Ancient Self

For how many decades have animals been changing through time? You can put a number on the time but what does it all mean?

It may have been 30,000-60,000 years ago that humans experienced what some scientists call the big bang of the brain which was a creativity/intelligence explosion that happened well after our braincases had increased to their now (mean) present size.

What does it mean to those who realize that in many ways our brains still work the same way that many of our primate friends' brains work? That, for example, anger and happiness have set ways of being expressed that are very similar to those reactions that most primates have as well. I could note the studies, but I don't think that it takes a study to see. You can walk around and look for yourself. Go to an international city where people from every continent walk around or go to every continent and look around. I am almost sure that you will find many differences in the specific cultures of the people, how they communicate, what they eat, and how they think of the world around them. But the way they walk, the way they eat, the way they reproduce, the way their face moves, the way they act on a social level will all look very familiar to you. Because it is familiar. It not only runs through the blood of every human but it also runs through much of the blood of many of our mammal comrades.

There is certainly something that stuns most people about the idea that our bodies are not completely in our control, that we are in some ways out of our own hands. Some people will disagree with much of what I say on an intellectual level. All of what I have written can be proved wrong, even by my own argumentation, but so can many things that are practically correct and why argue with something that is so apparent. If you accept the concept of evolution then these concepts are certainly reasonable. If you do not accept the concept of evolution then there is some strange evidence in front of your eyes that you cannot account for with any other worldview. Unless you simply believe that the powers that created us thought it would be funny to make other species of animals amazingly similar to us.

So I am elaborating on what probably should be common sense by now. I am asking how this common sense affects those who contemplate it. Whether it is comforting to know that human life is not somehow on a completely different level than all other life, that it is perhaps on an equal level. Or does it make you shudder that you are not necessarily better than the other animals that crawl and leap from tree to tree in those developing countries as you may deem them. And our poor relatives are quickly being eliminated from their natural habitats. Some people, namely Jane Goodall, feel the deepest sadness and injustice at the demise of our animal relatives. They may be animals and somewhat stupid, but so are we. I am also very sad that we are losing are friends so fast.



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Update on life here other: it is getting very cold at night here. I dread the day when the water in my kitchen faucet (and in my toilet bowl) freezes over, but I am sure it will be humorous at the same time. I went to the city this weekend and drank some dark beer. It had been a while. I also had lunch at an Italian restaurant and had some amazing Udon noodles mixed with egg that the heat of the noodles solidified in this cool, steamy little joint. They only cost around $3.50. Life is cheap here; cheaper than much of America. It must be Tokyo and its prices that convince people how expensive Japan can be. The sun is shining outside the office window right now and there is a kerosene heater behind me, in the middle of the office, that is heating up the whole room pretty nicely. It is providing a good reason to crawl out of bed and go to the office where all my warm-hearted co-workers also come to everyday.