THEORY OF NOTHING CHAPTER 3
COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF HUMANITY’S MEANING
By Kenneth C. Eng
What is humanity? More importantly, why is humanity in existence? Most would say that we are merely a trifling species in the midst of a vast span of evolution and that the cosmos is far larger and grander than our minds can understand. However, despite the pessimistic modern outlook that humans are insignificant specks in this cosmos, there is a logical way to prove our importance in the universal chessboard. In order to do so, one must understand the workings of the human psyche and how it relates to the certainties of the universe. The details to be considered are the three cognitive elements of understanding, the reality of choice, reproduction and memory, the structure of human evolution, and the future of mankind, which would lead us to the ultimate purpose of all men and women.
The Elements Of Human Cognition
The mind is the foremost important ingredient in creating reality. Hence, the first step in comprehending our place in the universe would be to catalog the three parts of cognition that allow our brains to function. These three fundamental constituents include memory, intelligence and imagination.
MEMORY is mandatory for storing data. It is absolutely necessary, for without the ability to recall ideas, objects and entities, there would be nothing to think about, and therefore no consciousness (as we all know, consciousness is a requisite of existence). Even nothingness is a “thing” in and of itself, and it is still possible to think about nothing. However, not to be able to remember nothing would be absolutely ludicrous and cause the mind to cease to exist. As will be described later, nothingness also happens to contain everything, which is another reason to cherish the capability of recollection.
More important than memory is the second mental component, INTELLIGENCE. Intelligence refers to the capacity to process data and draw from it conclusions. It allows humans to formulate strategies and tactics in the cosmic war so that they can better attain desired objectives. If memory is a solid mass of clay, intelligence is the liquid that allows it to be molded. Intellect can draw implications from information and sculpt datum raw material into cognitive art. Without this component of the mind, there would also be no thoughts, as memorized knowledge would just clump up at the depths of a dolt’s cerebrum, never to be utilized for constructive purposes. After all, silver in the mine is worthless.
The final and most significant factor of the psyche is IMAGINATION. This is the ability to create ideas from nothingness, drawing information from the voids of the mental multiverse. Imagination has no bounds, so it contains everything that can possibly be known or thought of. Not all humans have the capacity to extract concepts from nil, yet this is the cognitive element from which everything in the universe emerged. While it is the most important element, it is not at all necessary, as humans can survive without ever having to design a work of art or write a masterpiece.
However, survival alone is not the meaning of life. There are other options and choices.
Choice Is Irrevocably Real
Although metaphysicians frequently argue about choice in Ultimate Reality, few have come to a certain conclusion. However, when one speculates the aspects of destiny and causality, it is easy to see that human choice does exist to a specific capacity. In fact, it is a definite requisite of existence.
Since every event has a cause, it is implied that there was a beginning to time and that the laws of causality are always constant. Essences and limits prevent an infinite amount of causes from plaguing the world, so there must be a finite number of causes to every effect. Even the emotions and cognitive capabilities that humans utilize to strategically plan out their actions (as strategically as they are capable of) have limits by this reasoning and can also be understood in terms of quantifiable entities that can react with each other like billiard balls. Thus, everything, including choices, must follow a chain reaction that has already been laid out from the dawn of temporal motion. Therefore, destiny is real, and we are forever bound to it.
This is not to say that humans can never have a choice, though. The exact opposite is true. The ability to decide is an inherent part of thinking, for if we could not think, we would not be able to process the data of the universe, and thusly, the universe would not exist. Imagine trying to experience the feel of the morning breeze whilst all your neural functions are locked down, preventing you from intellectually ciphering any form of information. The breeze may as well not exist, because every feeling must be accompanied by thoughts, no matter how incapacitated the observing subject is. Analogously, the rest of the universe would not exist if we were aware of all things that were to happen in the future. Thought is an inherent component of consciousness and if we could not think, we would not be, as Rene Descartes so aptly put. Further, because thoughts are meant to create decisions, it is clear that choice is real.
Thence, we are all moving along a preset timeline in which all our choices have already been made, yet we are still making decisions within that timeline.
Reproduction And Memory
Everything was spawned from the Big Bang, from stars to lakes to steel. What makes us different from nebulae? Why is life any different from the quantum particles that make up the unified macrocosm-microcosm? The answer lies in the tendency of DNA to replicate.
Genetic material is different from all other matter in the universe because of its ability to record or memorize information. By recording the past, it can better duplicate itself and more importantly, it can better improve upon its ability to remain in existence. After all, the very complexion of evolution is to weed out the entities, organic or inorganic, that are less likely to survive. DNA is excellent at clinging onto existence, as it can potentially multiply without limit while enhancing its code and sparking advanced evolution. Furthermore, it too came from evolution, as atoms and nucleotides had to form in order for double helices and ribosomes to be. One might even say that although DNA came from the same point and time as everything else, it is special in that it has evolved to evolve.
As quantum mechanics and relativity are unified and there is no rift betwixt the macrocosm and microcosm, then there is no reason to assume that quantum mechanics should not apply to our large-scale realm. Therefore, anomalies can occur in more widely perceivable ways. Examples of macrocosmic anomalies would be the mutations that triggered the ability of genetic material to change. Change permitted improvement, and the logical mechanisms of evolution steered the alterations so that only the ones that enhanced survival remained. This would not have been possible if DNA did not have the capability to store the past.
From this, one can conclude that all DNA-based life is special in that it is specifically crafted to seek existence. Nevertheless, it has to be held into perspective that all of our advanced human attributes were spawned from this need to reproduce. Procreation is in some way related to everything in our development, even if the evolved characteristic is one that contradicts the very purpose of multiplying. The flexibility of humans to choose not to reproduce or to possibly search for ways to eradicate all “superior” species (as well as one can define “superior” when quality is relative to so many universal factors) defies the virtue of spawning, but still results from the need to spawn and follows the laws of evolution and causality. Note that evolution’s mechanics cannot be defined except in terms of probability and deduction because of “superiority’s” malleability.
Considering that we are aware of evolution and can potentially affect it through conscious will, we actually do not need to reproduce anymore in order to sustain evolution’s flow. There are many alternatives, including gene splicing, cloning, and artificial selection (which is ironically natural in a way, since our ability to use artificial selection is the result of nature’s development of our intellect). Nobody has to die and nobody has to have sex in order to augment the gene pool. With these sciences, it is possible to enhance the human race through eugenics or to damage it via breeding inferior units, which is not altogether unlikely, as humans are also capable of insanity. Nonetheless, before any action can be taken, one must consider the purpose of being able to tweak evolution to one’s specifications. To do so, the chronology of the humans must be taken into perspective.
Structure Of Human Evolution
Why are humans so exemplary in the search for the meaning of existence? One reason is that we are competent enough to be a prime reflection of evolution’s ultimate state. While this may sound offensive to some scientists, note that there are many reasons why this does not contradict the truth behind evolution in any way. In fact, the main focus that must be apprehended in understanding human development is the parallel manner in which the evolution of single-celled organisms to multicellular organisms relates to the evolution of multicellular organisms into societal orders.
Let us first consider the history of the most social animals – humans. The earliest ancestors of homo sapiens were mostly solitary, striving mainly for survival as lone organisms. Albeit our primate origins are still being hotly debated, it is generally accepted that humans did spring forth from some sort of non-social organism, whether it was the proto-mammalian reptiles of Mesozoic Era, or the Cambrian Amphioxous, or maybe even the primitive bony fish. Even if we evolved from none of these, it is unambiguous that we developed from cells, which started as solitary single-celled organisms. From these loner predecessors, which may have been a wide variety of species, we formed into small social groups to better increase the chances of survival via collaborative hunting/gathering. While this progression probably made humans much more submissive, it ultimately aided in reproduction, as larger bands of warriors meant a boosted probability of success.
The first societies were probably not very structured, and perhaps only consisted of a group of humans that temporarily united for tactical purposes. However, as banding became significantly effective and more commonplace, every civilization matured into three components – government, military and underlings. Governments consisted of the group’s dominant member, the military was composed of physically superior units, and the underlings were the individuals that were less adept at physical combat and could be used for basal production purposes. With these essentials established, civilizations increased in size, building into more complex networks of humans that worked and behaved as one. Again, those that could not work together were generally less likely to survive and/or encounter mates to reproduce with, so inevitably, loners were mostly weeded out of the evolutionary game. As societies increased in size, there was little room for smaller and weaker groups, and thus, social orders evolved to become more and more sizeable, until alas, nations were formed.
Nations perform on different modes, such as tyranny, oligarchy, democracy, etc., but they all have one thing in common. They all retain the three basic constituents of society – government, military and underlings. While they have changed greatly since the time of the caveman, incorporating vast systems of councilmen, judiciary and laws to construct the government, nuclear missiles, firearms and armies to facilitate the military, and specialist production underlings like doctors, lawyers and teachers to make the societal machine propagate, they have not diverged from the main necessities of all efficient civilizations. The government is analogous to a nervous system, the military is analogous to offensive and defensive mechanisms, and underlings are symbolic of the manufacturing organs that make every living thing function. The only difference between a nation and a primitive society is that the nation is far more complex, since the second law of thermodynamics demands that all systems must naturally increase in entropy. By the same reasoning, every social order, no matter the scale, also acts as a biological organism, and in fact, should probably be thought of as a demi-biological entity composed of cells that are themselves multicellular organisms. Let a Superorganism refer to a multicellular organisms composed of multicellular organisms.
Further proof of this is shown in the evolution of single-celled organisms into multicellular organisms. The earliest single-celled organisms lived completely independently. However, it was more beneficial for survival to cooperate with other members of their species, and thus, the independent single-celled organisms evolved to cooperate with others of their kind. The first interactions between separate cells were probably not well structured, yet efficient enough to give grouped cells more of an advantage than those that were solitary. Bonding to form networks in which the single-celled organisms aided each other in survival, they created multicellular organisms that had brain-like mechanisms, defenses (when it became evolutionarily necessary to destroy/compete with other creatures), and production systems to process nutrition. Early multicellular organisms had non-central nervous systems and obtained nutrition chemically or by the use of simple appendages or membranes. However, as time progressed, their neural, aggressive and productive bodily operations became more advanced, like the complex brain, somatic structures and digestive systems of an insect. Cells acquired specialization, like carrying oxygen (blood cells), transmitting synaptic information (nerve cells) and designing new variations of a particular multicellular organism (reproductive cells in sexual creatures). Finally, the entire process, which is still ongoing, led to the present-day humans.
Notice how the evolutionary path of humans into societies parallels that of the evolution of single-celled organisms into multicellular beings. The development of a complex, structured government from the disordered and non-centrally commanded mingling of ancient hominids is comparable to the growth of a central nervous system from a non-central one. The evolution of spears to missiles is akin to the flowering of harmful membranes to high-tech horns and poisons that some animals bear. In addition, the unfolding of simple underlings into specialized civilians is like the progression of single-celled beings into specialized cells. Therefore, societies act almost like multicellular organisms built of multicellular organisms, which in some ways are similar to the functions of single-celled organisms that also have nuclei, organelles and potentially defensive/offensive membrane weaponry. The only difference between the three is that they occur on different scales, further supporting the notion that the macrocosm and microcosm are undifferentiated.
From this, one can see that humans are really not that disparate from simple life forms, including Superorganisms (multicellular organisms composed of multicellular organisms, a.k.a. societies), which are actually simpler, and thus closer to cells than actual humans. This makes us not at all unique, but as DNA had evolved to evolve, we have evolved to consciously evolve. So we must ask ourselves – what are we supposed to do with our almighty gift? The answer lies in the future of humanity.
Mankind’s Future
Science fiction writers typically craft stories about the future of humanity through the use of parallel universes. The limitless possibilities of a multiverse are, nevertheless meaningless unless one understands the purpose of life. Thus, there are multiple futures to humanity that should logically take place if certain actions are taken. All of this is, of course, not taking into account quantum anomalies that make probability moot (probability can be contradicted in the same way induction requires itself to prove itself). The irrelevance of these anomalies can be accounted for later.
If nations are like cells built of organelles that are humans, then it is logical to suppose that they will further evolve into grander beings. Similar to primordial cells, they can already perform mitosis-like behavior by usurping territory or dividing into multiple countries. If many of these countries gather, then they can initiate the spawning of a primitive multicellular organism composed of Superorganisms. Efficiency is increased when every element works in unison, but obviously, the nations of the world, and humans in general, are not prone to collaborating in total harmony. Can there ever be such a unified world, then?
Absolutely.
Most humans inherently have tendencies to seek dominance, yet at the same time, they also exhibit the desire to consider the thoughts of others. These two instinctual traits are necessary results of evolution in a social order, since the societies that best survived were those in which individuals were competitive enough to speed evolution (another example of a reflexive evolutionary scheme in which those that are more evolved are the ones that were faster at evolving) through battle, and also benevolent enough to maintain order within the civilization so that it could function smoothly. Morals came to being because social humans innately understood that killing, stealing, and vandalizing for reasons contrary to the benefit of civilization threatened their interests. However, just as moral laws evolved to become instinctively wired into human brains so that they follow it almost automatically through feelings of guilt and fear, so did the need to rise to power. The desire for respect is inborn in humans because biological development favored the existence of those that could best command a civilization. Hence, both attributes coexist in most modern humans, sometimes contravening each other in weird ways. Albeit, they are excellent for creating mass conformity.
Conformity is an imperative factor in constructing a Super-Superorganism, a multicellular organism that is composed of multicellular organisms that are composed of multicellular organisms. Humans are ideal for this, as their social bounds operate in such a way that evolution will eventually draw them to be, in the future, cloned according to function. Like animals, Superorganisms have immune systems that are designed to eliminate all foreign particles and dissenting units. Governmental agents and police forces are used to ensure that unruly humans obey the regulations that the neural centers of the nation decide on and to battle threats from other nations. Although rebellions frequently occur throughout human history, in most cases, people do not revolt against a government, which makes it even easier for a singular mind to take control. In fact, unstable social orders are more prone to failure, and thus, those that contain units who are less inclined to dissent are more likely to reproduce more units and enjoy augmented efficiency at the same time. Thus, those that conform will ultimately win the biological game, rendering a very flat gene pool in a society where ranks are established by lineage. If the nonresistant breed enough along these lines of ancestry-based status, a society in which cloned specialist units will rise.
Such a state would be great news for the Superorganism, which would be as evolved as a regular single cell. At that point, it would be able to unify all humans and control them in an attempt to continue its survival across the globe, and the universe as a whole.
Should an “ideal” society, one in which everyone operates in total harmony, actually develop, it would probably be able to expand across significant stretches of space (assuming that the “laws” of physics allow for it). Since it is based on humans that reproduce in generations that survive for 80-100 years, it would not truly ever die lest all its human components are killed. Therefore, it would exist in its own deep time, and can stand to wait for thousands and even millions of years for its cosmic mitosis to be completed. Understand that the humans, if they were perfectly operable clones, would not have any choice, and thus, not truly be conscious. They would not be able to cease this process unless an anomalous mutation occurred, like a unit who was intelligent enough to place his own interests and the truth above the weaker-minded majority and deal damage to the large-scale societal creature in much the same way as a virus would damage a soma.
Supposing that these anomaly viruses are quickly destroyed by the less conscious humans, this intergalactic Super-Superorganism would eventually take on a consciousness of its own, utilizing the lesser Superorganisms as unconscious cells. In perhaps billions of years, it could attain a brain as advanced as that of a human, except that its mind would be as large as a galaxy. Indeed, it would be the next level of evolution, and the whole process can repeat until it reaches a scale as large as space and time and the universe itself.
But here’s the question: WHY???
In an infinite loop of iterating evolutions of prototype organisms into human-like consciousnesses, what would be the purpose of having evolution in the first place? What does the size scale matter when the consciousness type is identical (the macrocosm and microcosm have little differentiation as quantum mechanics and relativity are conceptually unified in that they require perception to create reality)? After all, human sentience must be the highest form of sentience because it implements logic, contains all conceivable emotions, is aware of itself and can ponder its place in the cosmos. Even if there were intelligent extraterrestrials in the universe, they too must be in some way “human” in that they must also be able to experience to a certain degree the same emotions and to use the same logic we do. Can you imagine a taste sweeter than honey? Can you fancy a smell worse than that of excrement? Even if you could, it would exist in the realm of abstraction, because it is simply not possible to create a new emotion. The very notion would be meaningless. The fact that no human can imagine anything beyond its own limitations (as limited as imagination can be, which is unlimited), proves that by the Uncertainty Principle, there must be nothing beyond our ability to perceive and conceive.
So what can we conceive about our place in the cosmos?
The Human Place
Humans are the only creatures that have evolved to consciously evolve, yet the whole point seems purposeless, as there is really no greater gain from having a humanlike creature as large as the universe. Eugenics would definitely improve intellect, imagination and memory, thereby aiding the quality of life, but it would still be pointless in the long run, as causality must have a purpose that terminates existence. Survival alone is not a reason for living in and of itself.
Our psyches are the most capable of responding with conscious choice to Ultimate Reality. What then, does Ultimate Reality have in store for us?
