Heraclitus, the thoughtful Greek philosopher, is famous for having pointed out that we “never step in the same river twice.” Indeed, the very history of our species bears out the fact that while we share most of our genes with those of our ancestor species, we have evolved significantly over the millennia, and thus, while the river of our humanity may appear unchanged from some perspectives, it is not the same today as it was even a few centuries ago. And while various scientists and philosophers argue back and forth about whether and how our species might be “making progress,” there are still enough wrongs to be righted that it is worth engaging our humanity again for the first time.
At the Center for Integrative Research, it strikes us that this project calls for a fresh perspective on who we are as a species and how we came to be that way, and we might begin building that new perspective with some fundamental premises about the universe itself. Recently, as I strolled down the long and beautiful beach that helps define the links at St. Andrews, Scotland, I became entranced by how consistently but uniquely the waves of the North Sea were breaking upon the shore, which also made me think of snowflakes. Different sets of dynamics perhaps but the same outcome, in both cases reflecting the pitome of how Nature generates endless novelty and diversity. And whether it stems from the mechanics of wave theory or quantum physics, it strikes me that these phenomena are also found in our species as well—we are, after all, both consistent in our physical manifestations yet unique, one from the other, and therein lies a set of intriguing dynamics well worth exploring. Let me explain. Different astrophysicists have questioned what might have existed before the Big Bang 14.6 billion years ago, but scientists from a multitude of disciplines from physics to complexity science agree on what happened after it occurred. Within mere seconds, the light that filled the great vacuum of emptiness began the almost unfathomable, awesome process of creation, by which fields of energy (of varying dimensions and electromagnetic frequency) eventually formed sub-atomic particles (within the first minute), then atoms (380,000 years later), molecules, stars (100 million years later), and eventually galaxies, solar systems, and planets (including earth, some 4.5 billion years ago). To appreciate this amazing self-organizing process, we need not get mired in the dynamics of quantum mechanics, the role played in it by force particles, or other significant tenets of quantum physics. It is sufficient simply to understand that from the beginning, the energy involved in this self-assembling of energy and matter contains information—in fact, all of the
information necessary to ultimately generate the emergence of life on earth and the formation of our species.
That is correct—within the vastness of our universe, with its hundreds of billions of galaxies, each with its hundreds of billions of stars, the machinations of life on Earth follows precisely the same organizational and development dynamics as the universe itself. Specifically, this means that the universe, our little planet, its first living systems, and all the organisms that have evolved from them were formed by a process in which seemingly random events eventually managed to produce increasingly complex manifestations of order. Once again, we need not dive into the weeds of quantum physics or network science, the details of chaos theory, or the dynamics of “strange attractors” that explain why such physical
systems inevitably come into existence and necessarily become increasingly complex. It is enough to know that this transformation of random activity into manifest physical order is a fundamental characteristic of our self-organizing universe and that these organizational dynamics are precisely why life on earth emerged as it did and involves considerable predictability yet great diversity and uniqueness of form. And so it is that, like waves breaking on the shore and snowflakes falling from the clouds, we humans manifest predictable physical (complex) structures but are nevertheless each unique in our own individual brains, minds, personalities, and perspectives on life.
There are two interesting points related to these dynamics that touch on who we humans are and what we are—or ought to be—about in this complex world of ours. The first relates to how we are unique from all the other livings systems generated by the organizing principles of our universe, and the second deals with how we are unique each one from the other.
To begin, the entire amazing design of organic life on earth contains, within genetic codes, a computational system characterized by tremendous information content and fidelity, so that all species can continue to replicate their own kind from generation to generation with great consistency. On the other hand, the whole evolutionary system of gene copying, variation, and selection allows for some
diversity of phenotypes within a species and of course the development of new species (resulting from genetic mutation and “drift”), over great spans of time. So point number one is that homo sapiens emerged from the computational dynamics of evolution a few hundred thousand years ago as a species of unique potential intelligence (thanks to the size and networked structure of the brain” prefrontal
cortex), all of which defines both the accomplishments and challenges we face today, within a social and cultural environment that is also self-organizing and constantly evolving. In other words, what makes humans truly unique as a species is the dynamic nature of our intelligence—even in the last century alone, we find many instances where human intelligence has expanded and diversified in scope,
even to the point of being able to generate forms of artificial intelligence that can be integrated into the strengths and weaknesses of human intelligence.
In addition to the nature of our human intelligence, it is worth noting some other characteristics and phenomena we share in common with other animal species, as well as those that distinguish us from them. First and foremost, like other animals, we are designed to move, and so we have emotions. While we are not sure exactly what kinds of emotions other animals experience to motivate their movements—for example, away from danger or toward food sources—we do know about the emotions we humans experience and how relevant they are to how we think and behave. Human emotions serve not only to motivate many of our activities but also to evaluate and prioritize our lives. We pursue careers, pastimes, and even mates based in large measure on emotion-driven evaluations, whether or not we are consciously aware of them. Moreover, like other animals, we are motivated to behave in certain ways by a whole litany of instincts, urges, and drives, ranging from competitive behaviors and acts of self-reservation to hunger, procreation, and protection of kin.
In contradistinction to other animals, on the other hand, evolutionary processes embedded in our self-organizing universe have endowed our species with various physical and cognitive tools that not only provided us with unique intelligence but also produced other distinguishing emergent phenomena: we
possess a sophisticated capacity for sentient awareness of who we are and the full extent of our physical and mental agency. (Not insignificantly, this awareness also includes a realization that we will someday die, all of which generates a long list of implications and ramifications with respect to how we choose to participate in our respective complex social and cultural systems.) In other words, we are able to
analyze many different aspects of our lives and the challenges they present, respond with considerable strategic thinking and action, continue to make significant adaptive changes to those plans when necessary, and potentially even control aspects of our lives to our personal liking. Unlike other species that must constantly adapt to changes in their ecological and climatic environments, we humans can often change our environments to suit our interests, desires, and needs.
Although our tremendously versatile brains and sophisticated minds have not yet figured out exactly how the universe does its self-organizing work, we suspect that there is an entire code of information we have no sensory access to that well explains how it all comes together. And herein lies the critical point of this entire essay. Because our amazing human brains and minds were generated by a subset of that larger code of information, there is reason to believe that our brains and minds can someday tap into and understand more and more of that code, using tools that extend beyond our brains’ current sensory processing systems. That is the crux of this proposed new perspective—our human brains/minds can contemplate a vast expanse of possibilities, and what they can contemplate, they might potentially access, by means that have yet to be uncovered. (One must also contemplate that there is a “leading edge” to our species, a collection of humans who have some special capacities not shared by all and who have already learned how to access some of the universe’s currently hidden organizing information and intelligence.)
Now let’s investigate the second facet of this whole process by which the universe’s organizational principles always generate both randomness and order, likeness and diversity, similarity and uniqueness, which ultimately explains why each of us is different from everyone else. To be sure, we all share over 99% of the same genes, which means to a large extent we all have similar basic features and brain functions, though we may look different in many ways. Because of the way in which many of our gene networks express in response to stimuli from our respective environments, we will all have different brains and minds, depending on how such stimuli are encountered and internally processed. Similarly, while we all
experience the same types of emotions, there is tremendous diversity in how we experience and process such emotions and the types of feelings and thoughts our respective brain systems generate from those emotional experiences. That means we also experience a great array of distinct urges, needs, desires, values, and sense of agency, which in turn leads to a raft of different personality characteristics,
ambitions, dreams, and sensibilities about the world around us.
Given this set of dynamics and the practical realities that accompany them, we ought to readily accept that some of our species have much more robust sensory and cognitive capacities than others. Whether due to genetic inheritance or environmental conditioning, our species will always produce a wide range of phenotype profiles, of varying intelligence and personality traits. We cannot expect too much of those with compromised physical or mental systems, whatever the nature of those limitations. On the other hand, we must demand that those who possess the normal capabilities of self-awareness take full responsibility for deploying the many cognitive assets that nature has bestowed on our species. We can demand that to whom much is given much is expected, whether this refers to the uniqueness of our entire species or the specific capabilities that each of us possesses. We can demand that the dignity of every living thing be fully respected. Our human sentience allows us to understand all of this and engage the challenges associated with it dutifully. In the end, what does it really cost us to try harder, to work harder at making this world a better place to live? As we engage our humanity again for the first time, it is time to acknowledge that as a species we have the capability of doing better.