5/21/01
In the reptile brain, there is no division between need and desire. One
acts, one reacts, one does as one must according to how one is programmed.
Food, self preservation and reproduction are all that can be considered.
There is no prevention of action, desire is need and thus is acted on as
is perceived. In many species, a male reptile will eat its own young if
hungry, if the female does not drive him off first. Such is the way of
thoughtless action, blind satiating of need/desire without further
consideration.
The mammalian brain adds feeling to the system. Now, the first steps of
self awareness are had. Desire and need begin to separate, emotion filling
the gulf between them with a wider range of responses. The binary response
of the reptile is replaced by a wider range of possibility. Action is
understood, and thus this understanding is also a source of stimuli. Need
and desire are not necessarially the same thing. One may desire something
that is not immediately necessary, simply because it is enjoyed. A crow
collects shiny things, as well as food.
One is not simply aware that they are damaged, one feels pain and
understands that they are damaged. One feels, one remembers. One is aware
of more possibilities than kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. Automatic
response is replaced by a less specific "feeling" that must be
interpreted. The system becomes more complex.
One is, most importantly, aware. This awareness gives the possibility for
finer control of action than automatic preprogrammed responses. However,
at this level, there is less of control so much as there is perception. By
being aware of what one is doing or has done, one develops feelings and
memories. One does not repeat an action one has previously found
unpleasant. One repeats an action one finds pleasurable, to the extent of
violating lower level programming, even that of self preservation.
A rat, given a button that gives a drug, will push that button and eat the
drug until it dies. It can respond to pleasure, but does not yet have
reason to control these impulses. Desire can be more important than need.
One can act against one's instincts on the basis of new input from
emotions. However, one is still a slave to stimuli, and thus not what we
consider "sentient".
What we like to call the "human" brain (although elements of this are
present in more advanced animals as well, even some reptiles) offers a
second level of self awareness. One is aware that one is aware of
something. One knows that one is feeling, and can make decisions on this
level. For the first time, one has the ability to act against feelings, to
limit behavior. This limiting allows for intelligece and logic to form, as
a means to control emotion which is a means to control stimuli.
One can use even more complex programming to control behavior. One can not
eat the pill because one would not want to preform poorly on a job later.
One can then decide to eat the pill later when it will interfere less with
other activities. One can also abstain from eating the pill entirely,
because such things should not be done on this day for reasons attributed
to a higher authority such a a social structure like the police, church or
God.
One can limit one's activities. This is the biggest difference between
intelligent creatures and those of animal level intelligence. Those above
the animal level can control themselves, can choose to not act. The
ability to restrict is the sign of intelligence, of sentience. To not act
is of far greater difficulty than to act. Desire met with restraint leads
to intelligent action.
So what is above this? We are aware that we are aware, and thus can act at
this level. We are further aware that we are aware that we are aware, and
also have the ability to recursivly meta program ourselves through social
structure, religion, philosophy, magick, or whatever means necessary ad
infinitum. There is no practical limit to the recursion we can reach, at
this level it no longer matters. We progres from 1, to 2, to infinity.
The next level then is not recursion again, but communication. Our ability
to use language to share our programming with eachother is unique, present
in only the most intelligent of animals. Not that communication doesn't
exist in many animals. Linking processing through perception to operate as
a group intelligence is possible in even the lowest of creatures. Witness,
schools of fish.
It is the ability to be aware of communication, to add that level of
recursion to communication so as to change the way it is done, that gives
us language. More than language, the ability to refine language. We create
and develop new ways to communicate. The group consciousness we create
through interaction is one we can be aware of, and thus take an active
part in. We act then not according to our programming, but to the
programming we agree upon as a group. Recursive awareness on this level is
the current frontier of our intelligence, the highest level of processing
we have evolved to.
As our brains are now capiable of infinite recursion, evolution is no
longer physical but a matter of the programming we create. We are no
longer evolving. The groups we create are evolving. Social and political
structures evolve. Information is made more redialy accessible so that new
units can more easially be integrated into these structures, so as to
sooner begin the work of evolving them further.
We process at a level beyond the limits of ourselves, and even our
desires. Need gives way to desire gives way to orders. Our families, or
corporations, our religions, our countries: These are the highest forms of
life on this planet, not us. Through our awareness of these creatures we
are a part of, they are sentient.
But we do still have the ability to limit. We can choose to not be a part
of these. We can tear them down as we have created them. The self
awareness still resides within us, the will to choose still exists at our
level. We can move against even the higher levels of programming we have
created. We can always limit ourselves, even and especially to limit our
limiting.
If we choose to operate at the level of the individual, we can choose how
we exist and what we take part in. We are still individuals, though a part
of groups. We must not forget this, or we will lose ourselves entirely. We
wage war between ourselves and the gods we construct, that our lives not
suffer for their benefit.
Whenever we die for a cause, we lose. When we go to war for a country, we
lose. When we commit atrocities in the name of an ideal, we are at their
mercy. We can choose to do any of these things, we can choose to put our
erected gods of nationalism, philosophy and religion above our own
desires. But if it is for a cause that ultimately destroys us, it is faith
misplaced.
If we choose gods that bring about change that benefits us, we are
winning. If our gods build a world wherein our desires more more
effectivly fulfilled, we are still in control. If our gods fulfill all our
needs and let us more easily expierence great and varied pleasures so as
to live a more beautiful life overall, then these are good gods to put our
faith in.
We must not forget why we erected these structures of limitation in the
first place, for our own benefit. Are they the end product of evolution,
or are we? Who is the master of this planet, us or our ideas? They cannot
exist without us, so we must be served. If we suffer so that that might
continue to exist, they make war upon us for dominance. If they destroy us
so that they might live, they die as well. If they find a way to survive
beyond us, then we are no longer needed and will perish.
Perhaps the creation of sentient ideas and group consciousness is the
evolution of God themself. Perhaps this is the manifestation of something
greater, something meant to be. If so, let us manifest through us, rather
than our creations. We can still be a part of it, if we guide our progress
wisely and not forget ourselves in our zeal to build.