The Descent of Man

o topic could be more interesting then our plight as humans (or the inevitable fall of man (or woman)/humanity). No topic is more volatile; capable of inciting mass murder, ect. Not all believe that we’re on a accelerating unmanned freight train heading towards a bit of mangled track. This is especially true for the pious individuals among us (and God bless them), whom hold tight the notion that all men are inherently good in the eyes of the Lord. It’s not easy to digest the absolute truth of our existence. We do the best we can everyday to suppress this truth by banishing it to the bowels of our subconscious. Yet this truth remains. It can be informally referenced as an indigestible aphorism such as ‘life sucks and then you die’ [sic]. Formally, this timeless laconic phrase, is aptly put in stating the existence of man is a trivial and chance occurrence; we are merely minuscule cogs within an invariably large system spiraling towards chaos, over an infinite or as yet to be limited, period of time. Thankfully, herein lies the most fundamental and fascinating tenet of physics, the second law of thermodynamics. Your very existence, reading this magnificently eloquent and exemplar bit of prose, was made possible as a result of a tumultuous and highly unfair game of ping pong  (our planet would be the table and the game is over, barring our unintentional vaporization, once the sun is in it’s dotage.

To further add onto this, the process would continue; the suns expansion and then rapid collapse would cause a violent disruption in the planetary orbits of our solar system, a few left orbiting around our cool and lifeless star. Next, it’s assumed that the observed expansion of our universe will, remaining as a singular enclosed system, at one point cease it’s growth and begin the slow march back towards its eventual collapse, driven by as of yet discovered forces, creating a singularity (or as I prefer our physical existence, ass-backwards), not unlike the one that existed at the time of the “BIG BANG”. Whats next? I believe this local system repeats ad infinitum. Reincarnation? some astute readers may posit.. INDEED. 

I know it’s hard for some to grasp how evolution could possibly have devised such an ingenious defensive mechanism as displayed by a threatened bombardier beatle Bombardier Beetle according to wikipedia. And despite having completely divorced religion from this process when giving it consideration, I do not discount the remote possibility that God made everything in the span of 6 days, and this planet is just thousands of years old. Let me be very clear, I do not disapprove or look down upon any follower of  any religion, including those who spout the aforementioned version of events as irrefutable historical Gospel (in jest – relax..free yourself from emotion).

Upholding the version more in tune with the dogma espoused by yours truly (that being the one illustrated so beautifully directly below or adjacent to),  the story isn’t so rosy (not that the Old Testament depicted good times – at least from what I’ve heard).

The pulchritudinous (ha ha..smell the pungent stench of my pompous word play–just another word for beautiful), and seemingly incomprehensible abstruse (and again – pompous pageantry) nature of Quantum Mechanics is not a topic I want to delve into..too much.., but, it is the branch of physical science that deals with quantities and scales of variably confined systems (within systems), whose measurements, for the most part, elude the objective empiricsm that elucidates the beauty of classical mechanics . It is driven by the thermodynamic engine of matter, generating a stream of observable footprints, each conveying it’s ebb and flow. Significance is attached through the relative periodicity between the tracks it leaves behind.

A study I’ve read but won’t cite because I don’t feel like interrupting my train of thought to retrieve it, revealed that it takes 8ms for a novel visual stimulus to arouse conscious awareness. If the speed of light (fastest velocity theoretically obtainable) is treated as a fundamental unit of measurement, 300 million photons would comprise one second of time. As viewed four dimensionally, between time t=0 to t=1, we would have 300 million discrete units, or ticks (hashes whatever) as the discrete fundamental unit of measure (unit vector). Given the wave-particle duality of light, this can also be envisioned as a photo lineup of 300 million photons (suspects) being photographed over one second of time. Long story short, 8ms equates to 2,400,000 photons, a portion of which are converted into an electrical stimulus via the retina and transmitted to the occipital lobe at the very back of the brain (quantum becomes classical as detection (measurable vector) eliminates uncertainty). 9ms of entropic decay will transpire before the first ms arouses conscious awareness. In other words, our subjective/objective experience takes place in the past. 

In the interest of brevity, we are the sum of a process that began billions of years ago and the design of the human brain perfectly illustrates the “summation of component parts” that is the basis of biological evolution. According to the triune model of the human brains evolution, Triune Brain Wikipedia the brain can be divided, with respect to the point in time during which it evolved, into three distinct structures, reptilian, paleomammalian and neomammalian, each layered on-top of the other from the bottom up (as depicted in the image below).

The reptilian brain is the most antiquated part of the brain, followed by the paleomammalian, and neomammalian. The evolution of the latter two exceeded the recently adorned cerebral cortex. The period of time during which the hominid cerebral cortex amassed the capacity for consciousness, sported by today’s fashionable line of homo sapiens, further pales in comparison. The point: human behavior is still a function of primitive instincts necessary to the survival of organisms which first cropped up a billion years ago; those being, the acquisition of resources to sustain its biological machinery and a means to replicate and proliferate that particular machine’s code or blueprint. As life advanced, the ability to obtain the necessities for survival, grew in complexity (the abstraction of component needs); socialization being but one example. Consciousness, and the retention and dissemination of information; are all logical steps in said process.

AND FINALLY TO THE POINT, the descent of man will be a direct result of an evolutionary process (the development of intelligence) sabotaging itself; intelligence increased human survivalbility relative to other species (of mammals in particular) (vis a vi tool development ect. ect.) but put it at risk (perhaps inevitably) once used to foment the ferocity that is technologies revolutionary process – an inorganic thermodynamic system of sorts. We are but children wielding powers beyond which our brains evolved to contain and use to best benefit our species survival as a whole (as opposed to our present selfish drive to use the technological fruits of mans intellect to benefit ourselves). Beholden to baser instincts and handcuffed by evolution’s leisurely pace, it would be foolish to assume that we are at all in control of any element populating the current stage of our existence. It is also foolish to think that, as is often the case in life, adversity will result in wisdom and at some point we’ll be able to grab the reigns. Fasten your seat belts folks.

TO BE CONTINUED.

WIP>>>>>