Are we terrestrial?

 Well, human society always is, unlike that of all the other forms of life, a bunch of contradictions. We consider or take pride in all those as unique features of our race, venerating or celebrating it at every chance. But, by doing so, we are losing a valuable opportunity - one to learn more about ourselves. In fact, rather than examining critically and analysing it, as we do for all other matters in relation to the living and the non-living, we are dumping a clear paradox like this, for no worthy reason. And we do not realize it, being blinded by the pomp and the glory we accord to human race.

Why are there such contradictions within the same race? Is each human made up of a different life altogether, unlike the rest of life? The reason for such a disparity between human and all the other species of life could be attributed to the origins of each, I think. Perhaps, rather than a cultured monkey, our forefather is a descendant of something extraterrestrial.

One such possibility is, we could be having our origins in a comet like object.

Say, a life like constituent of such an object got dropped here during one of its visits, and it successfully endured the earth. Further adaptation occurred over many centuries, during which, it acquired the shape, size and other traits necessary to survive and flourish in this planet, progressively losing some or all of the original characteristics or features. Also, the possibility of intermingling between at least one of the many forms of life here, and the visitors, cannot be ruled out. Either, by the time the comet made another visit, they or descendants were not able to recognize each other, or, another visit is yet to take place. In fact all the observations and deductions of human evolution fits here perfectly well. Which can also explain easily, the existence of intermediate forms for the human, like Neanderthal, and the absence of any such, for all the other forms of life.

This could be fitting quite well with findings and discoveries of anthropology. Think of human nature, to start with. They begin their life as terribly weak ones, unable even to stand erect for some time, unless supported. Thereafter, one grows up to become capable of doing all that, but in a rather error-prone manner, unlike all the other occupants of this planet. They need to spend much of their life, just to learn, how to live. And then there is a need to practice, what one learns. Now, can’t we imagine of a different planet, whose ‘g’ shall not prevent the new-born ones from standing erect? Followed by a not so long period of growth, which shall not be calling for every sort of attention? One that has a different ambience, where our nature will be error free, like that all the other species of life?

Or, think of our actions. On the whole, the most admired ones are those that lead to destruction, of the current social order, or the way we progress our life. Think of a few great names chosen at random and one can easily confirm it as a fact. Like, Hannibal, Napoleon, Karl Marx, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus Christ, Buddha, or Muhammed Nabi.

Think of resources. Those available in this planet are constantly depleting, posing a threat to the seamless continuation of human species. Either our pattern of utilization, that is our life itself, is wrong, or we belong to a different part of this universe where human specific needs are never in short supply.

Think of human child. Unlike the new ones of all other species of life, why should there be a need to learn everything afresh, like learning to walk? Or, why should it be told what not to eat?

Think of human lifestyle. One that is totally unsuitable for rest of the life, and the planet, little reflection can show. And also, constantly adding difficulties to the race itself?

Think of human intellect. One that is always coming up with fresh ideas. Mostly with the potential to cause some harm to humans themselves, if not to destroy the race completely. But, on a few occasions, such ideas could result in something good too. And, by extolling beyond all proportions, the latter, the former, though abundant, gets overlooked easily.

What do all these indicate? Humans do not belong to this planet? I feel so. The forefathers of humans would have been the constituents of a different planet, or a comet as mentioned before. And some of them happened to reach earth, which might even have been uninhabited.

Say, some of them would have survived the new environment. They would have been spending their days in total discomfort, trying meet the necessities of life with whatever limited was their adaptability to the planet. The initial generations faced severe issues related to food, shelter, coverings and all, setting in motion, evolution. And successive generations adapted well, putting a brake to it.

So, our roots could be elsewhere. Where, the prevailing environmental parameters would have been a suiting one, whether for humans, or for the real stock of that species, to live in total comfort, all through one’s lifetime. And as a result, all their intellectual transactions get absorbed in a seamless manner. We are yet to locate their descendants, or they haven’t been able to meet their ones of this planet, or each of them is unable to recognize the other one.

Book Review: THE DEMOCRATIC QUALITY VECTOR

 THE DEMOCRATIC QUALITY VECTOR AND THE NEW SOCIAL AGREEMENT by Jode Himann. The book is an appropriate commentary of the present day polity, which begins with a critic of the  democratic voting system. 

Democracy, the book notes, is heralded as one of the greatest achievements of modern civilization. But, with technology as the common denominator, many forces or nefarious agents and social media exploits are meddling in the affairs, both within as well as in other countries, putting democracy at risk. Countries act in preemptive belligerence, pushing the hard-earned democracy onto a slippery slope of authoritarianism.

Author's attempt is to examine such changes, and the many planes of its manifestation. The psychological plane is identified to be akin to the one explained by Daniel Kahneman with the help of theories X and Y. Noting that the sea of humanity is not entirely composed of experts, the necessity of embracing diversity is underlined, if better decisions are to be ensured. Telling social change comes with a cost, author reminds us of the unintended  negative consequences, every innovation keep bringing, and how that cannot be absent in the political sphere. Which points to the need of polishing, lubricating or overhauling democracy, while it is in use.

A solution to these difficulties is to create voting systems that promotes the fullest engagement of citizens in their own governance, author says. A system, Proxy voting, is suggested for this. To encourage participation, and to decrease voter apathy, what is proposed is to separate feeling marginalized and expressing those feelings. One may feel so, but one's  representative  can express it with greater vigour that can lead to better results. 

To implement this in practice, the urgent need is to tackle issues like fake news and growing volumes of data, author warns. Adopting the theories of Kahneman, we need to recognize the important value of intuition in decision-making, and the value of intangible knowledge to any organization. With the new symmetry-based 6 Dimensional mathematics, and new tools such as the Democratic Quality Vector (DQV), quantification of many intangibles make it possible to arrive at a metric of intuitive knowledge. All these can can significantly enhance voting efficiency and decision making in politics or in business.

Everything is clear to me except the tools mentioned in the above paragraph. How the many dimensional mathematics act? What all will influence the democratic quality vector? I however agree wholeheartedly with the author, democracy needs to undergo maintenance. Many suggestions for which, I myself have been proposing through my 'hubs'.

A question, heard often

Why isn't human society a peaceful one?

I agree, many are seized of this issue. But, all are looking at this, either totally from a material viewpoint, where we end up instituting various measures linked to the essentials of living, or fully from a spiritual angle, where we add to the imponderables of life. Naturally, each answer we get, adds to the existing commotion, and for quelling which, we turn to another essential, whether real or abstract. And the cycle goes on. 

As you can see, human life continues to grow in complexity.

I think we need to make a break, and address just Four Issues specific to humans.

One: an odd couple. Abstraction, which is a unique part of the human, while missing in all other forms of life, and the commotion that follows every instance of mating, which is missing in humans but present in all other forms of life. It seems, both are mutually exclusive. Is it then possible that abstraction evolved as a remedy for the post mating violence, which, given the fact that humans have a long mating season lasting all twelve months a year, would have been posing a serious problem to the early humans. Shouldn't we rein it?

Two: what we easily notice. Humans sport a certain element of unease, irrespective of one's condition or circumstances. In fact, much, or rather all of our philosophy, from sophism to existentialism, or communism, is nothing but an effort to appreciate and explain this unease, which causes our society to be always in a state of strife. Isn't it possible that this unease is a direct result of a mismatch between, what we learn and, what actually we do? As mentioned in many of my 'hubs', our current and historical styles of learning do not lead to a synchrony between what we learn, and where our natural interest or leaning lie. Whereas, it is so, for all other forms of life. Shouldn't we recast education?

Three: not an easy one at all. It is about our ideals, which the French revolution popularized. Namely, liberty, equality, and fraternity. All forms of life other than human, revel on liberty, and fraternity. Man seems to have discarded both, and chose to live as a society that thrives on demarcations based on the very same ones. At the same time, man is embracing with all his earnestness, equality, an unnatural ideal. As a result of which man is constantly ruffling feathers, both of mother nature, and of one's own nature. Shouldn't we reconsider our ideals?

Four: it escapes all attempts of an explanation. The more rational and clear we are, when dealing with material objects and the associated phenomena, the less bothered we are about any of those, when dealing with the objects of our imagination, entities like religion, customs, ceremonies, gods or demons. And the more eager, we are, to expose every secret, hidden in, say the earth, or the planets, the less inclined we are, to acknowledge the super natural powers or functions as rather obscure, let alone attempting to make it clear. Shouldn't we think further?

Peace, and answer to all the imponderables of life, is hiding here.

The End of The Rational

As I propose in my book, The Unsure Male, we are slowly heading into the age of the irrational. I was not at all comfortable with this thought, and perhaps nobody else too will be, since I could not show a reason, a force that can spark it. (My book tries to make it clear, how, once one takes a leaning, towards the irrational, or to the rational, certain aspects of life come to fore, encouraging one to go to the extremes of whatever is of interest currently.)

I examined this again, with the idea of finding a spark..

God - A Review

What is god? How did such an idea become part of human life? What does it actually do? What is its future?

Why Unrest?

In my hub ‘why is there unrest’, I said that beliefs make the human society a turbulent one. One way to confront this situation is to deem all such inputs as mental germs, accepting one, only if it is proved harmless. Another hub, ‘A-New-Approach-to-Mental-Health’, gave an account of it, and suggested a remedy. 

Still another remedy, a more permanent one, is also a fairly simple one. Be flexible, especially with the abstract tenets, every society is abundant with.