Breaking the Universal Buffer
This post is based on what I had written this in November 2017 in a website called Steemit. My views have matured and my goals have changed. Original post: https://steemit.com/philosophy/@nithishkgnani/breaking-the-universal-buffer
During my college life, I had developed a theory in which humans develop into a class 3 civilization and eventually evolve into what we define as God today.
Classes of civilization – Kardashev scale
When you think about it, humans are confined to earth. Earth is a part of solar system which is a tiny speck in the Milky Way, which is a part of a galaxy cluster. Millions of such galaxy clusters make up the observable universe. It hurts to think how insignificant I am compared to the universe. So, logically, nihilism is the “absolute truth”. Nothing I do really matters in the universe. Hence must I live however I want, without thinking about ethics, laws and rules? Does nothing really matter?
The answer is NO
Are humans special?
We feel that humans are special. We are the most superior beings on this planet. What makes us special? What is the difference between homo sapiens and other beings?
If you put a human and a lion in a small forest, the lion will dominate and be the alpha animal as it is physically stronger and it can simply rip the human apart. Now, put 100 humans and 100 lions in the same forest. The humans will talk to each other, make hunting strategies and dominate the forest. So is it our communication skills and team work that makes us special? Even ants work in teams and have excellent communication methods. Apes also work in groups and have sound based communication. So communication doesn’t really make us special.
In fact, ancient humans were just another animal species who co-existed on earth. Yes, they hunted other animals even as big as mammoths, yet weren’t the dominating species on earth. This is because we were scattered in small groups whose strength was comparable to that of other animal herds. These groups fought with one another similar to monkey herds or ant colonies.
What changed then? What made us the rulers of earth? It is the birth of fiction!
The ability to imagine things that are beyond our surrounding is unique to our species. An early cave painting (16000 to 14000 BCE) of a human with the face of a bird has been found in Lascaux caves, France. A monkey can only imagine a lion because it has seen it in its life. But it can’t imagine a half lion half man which doesn’t really exist. You can never convince a monkey to give up a banana promising it that if it does so, it’ll get unlimited bananas in monkey heaven after death [Sapiens].
We could imagine that there is some special force that guards us, gives us strength. This gave us confidence to explore new places and go up against big and ferocious animals. We started praying mountains, the sun, trees, “drawing strength” from them. These imaginary entities united us. Various groups believed in the same deity and thought it created them and gave them power.
Imagination united us
Studies have shown that humans cannot work together in a group as peers if the number of people exceeds about 150. Anything more requires a hierarchical structure with a common goal to achieve. Most companies today have a “vision” which is imaginary. But it gives the company a purpose to work for. This unites all the workers in the company who are at various levels in the hierarchy and have different social backgrounds.
Religion hence came into existence. It gave humans a purpose in life other than the biological purpose of survival. The alpha male of Catholics, the Pope, has a vow of celibacy, which is the opposite of the biological method of the sustenance of the species by reproduction [Sapiens]. Yet the pope unites a large population and ensures the species’ survival in a phenomenally better manner than the natural way.
We dominate due to the ability to work in groups whose size is limitless. A worker in a Tata Motors plant in Chennai, Tamil Nadu works with the same zeal as a factory manager of its plant in Dharwad, Karnataka. What is driving them to work as a company? Why hasn’t the company fallen apart? It is because the “company” is not a physical entity anymore. If you remove all the Tata cars from the roads, they can be manufactured again. If you fire all the employees, new people can be recruited and the plants can be run. No physical change can remove the company from existence. Tata group is just an idea which holds together about 700,000 employees.
Hence, fiction has given us immense power to not just imagine things but to do so collectively. A large number of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths.
I’ve had numerous arguments with my parents when I have tried to logically explain them that God doesn’t exist – Man isn’t God’s creation, rather it is the other way around. My parents could see the truth in my logic but continued with their belief. This gave me a feeling of despair.
I am an atheist and also a patriot. One day, I got to thinking about why I want to serve my country. After some introspection, I realized that I am no different from my parents. They serve God while I serve my country. They pray and sing some bhajans (devotional songs) while I sing the national anthem.
This was an eye opener for me. This is when I realised that the idea of God, religion, nationalism are all myths to unite people and accelerate the development of our species.
Now I want to serve humanity. I still am patriotic just because it makes me feel good to be so. I am ready to sacrifice a comfortable life for the sake of my country, even when I know that my “nation” is simply an idea. Yet, it is an idea which has united 1.34 billion people as Indians.
Coming back to the thought of nihilism, does nothing I do matter?
Yes, nothing “I” do matters in this universe. But, the things “WE” do, does matter.
Humanity has developed in an unbelievable rate in the last 200 years. A person living in the 18th century could’ve only imagined the world as it is today, in the 21st century. Nevertheless, here we are, connected to every person on earth via the internet. Some of us have walked on the moon.
So, there is no harm in imagining that we can become space colonists who conquer the universe. Nihilism says that the universe has no purpose. So, let’s give it a purpose.
In chemistry, there is something called buffer solutions. If you add a small amount of acid or a base in it, the pH (total acidity) doesn’t change as a reversible reaction opposes the addition of acid and balances it out. But when a large amount of a strong acid I added, the pH drops (acidity increases). Similarly, we are currently in a buffer phase. Humanity’s actions are being cancelled out due to the universe’s randomness. So, our activities should be big enough to be significant. For that humans should act as a single unit – as a big beaker of a strong acid. Not as religious groups, not as countries but as humanity as a whole.
We need to design a belief system, a fiction that convinces everyone to work for it. For example, climate change has united almost all the countries to come together to tackle it. The process of uniting humans is moving in the right direction. We were first united as tribes and clans. Then as kingdoms and religions. Now we have nations and a loose unity of the United Nations. But, the pace at which this unification is proceeding is very slow. We need to find ways to accelerate it.
We need a goal that is so phenomenal that we think beyond our religion and country.
As far as we know, we are the only entity in the universe that can carry out a wide range of activities. Even a star behaves in a certain way. But our behavior is unpredictable. Our abilities are unparalleled. Our strength lies in our unity. Let’s work together and rule the universe!
Note: This article refers to content from the book “Sapiens – A brief history of humankind”. It has helped shape my thoughts