Humans evolved from primate ancestors and retained features of brain construction, mind and behaviour that have been present in animals for hundreds of millions of years. Each one of us is the reincarnation of a long-lineage of ancestors. Species memory, perceptual skills, needs, drives, feelings, desires and behaviours are built into each human baby and begin operating in utero.

The lineage of humans extends back to the origin of life on earth about 3 billion years ago. This lineage remains encoded in human DNA. About 60 million years ago, mammals proliferated after the extinction of dinosaurs. The early primates were tree-dwelling, lemur-like mammals who developed a bigger brain and special social intelligence. Primates fossils are obvious 30 million years ago but some believe early, small primates may have co-existed with dinosaurs. One of the mammalian-primate lineages became human in a series of transformations that led to our current form sometime in the last 200,000 years.[i]

The weight of evidence suggests that all modern humans are descendants of  black Africans who migrated from Africa into Asia and Europe. The appearance of humans was gradually modified by the gene selection pressures of local environments so that human groups in different parts of the world differ in shape, size, color, hair, and facial features.  It is probable that some Africans made ocean journeys to Australia and South America. Asians migrated into the pacific islands and some walked to North America at the end of the last glaciation between 10 and 15 thousand years ago. They migrated southward to occupy Central and South America.

Analysis of DNA shows that chimpanzees are our closest primate relatives. The assumption is that a common ancestor about  6 million years ago resembled a chimp more than a human. The common ancestor developed into several hominoid species, one of which eventually became human. Human behavior can be understood in relation to the whole spectrum of primate behaviors and social organization. Humans appear to have an eclectic combination of primate tendencies with additional features such as tool making, symbolic reasoning, strategic cooperation, planning and spoken language.

Linda Stone [ii] suggested that: “Primates are a natural grouping of mammals that includes prosimians, tree-dwelling animals such as lemurs and tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans. Some of the physical characteristics that distinguish primates from other mammals are binocular vision and the grasping hand with mobile digits and flat nails. Evolutionary trends characteristic of the Primate Order are most pronounced in humans and include prolongation of gestation of the fetus, prolongation of the period of infant care, and expansion and elaboration of the brain. An important feature in the social life of many nonhuman primates is dominance and the formation of "dominance hierarchies."… a dominant animal wins aggressive encounters with others and usually has greater access to resources such as food, water, or sexual partners. “

The distinction between constant features of the human mind and variable features is useful. Constant features are manifestations of innate brain structure and function. Variable features manifest the range of tendencies and abilities within a human group, the variations introduced by physical environments and the variations introduced by learning. Speech, for example, is a constant feature of the human mind; a variable feature of speech is the language(s) learned. A range of linguistic competence is determined by aptitude, learning and the physical environment.

When a baby is born, the family and local community teach the emerging being what is going on here and now. They provide the local language, costumes, customs beliefs and the local science and technology. All adult humans have a technology to teach.

While the local culture has an obvious impact on the appearance and behaviour of emerging adults, the constant features of the human mind are pervasive and persistent.  The variance in mental abilities within a local group will often be greater than inter-group variance.

Much of the nature versus nurture debates in the past several decades were non-productive misunderstandings that are being laid to rest by careful studies in ethology, palaeontology, developmental and evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, anthropology and other disciplines. Nature is dominant.

The first principle of bodybrainmind is that each person has a repertoire of innate programs and some choice how the programs are going to be expressed. Innate programs have been called "instincts."  The old definition of "instincts" -- behaviours that arise spontaneously and are not learned – needs modification since innate programming has to be practiced and is molded by learning. The distinction between strictly innate and strictly learned behaviour is artificial.

Both the good and the bad tendencies of mindbodybrain are innate properties that have useful functions, were not invented by modern society and are not going to change until the construction of brain changes. The dialogue between good and bad in human affairs is constant, predictable and universal.

All brains are equipped to learn. You do not invent the programs themselves but you do learn how to use them. If you are a computer user, you will recognize that you do not have to learn how to program a word processor, but you do have to learn how to use it. The more you learn about and use your word processor the better you get at using it

If you buy a computer with software installed, the operating system and the word processor seem innate to the system. This is roughly analogous to the human brain that comes with the word processors installed or, more precisely, it comes with installation routines that activate sequentially over several years – progressive software installation that is modified by practice. If a baby does not practice using the installed word processor, however, the progressive program installation will be abbreviated or aborted.

Cosmides and Tooby, Co-Directors of the Center for Evolutionary Psychology at the University of California state in their course notes:

 “… all normal human minds reliably develop a standard collection of reasoning and regulatory circuits that are functionally specialized and, frequently, domain-specific. These circuits organize the way we interpret our experiences, inject recurrent concepts and motivations into our mental life, and provide universal frames of meaning that allow us to understand the actions and intentions of others. Beneath the level of surface variability, all humans share certain views and assumptions about the nature of the world and human action by virtue of these human universal reasoning circuits.”

Many of the programs built into our brain have a special feature. They are designed to be modified and elaborated by the experience of the individual. Brainbodymind is, therefore, an open-ended system that will evolve a unique identity in the lifetime of each individual.

Humans live in a tense matrix of innate tendencies and experiential forces that modify or elaborate these tendencies. Individuation occurs as experience modifies some brain structures and coexists with old programs that persist regardless of the individual experience, because the older brain structures resist modification. We talk in terms of freedom, free will, and self-determination. These are all attributes of the open-ended possibilities of bodybrainmind.

From the Book of Existence and

Book 1 in the Philosophy and Neuroscience Series

Stephen Gislason MD, Author

you have