cool enough. The evolution of life went through some significant steps:

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  Some self-propagating molecules (RNA at first) produced (or facilitated the formation of) other molecules that served as supporting material and surrounded the original molecules.
  
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  This conglomerate utilized the bubble-forming characteristic of lipid molecules (the basic elements of fat or oil) to surround itself with walls, forming protective cells.
  
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  RNA was capable of forming DNA. The chain-forming capability and the great (but limited) stability of the secondary DNA molecules formed the biological memory and the genetic process of evolution, including the gene combination of two individuals in what we call “fertilization” and propagation by seed cells. Amazingly complex energy conversion and protein mechanisms support the cell propagation and expression process.
  
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  Some cells formed nuclei (eucariotes).
  
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  At a later time, life began to feed on organic material – on other life.
  
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  Capillary movement occurred – mobility of organisms followed, resulting in “automation”.
  
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  Much later, the formation of nerves and their interconnectivity occurred.
  

The phenomenon of life and the process of genetic control in propagation remained unique. No other, different process was invented by nature. This, together with the absence of silicone-based life, raises the question of the uniqueness of life-generation on Earth. Proto-organic molecules appear rather abundantly in the universe, as on the dusty surface on icy meteorites. Their immersion in warm water, as on Earth, could explain the origin of most basic organic molecules necessary for the origin of life. Was life formed only once, only here on Earth? Has life been generated only once somewhere else in the universe and propagated to other places, including Earth, through interstellar transfer? Has new life been originated many times, in many places in the universe, always following the path of further evolution?

The process of propagation, the building of secondary individual entities and the formation of the supporting material, requires energy. The opposite phenomenon, the surplus of energy upon the formation of identical structures of material, as in crystallization, does not exist in the propagation of life.
There were various sources of energy at the beginning of life – geothermal sources and the Sun. The building material of life was formed from carbon compounds, abundant in the early Earth’s atmosphere and dissolved in its waters.
The initial steps in the evolution of life toward cells and strings of cells extended over billions of years. Only about 800 to 500 million years ago, during the Pre-Cambrian and Cambrian periods, there occurred a sudden burst of new steps in evolution. After the Cambrian period, the appearance of new basic configurations of organisms never occurred again (or such new organisms were not viable). The following steps occurred during that period:

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  Multi-cell “organisms” appeared with differentiated tasks for the various cells. These organisms evolved only from the “eucariotic” cells, those provided with cell nuclei.
  
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  Soon, there were a number – but only a very limited number – of very specific configurations of living organisms, like prototypes of the various later forms of more highly developed organisms.
  
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  Some configurations never acquired mobility (e.g., plants), others did (e.g., animals).
  
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  The earlier energy process of using Sun energy, and of using the ample carbon dioxide from the atmosphere provided large quantities of oxygen to the oceans or the atmosphere and did not require mobility.
  
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  As the composition of the atmosphere changed, however, some branches of life changed their energy process to the breakdown and oxidation of organic material. The necessary oxygen was taken from the newly available rich oxygen-content of the atmosphere. The necessary organic material for combustion was taken from the large mass of organisms that stayed with the earlier energy process and produced such organic material.
  
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  This meant that, with the arrival of the new types of oxygen-absorbing organisms, life had to feed on life. This required mobility to reach ever-new supplies of immobile or mobile organic material and to prevail in competition, leading to automation.
  
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  In the Cambrian period, under competitive pressure in the evolution of life feeding on life, the physical size of many species increased enormously.
  
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  The nervous system appeared, though basically of only one type. Never was another basic type of nerve developed by nature. The circulatory system appeared, too.
  
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  Initially, nerves provided the synchronization of movements (cell deformations) or the connection between sensors and the reflexive movement “actuators”.
  
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  Synaptic connections between different nerves and the capability for memory were added later.
  
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  Then, the processing of priorities, memory, and sequential reflexes began, giving rise to movement strategies.
  
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  Finally, “emotions” occurred and “thought”.
  
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  The progression in the automation of life evolved from reliance on reflexes to a need for premeditated actions requiring initiative (automation) and, finally, mental freedom and responsibility.
  
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  Environmental upheavals – on a local or a global scale – resulted in several partial or total restructurings of the evolution of life through the extinction of some overshadowing branches of life (e.g., the dinosaurs) and by letting others prosper thereafter.
  

What caused these steps in evolution to occur?

There are basically two different explanations for ongoing evolution in nature:

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  The religious belief in a divine plan for all evolution on Earth or, at least, divine causation or guidance of certain evolutionary steps as they occur (see the “Intelligent Design Theory”. See the 2 essays on that subject on this author’s website).
  
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  The concept of a “Basic Principle of Evolution” in scientific terms, whereby probabilistic or random genetic variations lead from given starting and boundary conditions to modified or new life forms that compete for propagation and survival, sometimes finding new niches or opportunities to prosper, and, thereby, driving evolution. Therefore, for the already existing organisms to prosper, evolution cannot proceed in random directions but must linearly follow opportunities. Such opportunities change with migration, with climate or geological changes, and with varying or increasing capabilities of the evolving organisms. In this concept, evolution is still founded on the characteristics and laws of our universe and nature and, consequently, on the “formative essence of existence” as expressed during the original Creation, whether this is seen in transcendental or scientific terms.
  

Both of these concepts shall be discussed in later chapters.

There are some additional questions concerning evolution: Why do some developments occur and others do not? Why do some problems find only one solution at only one time, and never find another solution again at any later time (e.g., the nerve as the means of signal transmission)? Why did nature develop some very complex configurations as flight and nerves, but did not develop others, as the wheel and metallic conductivity for nerves? Why do some multi-step evolutions occur so rapidly, with the in-between steps being hardly visible? Were the in-between steps possibly not viable? (Examples are the development of feather-supported flight, or the poison-injecting sting of sea slugs or of serpents’ poison-injecting teeth.) How can one explain the most complex and amazing evolutions on the genetic and molecular biological levels?
Any observer of nature, especially of life on Earth, must be fascinated by the process of evolution. However, one should not overlook the fact that the largest portion of the “bio-mass” on Earth may have undergone some variation and adaptation, but little evolution to any novel or higher forms of life. This portion includes all the species with low complexity and very large populations – for example, the viri, bacteria, plankton, and invertebrates.
The paragraphs above described the structural aspects of life. And what are the dynamic aspects? A major difference between inanimate physical existence and life is the “automation” of life. One can say that “automation” is the new, most basic principle of the era of life. Automation implies a dynamic conduct of life directed from within the individual living being. Each individual moves, multiplies, and acts by itself by a combination of its various innate capabilities activated by external conditions. On the molecular level of life, this may be no different from inanimate, cause-and-effect chains. However, when the quantitative difference of an organism’s abilities to react, to remember, to choose from a variety of options, and pursue a variety of alternative courses becomes significant, we have a qualitative difference between the dynamics of an existing molecule and the dynamic conduct of life by an individual organism.
One cannot leave the discussion of this era of life without admiring the enormous multiplicity of life forms, from viri to primates, often of great beauty, their variety of skills, and their intricacy of behaviors.
One also cannot leave the discussion of this era of life in nature, as seen from the human point of view, without reference to the merciless cruelty of the natural selection process. There is no fairness or justice; and, except within some narrow kinship limits of higher animals, no compassion in this phase of “Darwinian” life. Life prospers by destroying other life.
Must life necessarily be so? We do not know whether life exists only on Earth or in many other places in the universe. The basic principles of evolution may be universally necessary, since stars and their planets originate in violent heat, mature, and come to their end in absolute coldness (see the author’s essays, “Evolution: Understanding Physical and Mental Existence” and “Theology, Astrophysics, and the SETI-Project”). We do not know, however, whether the evolution of life can, or has, taken different turns somewhere else in the universe, compared to evolution on Earth.
Here on Earth, the appearance of humans brought further change.

Human Mind and Human Existence

The Evolution of the Human Mind and Human Existence

The creation of higher forms of life during the Cambrian period extended over a relatively short span in cosmic terms and in relation to the length of time during which life has existed on Earth. Further differentiated evolution of the higher forms of life occurred over more than the following 500 million years. Although man’s development may have started some 2 to 3 million years ago, accelerating about 200,000 years ago, the most significant development of humans occurred only during the last 15,000 years. Therefore, considering the much longer time nature takes for its grand exercises, one should assume that this new creative period could still be in full course – if it does not come to an end as a failed exercise.

What is different in the human era of existence, compared to the animal era? Again, it was the effect of a number of significant quantitative differences that led to a qualitative difference. There were at least three major evolutionary progressions that led to the human era:

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  The evolution of the brain and advanced, complex consciousness
  
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  The evolution of speech and mathematics
  
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  The evolution of structured society
  

They will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

The evolution of the brain and advanced, complex consciousness

The greatest difference between the human brain and that of animals resulted from the growth in the size of the frontal section. The evolution of the human brain, however, is not just a matter of size. Size alone could account for nothing more than additional memory or a greater degree of specific sensory signal differentiation (as in some whales). Significantly important for human development is the exponential increase in the number of interconnections between the growing number of neurons in the human brain, specifically in the frontal lobes. This interconnectivity (along with some complex chemical processes related to the brain) has led to eight important phenomena, which account for the most important human brain capabilities (see also the author’s essay, “The Brain: Mental Creativity”):

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  Mental visualizations (whether of visual, acoustic, verbal or other kinds corresponding to any of the human perceptions)
  
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  Self-sustained thought sequences
  
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  Focusing of thought
  
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  Creativity (innovation) through the formation of more complex visualizations or concepts in a not-limited combinatorial process
  
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  Memorization and retrievability of a large number of visualizations or thoughts and resulting consciousness (awareness of oneself and the universe)
  
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  Ethical thought and judgment
  
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  Emotions and “values” associated with thoughts – leading to individual personality
  
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  Sensitivity for beauty, art, joy, and humor
  

A visualization is the brain-internal activation – without external stimulus – of all neurons that together constitute a perception – for example, a word or an image. In this way, the same visualization appears in the mind as if an external sensory stimulus had provoked the visualization – for example, the hearing of the word or seeing of the image. This neural activation without external stimulation allows for the important phenomenon of self-sustained mental activity over time, beyond instant and temporary reflexes.
Self-sustained thought sequences are nothing but sequences of visualizations that follow each other along the lines of thought or perception associations, physiologically facilitated by their synaptic connections. Among all the possible thought associations, the association with the strongest synaptic connection is selected for the next sequence phase. This selection of the strongest appears to be a typical phenomenon of nature, as also is found in the selection of the fittest in biological evolution. In the brain, the strength of synaptic association is established by thought habit, associated value as provided by projections from the amygdala and other brain nuclei in the mid-brain, or perceived benefit. The synaptic association strength results in signal transfer strength (secondary nerval firing rate).
Emotions and values attributed to thoughts occur already in animals. This lets an animal avoid food types that previously resulted in poisoning, or noises that announced danger, or pursue signals that arouse basic drives. In humans, where this capability is significantly more differentiated, it influences or directs thought sequencing in an important way. Not only will pleasant or previously successful thought associations be pursued, but negative ones as well, even criminal thought sequences (what used to be called the “voice of the Devil” or what causes copy crimes). Thereby, it is important to note that the emotional or temperamental constitution of an individual’s personality influences the course of the frontal lobes’ thought sequences and, consequently, creativity, strategy formulation, and decision-making.
Since antiquity, the great thinkers about human existence have distinguished between “mind” and “soul”. Even in our times, one speaks of the difference between mind and “heart” as if the latter provided something different to mental processes. The definition of “soul” has varied through the ages. It was the essence of human life, the sum total of an individual’s personality, including temperament, thought, and memory, or only the individual’s emotional side and value content. Physiologically, this is related to the function of the mid-brain area, including the amygdala and its co-functioning with the “intelligence” provided by the frontal lobes of the brain. The so-called “soul”-based phenomena account for what we humans value most in our lives and in our fellow beings. They relate to the appreciation of our values, to our freedom being guided by ethical standards, and to our responsibility, if not accountability.
The focusing of thought allows thought sequences to be guided along desired paths. More important, by back-referencing later thought phases to the earlier focus, focusing allows the establishment of new thought associations. Thereby, as when using a building-block system in a combinatorial process, new configurations, “inventions”, new applications, or ever more complex systems of thought can be established in the brain. The focus-related sequences resulting in new associations and their memories are the basis of a surprising new phenomenon in existence: the appearance of inventiveness and mental creativity by human thought. This phenomenon brought humans to their elevated level of civilization and to the scientific understanding of the universe.
It is interesting to note that the above mechanism indicates that all human mental inventiveness is combinatorial in nature, and nothing else. New concepts arise by putting known ones and new perceptions together in a novel way, as in a building-block system. This is in accordance with a general principle in nature: building existence out of elemental building blocks, from subatomic particles up, in ever larger or more complex configurations.
When visualizations, associations, or thought phases have sufficient signal strength (nerval firing rate), they are being remembered through synaptic formation. These sequences of visualizations and their memories form the essence of all thought. Memorization and retrievability of a large number of visualizations or thoughts leads to the richness of human reflective and creative mental activity, specifically since memory content is structured by categories and offers hierarchical grouping (our pet “Sniff” is a dog, mammal, animal).
The human capability to memorize large quantities of visualizations and thought sequences over long periods of time, and in complex associative interconnections, gives rise to the virtual phenomenon of “consciousness”, the capability to perceive and think about oneself and one’s surrounding existence. In fact, that capability for memorization and retrieval of earlier thought and perceptions seems to be all that consciousness actually is.
Human mental functions developed into a variety of directions and formed corresponding capabilities:

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  Practical thought – logical, analytical, and holistic thought
  
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  Ethical concerns – emotions, conscience, and judgment
  
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  Justice and fairness
  
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  Humor and joy
  
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  Aesthetic sensation and artistic creativity
  
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  Miscellaneous others
  

These distinct human mental capabilities and their relative strength have a substantial impact on an individual’s response to the experience of existence, to the individual’s behavior and course through life.

The evolution of speech and mathematics

The evolution of speech capability – and, consequently, language – allowed the development and effective use of ever more complex concepts in human mental activities and communication. Speech does not necessarily have to be acoustic. Optical signals, as in sign language and facial expressions, or any other type of signals, can work, too. However, acoustic speech was an extremely good medium here on Earth for highly differentiated and almost effortless expression of concepts and their communication over practical distances, until society became global and electronics occurred.
While having facilitated this world of electronics, however, evolution has not provided humans with natural organs to use it. Mental evolution has forged ahead, attempting to become independent of natural evolution.
It is interesting to note that speech has evolved necessarily parallel to human thought. Therefore, it is also structured in categories, hierarchical, and combinatorial (see the classical method of defining concepts: “definitio fit per genus proximum et diferrentiam specificam”).
The essential benefit of speech lies in the forming and communication of effective and standard “short-hand”, “symbolic” expressions for complex associations (in mathematics, “operands” or “transforms”), with each new concept being definable out of prior elemental concepts and usable repetitively for the development of subsequent, more complex concepts.
This has given rise to specialized vocabularies in the various intellectual endeavors, thus allowing for participation in these endeavors by those who are fluent in such vocabularies, or the holding back of participation by others who are not. On the other hand, remaining with a fixed vocabulary reflecting a fixed set of concepts indicates the lack of mental growth and creativity.
Mathematics is another form of handling symbolic concepts, whether numbers or operands – indicating that language and mathematical symbols are hierarchical – another expression of the combinatorial principle. The importance of mathematics is derived from the fact that nature can be understood and interpreted in terms of the mathematical expressions of theoretical physics.

The evolution of the structured society

Human society is dominated by a pecking order and consequent allocation of tasks, as among animals. More important, it has evolved into multifaceted sub-structures of civilization (including the domains of government, business, law, religion, leisure activities, warfare, the arts, and more). Corresponding structures of laws and regulations evolved.
Central control in human society is always in conflict with individual freedom. Thus far, humans have not become dedicated cells without any internal control of their own (as opposed to undifferentiated insects in a swarm), even though totalitarian or religiously fundamental systems have tried to accomplish this again and again. The unusual strength of human societies – their adaptability and ability to innovate – is provided by a combination of central coordination and remaining individual freedom to follow personally differentiated motivations.
There are three types of central control:

1. 
   The suppressive power of rulers
   
2. 
   The mind-controlling power of ideologies (even in “political correctness”) or religions and their proponents (priests) – with type (1) and type (2) often acting together
   
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   The coordinated control in a society through shared values resulting in conforming behavior
   

Such shared values must not necessarily be the same as the acclaimed Western values of our own times (see, for instance, China). Since “coordinated control in a society” usually is not enough to enforce conforming behavior by all members of a society, such control is often combined with some central power vested with the legislative, executive, judiciary, and the police – if not the mullahs.

The legislative power is supposed to formulate the shared values relative to expected behavior. As most democratic nations show, vocal minorities (including the media) and special interest groups can (often by means of their money) impose their will, leading to the form of type (2) or (1) of control, as described above. Thus, these nations actually live in a combination of all three forms of control. This instability usually leads to conflict.
It is important to note that there is a consistent correlation between the coordinating effectiveness of shared values, the economic strength, and the political strength of a society. As the former are not stable over time, with their ups and downs, the latter is not stable either.
One cannot leave the discussion of the human era without pointing out the potential for strength, harmony, and general well-being in a society ruled by humanistic values, compared to the cruelty of the animal era of existence, which is totally ruled by the natural selection of the fittest. On the other hand, recent history has shown that unlimited humanism, as expressed in Socialism and open borders for every would-be immigrant, does not work in the reality of this world (and unlimited political correctness most likely not either).
It is a regrettable fact that parts of human society, such as nations or enterprises, may be internally humanistic while warring among each other in the cruelest manner. It is also a fact that societies that cannot defend their territories against external enemies or subversion from within fall victim to other societies or go into political or economic disintegration, often as cruelly as in the times of Darwinian natural selection.
Does human society necessarily progress to better conditions? There are the dangers of nuclear or biological war, environmental degradation, climate change, pandemics, internal degradation in terms of law and order or morality, and vastly corrupt tyranny. An equal danger lies in the dependence of human society on a high level of technology and a functioning industry – whether for its food supply, energy supply, or medical services, all of which are extremely fragile. They easily suffer from instabilities in society. The quick collapse of the socialist states in the East and of African states when liberated demonstrates this point. After a spectacular rise in cultural and economic accomplishments, a collapse in unspeakable misery could occur.

The Characteristics of Human Existence on Earth

As indicated, three major innovations – the evolution of the brain, the evolution of speech and mathematics, and the evolution of the structured society – led to the human era on Earth, which is characterized by:

1. 
   The ascension of empires and ever larger structures of society
   
2. 
   The rise of cultures
   
3. 
   The increasing significance of values
   
4. 
   Ethics and the limits of ethics
   
5. 
   The mental freedom and responsibility of the individual
   
6. 
   The effects of mental curiosity and mental creativity
   
7. 
   Population explosion and its consequences
   
8. 
   The fall of human society
   

The ascension of empires and ever larger structures of society

Whenever one considers the accomplishments of mankind throughout history, one’s thought turns to grand empires or grand cultures based on empires – Egypt, China, the Incas, and others. It was the creative and formative power of these structures of society that resulted in their significance. Roving family groups could not accomplish what clans did. Clans could not accomplish what tribes did. Empires over many tribes had the power to build great architecture, to afford a class of artists, thinkers, and scientists, to educate their subjects along the lines of their cultures, and to impress their cultures on large areas over extended periods of time.
Even Athens was an empire in its time. Greek culture was spread throughout the world by the subsequent empire of Alexander and, later, by the Roman Empire. Our time of global power of destruction, global commerce, and global communication demands the ongoing strength of the West, but also global peace and global coordination of interests with others. Will the important clans, ethnic groups, and nations of this world be able to refrain from the pursuit of exploitative, abusive, or religious self-interest? Will Islam become benevolent again – and China not a danger?
At the base of building empires is the specifically human capability for organization and management. Extrapolated into modern times, it is the ability to build industrial and commercial enterprises and international organizations that form the basis of modern civilization.

The rise of cultures

Nothing characterizes the rising spirit of mankind better than the appearance of cultures (Webster’s: “Refinement, the way of life of a people”). Economic strength and technical progress may be the foundation of cultures, but it is the development of thought as expressed in the outlook on life – in the sciences, in philosophy, in religious thought, and in the development of human sensitivity as expressed in the aesthetic, artistic, and, mainly, social elements of life – that lets us admire more than anything else the accomplishments of a culture. These are the unique contributions of mankind to existence in the universe.
Is humor, a quintessential human capability, also part of culture?