QUESTION 6: The purpose of our life
3- The human brain
The human body is marvelous. Unfortunately, it comes equipped with a brain that is a total disappointment.
Every second our body completes about 500 trillion faultless copies of hemoglobin – a protein containing 10000 atoms in 574 amino acids. How does that compare with the possibilities of the human brain?
Where does our thinking come from?
Before we say that humans are going to dominate the universe, we should keep in mind that modern humans are 98.8 % genetically similar to chimpanzees, 75% genetically similar to chickens and 60% genetically similar to banana trees. Click here for details.
We can assume that the Big Bang created a certain amount of thinking. There is a limited genetic patrimony to be shared between humans. If this is the case, we should become more and more dumb as the world population increases. Such theory is not the best way to make friends.
Another possibility is that the thinking on earth increases with the human population. That would imply that we can create thinking out of nothing.
A compromise between those two extremes would be that human thinking is the result of a complex process way above our head.
To make an evaluation of our thinking, we compare ourselves with other animals. That’s cheating. We should compare the development of our brain with the development of our own body. That would make us very humble.
We hoped that mathematics could help. It is a way to avoid the need for reasoning. At the end of a mathematical reasoning there is a formula. If you know the formula, you don’t need the reasoning. We use Mathematics to avoid reasoning. To get the surface of a rectangle you only need to remember that it is a multiplication. Nobody will ask you why. Of course, somebody had to find the formula. We called him a genius and put his name in the dictionary. This is our way to avoid ego bruises.
Here is a test of the human brain:
Take a series of coins and put them in alignment and number them 1, 2, 3, 4… all heads up.
- We flip the coins 2, 4, 6… and all the multiple of 2.
- We flip the coins 3, 6, 9, 12… and all the multiple of 3.
What are the coins that are still head up? No need for complicated calculations. Some simple reasoning should do.
Fortunately, there is more to mathematics than to avoid reasoning. It is a way to detach your mind from the material world. After we learn counting, we can count anything. We start by counting our fingers and counting the number of people in the room and the stars in the sky and even particles so small that the eye cannot see. Mathematics is a way to escape the prison of the physical body. Mathematics could represent the part of nature that the human brain can understand.
You will also find them in plants, fruits, in seashells, in broccoli, in the human body and even in galaxies.
Search Google, Images, Fibonacci and you will not understand how the Homo sapiens could live on earth for 300 000 years without seeing the Fibonacci numbers all around them.
The Fibonacci numbers
This is an introduction to creation. You start with 0 and 1 and keep adding the last two numbers to get the next one. 0+1 = 1 and 1+1=2 and 2+1=3. The Fibonacci numbers are 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,13, 21, 34, 55, 89…..
What is interesting is that you find the Fibonacci numbers all over the creation.
How can you explain this enormous discrepancy between our mind and our body?
One explanation we could come from our history. When an animal sees a danger, it knows what its reaction should be. Birds fly away - Zebras run - Fish swim. When man perceives a danger, he may hesitate between different reactions. Should he hide? Run away? Call for help? Throw stones? Climb a tree? Man introduces thinking between being aware of the danger and his reaction. That takes time! A fraction of a second could make the difference between survival and becoming a meal. The more you think, the lower your chances of survival. Eliminating the best thinkers for millions of years before they even have a chance to reproduce lowers the IQ of the general population. We are the survivors because we are the dumb ones. The Homo sapiens survived because of their limited thinking.
If this is a correct explanation, a similar evolution should also apply to animals. It would be interesting to know if the smartest individuals tended to disappear prematurely in different species.
Can we rely on human thinkling?
The scientists are the first ones to say that our thinking is not reliable. They want everything to be validated by experiments. They require the approval of Mother Nature. They say that we should look at the facts and apply our thinking to the facts. Why should we associate the reliable facts with an unreliable thinking that is going to mess up everything? Does that make sense? They want A.I. to amplify human thinking. Is that reasonable? The robots that we are going to make will come from human thinking. Are you sure that this is what we want? You may amplify something good. You may also amplify something really bad. How can we be sure that we don’t need Mother Nature’s approval anymore?
We need to find a better way to use our brain.
Science starts with analysis. It is only the beginning. It is a point of entry for human thinking. It is good to cut a problem into small pieces with the hope that the small pieces will have smaller problems. After we solve the small problems, we can put the pieces back together. This is treating Mother Nature like a machine. You take it apart and find out which part needs to be replaced.
A better way to use our brain is to use synthesis instead of analysis. After noticing something special in Nature we should look for something similar elsewhere. Is there a general idea implemented in many ways, right under our nose? This is how we discovered the fractals. It took us many years, but we finally did it.
PS: About flipping the coins. There are two ways a coin can remain head up……