Topics from the book,
Existence and

Existence

The Meaning of Mind

In the Beginning

Inside and Outside

Beliefs, Illusions and Delusions

Who Am I ?

Innate Tendencies

Uncertainty

Karma

Science Fiction and the Future

Stephen Gislason MD, Author

Philosophy for the 21st Century

Washington, -- The White House and War Department announced today that an atomic bomb, possessing more power than 20,000 tons of TNT, a destructive force equal to the load of 2,000 B-29's and more than 2,000 times the blast power of what previously was the world's most devastating bomb, had been dropped on Japan. The announcement, first given to the world in utmost solemnity by President Truman, made it plain that one of the scientific landmarks of the century had been passed, and that the age of atomic energy, which can be a tremendous force for the advancement of civilization as well as for destruction, was at hand. The New York Times, Aug. 6 1945 [i]

We are developing an understanding how humans have moved from the primordial existence of humans in nature, living in small groups to a social existence that involves living in enlarging cities that are part of larger economic and political organizations. Students of world affairs will have little difficulty identifying recurrent problems in the conduct of business and governments and the interaction of countries. History records the tedious and repetitious details of competition, conflict and destruction. The tendency in most academic and media discussion is to relate current events and then explain the causes of events in terms of  local conditions.  News reports attempt to emulate scholarly discourse, but only gather a few casual opinions which vary from trivial gossip to somewhat informative but brief explanations out of context. You can argue that none of the best academic systems of commentary on current events such as history, economics, sociology, and political science really explain what is going on.

Human nature is the substrate for all events and human action tends be monotonously recurrent. The innate rules of association built into our brain pertain to small groups and tend to become dysfunctional when individuals try to relate as members of large and anonymous groups.  Groups less than 150 members strong can often self-regulate using innate behaviors that have evolved over tens of millions of years.  As groups grow larger, humans require regulation using a system of rules and physical constraints that are an external form of behavior coding. The external behavioral coding requires systems of enforcement, capture, judgment and punishment of individuals who break the rules. The external system is ephemeral and must be renewed continuously. The external system grows in scope and complexity as populations increase in size and density. No single human can know let alone obey all the rules of a modern society.

One confusion arises when we believe an idealistic proposition that progress is being made toward a more rational and consistent world. The evidence for a more rational world is limited to specific places for limited periods of time. I live in a rational and consistent community that I consider to be almost utopian. I assume that the privilege of living so well is limited in time and space. My privileges could be suspended at any moment by any number of events natural and manmade.

A realistic appraisal of human events must consider that enlarging populations lose self-regulation and routinely become ungovernable at specific times and places. The history of civilization is characterized by  recurrent cycles featuring the growth of cities and empires and their dissolution thorough natural disasters, draught, famine, war, disease and the excesses of tyranny. These cycles are also manifest in individual lives and have similar patterns on a miniature scale.

The idealist may fantasize egalitarian societies that coexist peacefully and honor universal rules of human rights. However, humans have a deep tendency to form groups, to develop and defend boundaries and to treat outsiders as enemies. This tendency is expressed in every aspect of human life and dominates the modern world despite concerted attempts to modify this tendency and create just societies. All groups have interests, privileges and costs of membership. All groups have hierarchies and competition for privilege and prestige. The effort to create tolerance and an ideal, egalitarian state counters these deep tendencies and probably will never be stable and enduring

Social organization appears to be basic to animal life. Coherent social organization is achieved by a metabrain- thousands of individual brains coordinated in a network of interacting individuals. One of the functions of social organization is the distribution of individuals in spacetime and the regulation of the interactions. Humans are used to social regulation through speech and written rules and tend to overlook the more basic and pervasive social controllers that operate from innate properties in the brain. The view that the good and the bad are products of a society is now yielding to the deeper insight that the dialectical nature of the human mind is built it; this dialectic generates culture not the other way around. A well-meaning coalition of humans in Vancouver, for example, held a rally to “eliminate racial discrimination”. Their premise was that racial discrimination is a learned behavior and can be eliminated by social policy and education. Human history overwhelmingly contradicts this idealistic notion. Discrimination is an essential feature of the human mind and is not going to disappear.

A more realistic philosophy of human life emerges as we recognize that it is impossible to permanently change human nature by social and political means, by education, persuasion, coercion and law. The practical question that continues to face policy makers is how much external regulation and what kind is required. As the numbers of humans increase and larger numbers live oppressed, in poverty with little hope, the need for external regulation will increase, but no-one knows how to manage such large numbers of unhappy and uneducated humans.

The 20^th Century was the century of human proliferation and, the domination of planet earth by a single species. Human activities became all pervasive and clusters of human constructions replaced the natural world in all habitable regions of the planet. Despite advances in science and technology, humans have not achieved sustainable levels of population, food and energy production. Infrastructures are temporary and vulnerable. Political and economic systems are limited by the obvious cognitive limitations of the individuals and small groups who run them.

Human conflicts and killings are deeply troubling but at the same time, much has been accomplished in reaching for a sustainable, good life for some privileged humans. The rapid development of science, communications and culture exchange is unprecedented in the history of the planet. The smart, kind-hearted subtype of Homo sapiens flourished despite the persistent presence of crude-thinkers and killers. The smart kind-hearts developed powerful tools of communication to shape the future in a constructive manner.

Humans have experimented with international coalitions and dreamed of a benevolent world government. Human rights have been advanced as a universal ideal, but smart humans understand that persistent and unreasonable conflict is characteristic of their species. They understood that humans are changing the global climate and causing mass extinction of other creatures by destroying natural habitats worldwide. Human rights cannot be disconnected from animal rights, plant rights or the right of the planet to be free of human dominance and destruction.

Humans have fought wars, experimented with different social, political and economic models of society. Humans have survived natural disasters, ruthless dictators, economic adversity, floods, famines, hurricane, earthquakes, and American-Russian roulette, the game of mutually assured destruction with hydrogen bombs. However, the bombs have not gone away and the threat of widespread destruction will recur unless a new level of cognitive effort is successful in creating a more rational and compassionate world with enforceable laws.

The character of the 21^st century will be dominated by unsustainable population growth and migration, conflict, climate change, accompanied by shifts in wealth, power and influence. Recurrent human conflicts appear to be inevitable and challenge the most intelligent humans who imagine relief from a long history of the human abuse of humans.

Some humans have become better informed, more realistic and more deliberate in their analysis of human affairs. Others, including leaders of important countries, appear to remain ignorant of human nature and repeat old strategies of intervention that have failed before and will fail again. You can argue that human rights and lawful conduct are obvious and desirable goals, but in practice, humans are critical, argumentative, and competitive; they cannot agree on a universal definition of rights and lawful conduct.

Humans can no longer rely on instincts and let nature take its course. Nor can progressive humans carry on with outdated social, religious and economic ideologies based on misunderstandings of human nature, human history and planet ecology. They have to think themselves out of dangerous predicaments and they need new ideas of social organization. Each new human that arrives on the planet has to transcend innate behaviors that are self-destructive and harmful to their species and all other species.

Humans have to re-examine what they care about and advance new vocabularies that allow them to proceed into new domains of thought and understanding. There seems a critical lag in the assimilation of new knowledge and a rapidly widening schism separates the few who know how things really work and the majority who do not. The result is a steep gradient of understanding and skill that separates groups within each technically advanced country and separates countries with disparate systems of government, education and religion.

From the Book of Existence and

Book 1 in the Philosophy and Neuroscience Series

Stephen Gislason MD, Author