Our mind has developed by natural selection to master survival here and now on
planet Earth. Using this evolved mind to try to understand such remote events
as the origin of the universe probably is futile and will forever remain
speculative at best. It often is believed that understanding cosmology,
somehow, could help us to gain certainties about ourselves, help us in the
daily struggle of life, and possibly resolve the questions of religion. The
book, however, demonstrates that all this, and more, can be better achieved in
a real way by studying our biological-evolutionary origins. This leads to an
objective understanding of what "makes us tick", through an approach
based on the hard natural sciences.
Natural sciences, according to Karl Popper, proceed through "conjecture
and refutation". Conjectures (or hypotheses) are made with careful
considerations of their "explanatory value": in how many unrelated
fields of inquiry will a conjecture make us understand things that previously
were not understood? Will it simplify and unify our knowledge? In a more
human-centerd science, will it lead to prescriptions for informed action in the
social and political domains? Will it explain the origin and value (or
uselessness) of some as yet unexplained human activities, such as religion and
art? And finally, will it yield some testable results?
The book proposes two core conjectures that satisfy all the above criteria.
Then it proceeds to demonstrate their explanatory value in many fields, leading
to what approaches an ultimate evolutionary theory of everything human. The
reader is involved in the construction of the conjectures by participating in a
short course in animal behavior, evolution of the nervous system, brain science
and the behavior of some early humans (Bushmen). The conjectures are described
as follows:
1) Our brain, essentially is made up of two organs (or functional centers) of
different origin and different teleonomic purpose: Brain stem (with Thalamus)
and the neocortex. The neural networks of the brain stem contain the
genetically determined instincts and the "will". These we share with
other mammals, especially with the other primates. The neocortex, on the other
hand, is a "tabula rasa" at birth. It self-adapts to the current
surroundings - physical and cultural. Such processes of self adaptation have
been well observed and explained in simple artificial neural networks. I give a
technical explanation of this. All this, so far, is not really new and can be
well grounded in ethology and neuroscience.
My basic first conjecture is this: Whereas in animals the two organs of the
brain work in harmony like a muscle and its antagonist, in modern humans a
hypertrophy of the neocortical function has occurred, overwhelming the
instinctual influences from the brain stem.
(in the book this actually is listed as the second "pillar")
The reason for this domination by the neocortex of modern man is seen in the
continuous growth, throughout human history, of the power of conscious insight
and its success in mastering the world. Consciousness resides in the left
temporal lobe of the neocortex. During cultural evolution a positive (mutually
reinforcing) feedback loop is formed between the conscious insights and their
external successes. This developing and overpowering system I call the
"Ego-System". In modern times it begins to dominate our personality.
Suppressed are in particular the brain stem instincts of compassion. Power
drive and aggression, however, are reinforced because of the accomplishments of
our deeds. The result is the modern rugged individualist, who suffers from what
I call the "hypertrophic neurological dualism", a chasm between our
all too worldly attached conscious ego system (with which we tend to completely
identify ourselves), and our instincts (biological wills) that form the only
foundation on which a harmoneous life can be built.
This provides the actual evolutionary and neuro-psychological mechanism for
what is going wrong with our culture. According to this the "Great
Disruption"of our culture, so aptly described by Francis Fukuyama in his
1999 book, would not be just a temporary fluctuation of values, soon to be
corrected by human nature, but the crossing of a defining threshold in the
process of a continuous evolution, which is biological (increasing neocortical
volume) as well as cultural (technological power). It carries us into an
entirely new mode of existence.
Nevertheless I can remain cautiously optimistic of a positive outcome.
Biological human nature by itself can hardly compensate in this radically
unnatural mode of existence. But objective self understanding of these things
can lead to scientifically based corrections, if the will can be generated
during the very troubled times ahead.
2) The second conjecture builds on a generalization of Michael Gazzaniga's
"central explainer and storyteller" in the left temporal lobe. Using
the known mechanism of associative memory, this neural network facility
composes a global picture of any situation, even if not all relevant
information (sensory input and memory) is available. It fills the unknown white
areas of the map of a current situation with imagination. The survival value of
this can be seen in the fact that such a partially wrong, but completed
picture, more often than not will produce a better adapted and more decisive
response.
Based on this, "man the storyteller" becomes a main pillar of human
self explanation.
(the book, actually, lists this "pillar" first)
Thus, for instance, with only slight cynicism, we could declare the crowd of
academic philosophers to be "a circular story telling society"
(compare Randall Collins, "The Sociology of Philosophies"). Even the
natural sciences make stories, except that these more and more begin to
resemble reality. Religions make stories about as yet unexplainable phenomena.
One of my claims is that what is declared as "divine" or
"spiritual" are the stories about us experiencing the corrective
urges intruding from our repressed instinctual wills into our conscious selves.
High religions arise with the first agriculturists - together with a big boost
in ego system power. Religions are needed to maintain the balance between the
two organs of the brain. Only in modern times has that balance finally been
lost - together with a functional religion.
