CHAPTER 2
Reality, Liberty And Human Systems…
There is a new physics, which essentially asserts that questions are relevant but more crucial and critical is which side of the questions we are, what specificity of questions we seek and how. The logic is simple; not even a new discovery that if the question is wrong, the possible answer can never be right. Or, as we all know of the very classical idea that if the hypothesis is wrong, the theory can never be right. We already know; most questions have their answers embedded in them; most problems have their solutions seeded in their structure. The artistry is in acceptance of right and true questions!
The important question, which most of us miss is; we all know we are different from other animals, even when we share majority of body-mind mechanism, processes and reality with them. However, what we do not always ask and are interested in knowing as how and why we are different from other animals, even when we probably are an extension of this long evolutionary chain of animalism? More importantly, we also never ask, what does this difference mean to us? Are all differences good for us? Are we humans always well off with our ‘differences’ with other animals or are we in many ways than imagined, in loads of trouble because of these differences?
We may never ask these questions and probably are seldom interested in knowing but science asks them and also, science knows the answers with sufficient certainty. The contemporary scientific knowledge of Reality, human reality, the biological historicity, brain evolution, et al have made us understand the human systems, as compared to animal systems, with great perspective and insight. We need not go into details of this knowledge but we shall only touch upon the basic idea about this comparison of human-animal systems, to help us understand where we stand.
As we have hypothesized earlier; all living beings, from a unicellular one to the mammoth whale, are essentially a Media of Information processing. We stand in commonality with millions of other species on earth in this respect. However, where we differ from other organized big animals is how human brain processes some of the Information differently and probably exclusively. These differences are only a small part of the overall commonality we have with animals. We know, our distant cousin, the chimps have 98 percent genes common with us. For that matter; 99 percent of genes of 7.5 billion humans on earth are same. This means, we differ only ‘marginally’. However, in genetic makeup and gene expressions, this small ‘two percent’ is a huge factor. But, it is to be accepted in the same breathe here that this differences we have with other animals is not only good for us. It probably is the most critical element for most of our troubles. We must account for this fact and must internalize it.
The difference of human system with animal system is in the hypothesis that human brain has much more developed and evolved pre-frontal cortex, which has much advanced capacity to process information in metaphoric or representational format or mode. In simple terms; human brain has this capacity to create an understanding that something can or does ‘represent’ other thing, or something can be accepted as a symbol/metaphor for other thing. This very capacity made languages possible for humans. Science believes, this representational faculty of human brain probably also engenders a strong sense of Self, ‘I’ or what we may call the Consciousness. Language, and for that matter this sense of ‘I’ or consciousness is also a strong emergent sense and feel of the ‘representation’ or symbol of the collective and cooperative information processing.
It is probably not that humans have this facility as exclusive. Chimps also have pre-frontal cortex but it is only 17 percent of their brain whereas human brain has 33 percent of pre-frontal cortex as compared to total brain size. But, science believes, this difference creates some ability of representational or metaphoric processing of information, which the human brain states receives. This is somehow exclusive. It is said, the very early human species, we call the cave men, could create cave paintings 10-15, 000 years back, but the chimps could not even in contemporary time! Why blame the chimps; other animals also do not delve into any painting skills. This also indicates to the fact that this probably exclusive faculty is the critical energy behind all arts and artistic expressions humans indulge in. However, still, we cannot say it is exclusive to humans as whales, even dolphins have complex sound and body movement patterns, which they clearly use as mode of communication for different situations. This is also a language as different sound patterns have different meanings and signals attached to them. Moreover, we must not discredit animals, birds and many species in oceans for being ‘un-artistic’. The birds have marvelous dance patterns and sound patterns, which they use for mating communications. They are pure art with great symmetry. The group movements of dolphins, whales and many other sea species are artistic too and they communicate something they all understand. This too is representational and metaphoric ability. But yes, humans have it most sophisticated and most complex. Humans have the brain size as well as the specific portion of the brain that matters. This hypothesis however, must also factor in many other aspects, which might influence how humans perceive Reality, apart from this hypothetical difference in prefrontal cortex.
Moreover, scientists have also begun to understand that the developed prefrontal cortex and its dominant share in brain plexus facilitates something, which probably stands humans higher in the linear progression of evolution from animals. It is like a major step or jump on top of the linear evolution of humans from animals. This facility is what the scientists say the prefrontal cortex does as ‘supervisor’, ‘organizer’ or ‘witness’ of the brain. The cortex part of the brain probably witnesses and mediates in the information processing of other parts of the brain. As the cortex does so, it probably engenders this sense or feel of Self, ‘I’ or consciousness. We all have the sense that what we accept as ‘I’ or self, feels like something ‘within’ us, which presides over the body and mind and even regulates them. This special feel of humans is probably the exclusive facility their brains can engender. We also know, this very feel of Self or ‘I’ is the most calamitous element of human life-living, responsible for most ills and troubles of human society and cultures. Probably; this mega theatre of Intuitiveness is an emergence of this ‘witness’ brain state.
Anyway, we discussed it all just to arrive at this critical hypothesis that human systems, with its small but crucial difference in body-mind make up or genetic expressions, becomes massively different from their animal counterparts. With our difference in the way we humans process information from external as well as internal milieus, we could create a complex world of thoughtfulness, languages, artistic expressions and cultures. Most importantly, we created a rather strong sense of personal and subjective Self, the ‘I’, which may be accepted as the sole trouble monger of the cosmos. It all happened because we did just one small thing differently – we processed the ‘Information’ differently. In other words, we humans are the rare ‘Media’ of Information processing, which not only processed Information but also created a massive and complex plexus of self-created parallel information – the Representational or Metaphoric Information. Theoretically; what we are doing in this eBook so far is all metaphoric! Phew…!
What probably has happened in the last 10,000 years of organized life-living and cultural evolution of humans that we have become Slaves of or Prisoner of our own created metaphoric and representational Realities. We are prisoners of the same facility, which separated us from animals and stood us way above them in linear evolutionary chain. We are prisoners of our own language, we are prisoners of our own cultures, we are slaves of our own systems and most importantly; we are slaves of our own consciousness. We created metaphors of Reality with the information we processed and this ‘metaphor’ or Symbolical Reality became so colossal, complex, organized, controlled and now conflated-depraved that we finally became prisoners and slaves of it. This hugely powerful and massively brilliant brain facility of ‘Thoughtfulness’, which is like the shining singular instrument to create infinite possibilities to humans, became so enslaved by the metaphoric realities and representational truths that it has now become the sole weapon of human self-destruction and annihilation of the ambient milieus and systems of humanity. We need to understand that…
Scientists assign great value to one big difference between human system and animal system that is – how very differently human and animal new born take time to develop and mature. Human new born is probably the only one in the entire millions of species of earth, which takes months and even years, before it could begin to perform all roles and tasks that a grown up does. A human new born can’t even move its head at the time of birth. In sharp contrast, most animal new born stand up on their legs, move around with its mothers and start doing most things for its own survival, within a few hours of its birth. What this big difference means for humans?
This area is also still open to scientific philosophization as no definitive theory is available yet. It is hypothesized that because of long duration of developmental cycle of human new born, it is dependent on its parents, immediate family, local milieus and cultures for whatever Information it may receive for brain processing. As we talked earlier, the human child is a ‘tourist’ forced to opt for a ‘packaged’ and ‘guided’ tour plan for its stay on earth. Therefore, a human new born, symbolically or even pragmatically, is a ‘slave’ of an information plexus, which it has no control over and no Free Will to choose. This is in stark difference to an animal new born, who freely moves in its commonly available natural milieu with all other animals and has direct, first-hand and unfettered access to all information. It also has more personal space and ‘Free Will’ for opting out choices, which it may not avail, because of strong and entrenched wired instincts of collective living discipline.
Most importantly, the scientists hypothesize that because a human new born is ‘fed’ selective, skewed and already metaphoric Information; it grows and evolves into a young person with pronounced subjective and personalized consciousness, Self or sense of ‘I’. The animal newborn however has more generic consciousness, much in consonance and symmetry with most others in its species or herd. This ‘specific’ consciousness, with iron-identity and pronounced subjective sense of being, makes it difficult for a grown up human adult to form assimilation and integration with other fellow humans in larger and diverse milieus of humanity. The ‘enslaved’ consciousness, with restricted, localized and ethnicalized metaphoric information base has seeds of conflict, chaos and confusion in human societies and cultures in contemporary times. Worse; this slave consciousness is susceptible to have different timeline and different sense of presentness and contemporaneousness.
In that sense, humans are destined to evolve into a conscious being, who are more and more a ‘prisoner’ or ‘slaves’ within layers of ‘walls’ they themselves create. It is primarily because the human new born acquires consciousness not in open-innate milieu but in humanly erected House of subjective walls, having bricks and mortars of local, ethnic and deterministically subjective faith elements. This is what Buddha said after attaining wisdom. He probably emphasized on the need of dismantling the ‘walls’, which block the free flow of innate, unadulterated and unfettered Information. He probably emphasized on the need to ‘de-culture’ the mind consciousness and selective cognition of the depraved, situationed, superficial and restrictively representational Information, in the form of ambient culture and belief-systems.
There is a famous story about how dominant and populist cultures make people their slaves and make them behave as if they are prisoners of their own castles; not even aware about the slavery; rather happily conceited about this status of slave. The story goes like – There was a German philosopher, in the late 19th century, who lived in England. He was a bachelor and therefore, every day, he would come to a tavern and would have his dinner there. Every day, he would arrive, take out a gold coin from his pocket and put it on the table. He would eat his dinner calmly and as he would finish, he would take the gold coin back in his pocket and go away. This was repeated for many months. The waiter, who served him, finally could not resist his curiosity and one day, as he grew in confidence with him, the waiter asked the German philosopher why he took out the gold coin from his pocket and why he took it back every day. The philosopher said, ‘I have resolved that I shall drop this gold coin in the charity box for church, hanging in the corner of the tavern, if any young man coming here would talk on a topic other than women and horses and that too the pedigreed ones. Six months have passed and that day has not come. Young men of different shades come but they only talk about women, horses and their pedigree. That is why this gold coin is not being put to charity and I have to take it back.’ The story exemplifies the slavery of humans, which their cultures land them in and they are not only unaware, but relish it.
In the case of Buddha, we find the same enslavement, when we enquire objectively about the then existing and predominant culture of ancient Indian civilization around 2500 years back, when he lived. We gather from history that the culture Buddha was born in and lived had turned hugely ritualistic and religion was monopolized by handful of wealthy priests, who had the propitiating patronage of powerful ruling oligarchs. More importantly, ethnicity and identities were very pronounced, resulting in perpetual inter-racial and inter-regional conflicts. Most importantly, general prosperity was sufficiently high and therefore, ‘artistic metaphorization’ of life-living had resulted in much abstract idealism and depraved practicalities, vitiating the overall sanctity and sanity of societal structures. The culture at best was of vitiated Information and therefore of abstracted reality. The assimilative symmetry and community cohesion was in shatters. This was precise backdrop for the enlightened Buddha to summarize in his first few words after he attained wisdom that humanity needed to break free of the ‘incarcerating walls’ of vitiated cognitions and depraved Reality. This situation we can see even in contemporary cultures. The enslavement is more pronounced and diversified in contemporary cultures. Buddha is long dead!
What we need to derive from the discussions so far is the very critical and cardinal idea of Liberty. Humanity thinks and unreasonably feels proud of the scammed reality that only humans can have liberty and animals are all in chains and enslaved. The reality may be just the opposite. As we have discussed above, the primary requirement of the sanctity and sanity of all lives and living is the unfettered and unadulterated access to Information in its holism and entirety. Every human being must get this TRUE ‘Information’ from its milieus and this is what actual Liberty is all about. As we talked earlier, if we are not aware, even enslavement becomes a matter of pride and cherishment for us. True Information alone can make us ‘Aware’ and that is why Liberty is about Right Information. Every animal is generally and innately enjoying this Liberty. Only humans do not as they largely have access to ‘synthetic’, adulterated, metaphoric, localized and socio-culturally-politically ‘encrypted’ Information from the time of their birth till they grow up in years. Tragically enough, most humans do not have the knowledge tools to even verify the veracity, sincerity and complicity of the available Information. Only a few very evolved humans can ‘decode’ the hypocrisy, culpability and depravity of the incoming Information. That is why; mass majority of deprived and emaciated humanity of this very survival element of Liberty is slave of their own making. They are virtually the happy merrymakers of the Hell, they have created and perpetuated since centuries and millenniums.
We need to understand this very crucial and critical idea of Liberty in the cosmic context of Information. This shall clear the mist in our minds about our being, living and life priorities in the so-called cultures we live. To understand this, we shall discuss a very powerful idea, which is defined as – Medium Is The Message. We discuss it in detail to unravel a huge mysticism of human life-living systems.
In perfect idealism, a Media is supposed to be a neutral, objective, detached and non-participative mechanism in the entire processes of communication and expression of content and intent of the Information. However, what the adage Medium Is Message intends to hypothesize that in many cases, the Media not only communicates but also offloads its own ‘intent’ and ‘content’ in the Information it is communicating. In gradual progression, the Media itself becomes the Message as it suitably metaphorizes the Information as per its personal and subjective ‘Agenda’. This saying, Medium Is Message is accepted to be precisely true with human body-mind media and its own Media called Consciousness.
Therefore, finally, it is the medium, which itself becomes the message or majorly shapes it. Means, the media, which is supposed to be carriers of ‘content of intent’ of the Information from the external and internal milieus with objectivity and with whatever is assigned to it, instead starts to load its own intents and contents that essentially has the ‘agenda’ emanating from its own structural and functional mechanisms and processes. The ‘Message’, this ‘Media’ of human Consciousness creates as its own ‘Agenda’, is essentially a metamorphosed ‘representation’ and ‘metaphorization’ of true and real Information, suiting to the conscientious or non-conscientious ‘profitability’ of a particular ‘tribe’ of humanity; not the humanity as a whole.
Though humans are best examples of this tumultuous case of ‘Medium Is Message’, with every human becoming a localized and dualistic consciousness, communicating and installing its own personal ‘agenda’, it is widely applicable on all media that humanity creates and thrives on. We have already hypothesized as how cultures and other human systems are essentially Media of Information processing. We all know, when in contemporary age, we are experimenting incessantly with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and foraying into high-end humanoid robots, there is always this lurking fear that the ‘Medium’ we are creating and infusing with complexities of perceptional/emotional elements, may ultimately stand to develop its own animalistic cognition and organic consciousness to override the installed ‘Purpose’ and load its own ‘Message’ and randomly emergent agenda. Or, the ‘profit-sharks’ and ‘political tribes’ may also install their own Agenda into the AI platforms. They already are! There are already primary evidences of such eventualities.
Our own Consciousness is also a Media and it also uploads its own message and agenda on our meta-cognition of Reality as it creates personal/subjective metaphors and representation of Information (faiths, beliefs, perceptions, value summation) it receives and processes. In simple words, what we as humans see, perceive and express as Reality is and probably shall always be ‘Refined, Colored and Doctored’ Reality. It is because Information is sensed and processed by our media of consciousness through multiplicity of subjective and cultural ‘Filters’ and never as objective, singular and elemental, as it emanates from its innate milieus. Therefore, this ‘Medium Is Message’ realism also points out to the situation that Reality cannot be singular and non-dualistic as it is always a summation of different media-engendered parts where ‘messages’ or expression of reality changes or plays out differently. This is culture for us. This is what all human systems are – the Scammed Reality of botched up and fudged Information, having lost its sanctity and sanity in the conflated processes of metaphorization and representation…
The scientific studies of Consciousness have opened up doors for many probabilities, which are huge leeway in understanding the related and contextual ideas and entities of Milieus, Cultures and Emergence of myriad nature; many of them falling in the domain of ‘Media Is Message’ and abstract metaphoric representation of Reality. This needs to be understood with clarity and also probably with an element of populist culture, so that the core and critical ideas about the troubles the ‘metaphoric representation’ of innate Information lands humanity into, which the human consciousness is a master craftsman of, be unraveled. What better populist element than Sexuality and its abstracted and depraved metaphoric representation in the hugely predominant Porn culture across all societies, transcending geographical barriers!
However, before we go into the Porn thing, it is also very relevant and contemporaneous to mention that there is a scientific line of thinking, which describes Consciousness itself as some idea, which has now stayed to be accepted as conflated and abstracted collage of so many related and contextual metaphoric ideas. It suggests, Consciousness is like a ‘Suitcase’ notion, which is large and abstracted enough to pack so many different, yet seemingly related ideas like consciousness. In that sense, Consciousness itself is a Confused and Conflated Reality for most humans as it ‘Packages’ so many such abstracted yet related ideas, which human brain is masterly capable of churning out, as representation or metaphor of Information about a Reality. Essentially, this suggests – a confused and abstracted mind consciousness sits down to engender a series of equally confused, conflated and abstracted metaphors of so many related and contextual Information. This we try to understand with the help of a detailed discussion on the populist issue of a metaphor/representation called Pornography and the innate and entrenched Information, which we know as Sexuality of Humanity.
Sexual reproductive mechanism is not exclusive to humanity. The mating processes are extensive in animal world and have wide species specific variations in different birds and animals. Sexuality may intuitively be accepted as Innate Information and very much Entrenched in the internal milieu of body-mind spectrum. However, if we test its innateness on the anvil of non-intuitiveness, we may accept sexuality as Information at Media-Level and not as it is at Cosmic Level. Therefore, human sexuality or any other specifies-specific mating Information may well be accepted as ‘metaphor or representation’ of Innate Information. Probably, at cosmic levels, the Innate Information is simply about gene-transference or ‘species-proliferation’, which is ‘represented’ as sexuality in human Media and other Media of different species.
Anyways, we do not wish to go into this debate. For our convenience, we may accept sexuality as Innate Information for Media. So, the expression of this innate and entrenched Information for specific purpose of mating and reproduction is wired and its ‘Media’ in different species is also singular and fixed. However, different Media of different species express this ‘Information’ differently. We all know how different birds and animals behave differently in their singular expression of mating rituals. Moreover, we also know how this innate and entrenched ‘Information’ is used as metaphor and representation for other purpose than mating in many animals. From familiarity to dominance, from assimilation to identification of strength; this Information of sexuality is expressed in varied ‘Forms’ in animal world. Why blame the animals so disproportionately? The humans also successfully practice all these ‘forms’ better than animals! The average humans do nothing very exclusive with sexuality and mating information, which many other animal species don’t. Only a handful evolved humans have the faculty to create marvelous alternative ‘metaphors’ of innate sexuality.
However, all other animals have all these behaviors wired in their subconscious brain states and they do not have the evolved consciousness to create ‘fake’ and ‘freaked out’ metaphors and representations of the mating rituals and innate sexual Information. The humans have them and they do it with most prolific and passionate hypocrisies. Why human ‘superiority’ is usually expressed with more intensity of depravity than the animals is the question. Science likes to answer but we do not enter this domain now. So; these elements of ‘ritualistic vitiations’ and ‘ideational depravity’ may not be accepted as something ingrained in the ‘Wired’ Information of sexuality but in the attitudinal, behavioral, psychological and above all, experiential-experimental propensities of cultural consciousness. The seeds are supplied by ‘cultural metaphors’ and consciousness adds its own ‘Messages’ in the Media of Sexuality. Intuitively, even this conflation seems Innate to many people.
Pornography seems to be a classic example of how humans have this dubious yet brilliantly dominant penchant for creating spurious, depraved and conflated metaphor or misrepresentation of an innate and entrenched information. Pornography may well be labeled as a small and specific ‘Slice’ of the very generic and larger ‘Pie’ of the cultural propensities of vitiating and eroding the innate Information, the human consciousness receives and process. The contemporary human culture is the larger ‘Pie’, which is the worst misrepresentation and depraved metaphorization of innate and entrenched Information about realities. The ‘Media’ and its ‘Messages’ have the exclusive ‘Culpability’; the Information cannot itself divest itself of the elements of Sanctity and Sanity.
There is enough resource in public domain about the dangerously hypocritical world of pornography. How pornography misinforms, misleads and fakes the beautiful and very purposefully natural Information of sexuality and mating is known to most people. It is such a tragedy that most young and impressionable minds fall into this fake, misrepresented and vitiated Information of pornography for ‘learning’ the beautiful and hugely productive art and science of the innate Information of sexuality and mating (gene transference and species proliferation).
We all know, the visual representation and metaphor creation is a brilliant Art. Humanity has been truly masterly in creating such metaphors of reality in Art of paintings, sculptors, architecture, dance, music, et al. In almost all brilliant Art Forms, the innate Information of sexuality is entrenched and beautifully layered. The pornography too could be a great Art. Some related and associational ‘Art’ still is! It is not that other forms of Art have not been vitiated and deprived of its sanctity and sanity. But, not like pornography. It has in fact become the singular largest platform of ‘representing’ almost all dystopian elements of human nature and consciousness. If pornography could have maintained the Sanctity and Sanity of the highest traditions of Human Artistry, it could have been a huge Blessing for humanity. Sadly enough, contemporary pornography has become the inverse of it. Very naturally, it showcases the general depravity and dystopian trends in human cultures, other human systems and the Consciousness itself.
We should however not blame pornography disproportionately. It is not the prime culprit and chief conspirator but probably only the happy accomplice of the generic depravity of human consciousness. It probably is just the glamorous mannequin at the front showcase of a lustful shop. The shop inside is full of dirty and depraved stuff. This shop is the consciousness of cultured humanity. This shop is the stinking Reality, which the pornography as mannequin advertises in all its ‘Media’ Munificence-Brilliance, to all passing customers at the front of the shop. Inside the shop, the generic reality of humanity is at sale at every counter.
We must also consider how more than pornography, the contemporary commercial food market is culpable of faking, misrepresenting and vitiating the innate and entrenched Information about nourishment, health and wellness. The contemporary human food and beverage culture is many times more disastrous than pornography. ‘Food pornography’ as calamitous ‘misrepresentation’ of innate Information of health and wellness probably is far more hypocritical and conflated than sexual pornography. If the young impressionable minds are accepting ‘Illusion’ as Reality in the pornographic world, they are getting far more illusions from the food items they see flooded and stacked in the market and happily accepting them as real and good. The related fallouts of the problems of obesity and innumerable lifestyle diseases and other disabilities are evident to all. The experts have been warning since ages but still, people buy in bulk the pornography – of food as well as s