The human body is marvelous. Unfortunately, it comes equipped with a brain that is a total disappointment. The human body and the human brain don’t seem to be made for one another. Every second the human body completes about 500 trillion faultless copies of hemoglobin – a protein containing 10000 atoms in 574 amino acids. That makes the human brain look rather simplistic..
2 - 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.
Let’s assume that a certain amount of thinking was created by the Big Bang. This is limited genetic patrimony is shared between humans. In this case, we should become more and more dumb as the world population increases. Such a 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 are comparing 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 us dominate the universe. That remains to be seen. At the end of a mathematical reasoning there is a formula. If you know the formula, you don’t need the reasoning. To get the surface of a rectangle you only need to remember that it is a multiplication. Nobody will ask you why. We use Mathematics to avoid reasoning. 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 bruising our ego.
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.
-Flip the coins 2, 4, 6… and all the multiple of 2.
-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. What is your answer?
Fortunately, there is more to mathematics than to avoid reasoning. It is a way to detach our 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 them. Mathematics is a way to escape the prison of the physical body. Mathematics expands the part of nature that the human brain can understand. It can be limited, but this is an improvement.
The Fibonacci numbers:
What is interesting is that you can find the Fibonacci numbers everywhere.
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…..
You will also find the Fibonacci numbers in plants, fruits, in seashells, in broccoli, in the human body and even in galaxies.
Go to Google, Images, Fibonacci and you will have a choice between thousands of examples of the Fibonacci numbers in nature. You will not understand how the Homo sapiens could live on earth for more than 300 000 years without seeing the Fibonacci numbers all around them.
How can we explain this enormous discrepancy between our mind and our body?
One explanation 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. Men are different. When man perceives a danger, he may hesitate between different possibilities. 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!
Can we rely on human thinking?
The scientists are the first to say that our thinking is not reliable. They want our thinking to be confirmed by experiments. They always demand 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 use of our brain.
Science starts with analysis. This is only a point of entry. 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 some work.
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.
PS: About flipping the coins. There are two ways the coins can remain heads up.