Being Humans Together

Contemporary physics theory is fascinating, productive, often useful, and sometimes truly mysterious, speculative, and often not applicable to the physical universe. In the face of such mystery and the unknown, we ought of adopt humility and open-mindedness.

In this episode we will explore a variety of the limits of physics theory, and propose an open, humble approach to understanding our perspective and our place in the universe. We consider the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, Schrodinger’s cat, and indeterminacy. These principles apply to physics as well as human society. The indeterminacy and uncertainty of fundamental quantum physics is evidence that we should be cautious in making scientific predictions about human agency. We proceed to discuss black holes, event horizons, and singularities, which further demonstrate the mysterious unknown nature of the universe. Then we consider the anthropic principle, which suggests that the universe has a fundamental order and possible evidence of purpose. Strangely, the anthropic principle has given rise to the speculative multiverse, an idea whose anti-human foundation we strongly critique. Finally, we discuss the mass-energy contributions of dark matter, dark energy and visible matter to argue for humility in describing a universe that is 95% dark, unmeasurable, and unknowable.

In the end, you are the one who needs to choose. I think physics gives us plenty of evidence that the entire visible universe is shaped by binding, connecting, forming complex structure, and building life — all of the way from quarks and electrons to atoms to stars to planets to bacteria to complex plants and animals to humans in networks of intelligent consciousness. And I think there is space for you to choose to build a meaningful life in that physical universe. There is also ample room for spirit, whatever that may be, and much, much more.

Life is rare, beautiful, and precious. Human conscious life is even more rare, beautiful, and precious.

Many humans in our society have adopted a fundamentally misanthropic or antihumanist perspective. They believe people are fundamentally destructive, violent, cruel, and that humans destroy all other life. They believe that humans are tiny, randomly generated creatures without agency or meaning. They believe that the planet would be better off without humans on it, or at lest far fewer of them. They believe that humans are likely to destroy themselves and much of the planet with them.

I disagree. Those viewpoints are wrongheaded, nihilistic, and antihuman. I want to try to help you appreciate how valuable and rare conscious human life is. To do this we will focus on considering the composition of our solar system. We consider the scale of the solar system, the size of the sun and planets, and then consider life on Earth. We show that for every 1,000,000 (one million) kgs in the solar system, about 2kgs is on Earth. For every one billion kg of mass on Earth, about 1kg is alive. For every 10,000kgs of living organisms on Earth, about 1kg is human. For every 10 trillion kgs of mass on Earth, about 1kg is human.

Life is truly rare, precious and beautiful.

We examine and rebuttal three anti-human philosophies: 

1. You are tiny and you barely matter.

2. Your life is random and meaningless.

3. You are responsible for destroying all life on Earth.

The choice is truly yours. Out of all of the vastness of space and time, out of all of the mass in our solar system alone, you are one in ten trillion. You can conclude that you are a tiny, insignificant speck, randomly generated by chance. That is a depressing, meaningless perspective. Or you can use your conscious mind, your fleeting moment of awareness, to look around, to examine the Earth, and its solar system, and the diversity of life and space and the cosmos, and you can conclude that life is rare, precious, and beautiful. You can comprehend that consciousness and human life is even rarer, more precious, and more beautiful. And you can do your best to live in a manner that appreciates that truth, by valuing your life, the lives of everyone around you, and the lives of every living thing around you.

In this third series of episodes we’re going delve into physics to demonstrate that the architecture of the visible universe and all life is based on bonds and binding energy.

This reality can help us recognize that our bodies, brains, and minds are characterized not by separate bits but by bonds. From elemental particles to fundamental forces and fields, to chemical bonds and organic compounds, to cells and organisms, to complex biological creatures in living ecological webs, to intelligent conscious humans in networks of relations, communities and social fabric — we are bound together in ever more complex structures and networks from our fundamental physical core up to our most elegant philosophical constructions. The universe itself demonstrates that life is not about bits; it is about bonds. We are not isolated and alone; we are bound together in meaningful communion. If we live that way, we will find ourselves in greater harmony with the structure of the visible universe and greater harmony with one another.

We conclude our second set of episodes by considering how we can grow our awareness, our consciousness, and our agency to live more empowered, meaningful, purposeful lives each day.

Surely we can grow our awareness of how things really are, our ability to see and hear and understand what is real, our creativity, and our will to do what is best, highest, and most important.

Too many people treat their philosophy or ideology or religion like a spectator sport. They sit in the benches every once in a while and cheer for their team, but they don’t actively walk the path. They have strong feelings and opinions about how right their team is. But they don’t care enough to work, to develop the core skills, to become good at the game, to truly embody the ideals and principles that their path teaches.

Knowing the path or believing in the path is much less important than walking the path.

Put another way, it doesn’t really matter what you believe about God if you don’t actually know God by following God and living your highest principles.

That is the best any of us can do — Seek the best path we can, then try our best to follow it. 

We can increase our meaning by processing the past, by connecting with wisdom traditions, by developing nuanced understandings of our complicated past.

Examine your experiences. Learn from your past, especially your pain.

Examine your relationships. Learn from the examples of your people, your close family and friends. 

Study. Ponder. Pray. The divine can also guide you to meaning.

How do we increasing our purposeful goals?

If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t really matter if you get there.

Aim. And then act. Aim again, and then move forward. Orient yourself and reorient yourself toward higher goals.

When you find ideals and goals that inspire and motivate you to work hard, that fill you to overflowing, that motivate you to connect with and help other people —

Then you are moving the right direction.

When you find that you are stuck, that you are finding darkness, depression, or unhealthiness, it is time to reconsider.

Do you need to work harder or smarter? Do you need to seek support and collaborate with friends and family to pursue your good goals? Or do you need to alter your direction? 

Explore the best communities and principles you can find. Join. Participate. Give back.

How do we increase our will, our ability to control our thoughts, feelings, and actions?

Act now. Work.

Choose to reorient ourselves. Aim. Aim again.

To all this, let us add the culmination of our view of the origin and nature of consciousness — 

that consciousness is deeply human, 

that it emerged and emerges from networked human minds and souls 

And if this is the origin of consciousness, should we not elevate these things and practice them with all our hearts?

Human consciousness developed over thousands of generations as women and men chose one another, as families made long term marriage bonds and build communities. Our awareness and consciousness is built on the foundation of relational and community bonds and shared knowledge.

Our consciousness was born of fire, the first human tool.

Around hearth fires and communal campfires our ancestors shared meals and stories. And the fires transformed our bodies and our minds.

Our consciousness was born of language creation, from gestures and signs to words and songs and stories, told and retold generation after generation.

Feminine and masculine communication patterns, all combined through intimate knowledge and family caregiving and the training of youth to produce extraordinary complex and diverse languages around the world.

Our consciousness was born of technology, of wood and bone, of stone tools, of pots and bowls, and thread tying our clothing, our shelters, and our tools together.

Our consciousness arose through domestication, first self domestication of human beings or the taming of wild men into friendly communicative, cooperative, competitive families, clans, communities and societies. Then the domestication of dogs, and eventually the domestication of fruits and grasses into wheat, rice, corn, and apples. Finally, the domestication of cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and horses. 

And all of this combined in ever-increasing complexity of relationships, communities, and societies until we had states and cities and religions.

Our consciousness arose from our greatest stories and ideals, particularly our ancient wisdom traditions.

We will then turn our attention to two ancient creation myths, the first from Genesis and the second from Hindu Samkhya philosophy. We will explore how to the creation of nature and human beings, the importance of male and female relational bonds, the rise of awareness and agency, and different pathways or ideals that shape our sense of human nature and the purposes of life can be understood from these different traditions.

In this episode of Being Humans Together we explore the paradigm shift from the widespread acceptance of determinism to human agency or the ability to choose. We discuss both theological and scientific philosophies about determinism and rebuttal them in turn. Then we explore the range of physical limitation and constraints on free will. We conclude by explaining the myriad ways that we do indeed exert our agency or will to choose and act, from eye contact, to thoughts, to actions. And we emphasize the importance of exercising and growing our agency to improve our lives and our world.

Meaning and Purpose are Operationalized Consciousness.

Meaning is (shared) understanding or interpretation of the past.The negation of meaning is isolation or nihilism. Meaning is narrative, order, connectivity, construction of wholeness.

Purpose is narrative, constructed order for the future--plans, goals, mission, direction for present work.

Will or Agency is how we act on our consciousness or operationalize our consciousness now in the present.

Presentness is a powerful way of orienting ourselves to overcome stress, anxiety, guilt, daydreaming, and fear.

There are no feral humans. While a fish or a reptile can hatch, grow, and reproduce without complex training, human children do not and cannot develop consciousness, language, healthy emotions, or social awareness in isolation. Caregivers make humans by showing them over and over again how to communicate, respond, share, cooperate, compete, agree, disagree, problem solve. Caregivers literally teach awareness, agency, and consciousness. Agency and consciousness are rooted in our relations with other people -- our caregivers, our peers, and from authorities in our societies and cultures. Language, ideas, memes, and principles are taught, passed around, and shared between us. We crave contact, communion, and cooperation with other human beings. In this episode we also consider the role of spirit and body in consciousness, and how spiritual approaches can elevate our perspective and goals. I recognize my debt to Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Pageau, Paul Vander Klay, Andrew and Spencer Klavan, Jordan Hall, and others. Finally, we explain how consciousness is a symbolic, meaningful dance.