Friday, October 11, 2024

Nematode

Oh brillig was the slithy tove

All mum with crap that he had sold

So on he went, as we are told

A goal in mind, a windy road

A nematode, but I digress

Our subject still a wilderness

Wherein such souls as look askance

At superficial happenstance

Can waddle in the cosmic dance

And ask the question should the chance

Present itself, or even not-

For questions ask their own true selves

Forgiving answers to themselves-

And truth be told I need more rhymes

Not once not twice but three more times! 

Sunday, September 29, 2024

With gods on our side

I watch as days follow days in the desert, daring me to find meaning in the endless cycle. This morning I had some assistance on the "meaning" front from Robert the Telepathic Gila Monster, who woke me at dawn with his signature scratching on my cabin door, which was of course accompanied by intrusive thoughts. This as I was trying to catch up on sleep after fitful impulses the night before had kept me awake until the wee hours. Here's the dialogue that ensued, hopefully with elements meaningful to the reader:

Robert: Harry, wake up! It's the end of the world!

Me: For a change.

Robert: Listen to me, Harry. Red lines are being crossed.

Me: Red lines?

Robert: That's the phrase your news sources use to describe an action or situation that pushes an individual or group to the point where they cannot continue to be rational, and must express their frustration with hate-filled speech or violence.

Me: I suppose you're referring to events in the Middle East, where each faction perceives that its enemy has crossed a red line.

Robert: The Middle East of course, but red lines are being crossed everywhere. Go to the Family Dollar Store in Pearblossom today and check out the mind of a random customer [Robert and I are telepathic]. You'll find something to the effect of, "I can't take this any more!"

Me: Robert, I could have slept another three hours. What do you expect me to do about this? In fact, by waking me up you crossed one of my red lines!

Robert: I have more to tell you, Harry. You'll recall our discussion of my upcoming trip in December to Bhutan with D.L. [author of Lasken's Log at https://laskenlog.blogspot.com/], the part about the "Tsen," the ancient gods which were retained when Bhutan adopted Buddhism?

Me: Uh huh, various gods of woods and streams, and one with a weird name.

Robert: Yes, a mountain god named InsertHere, to whom I'm supposed to offer greetings from the god of our own Funeral Peak near Death Valley, named Tab B. I've already explained their unusual names.

Me: Right, something to do with cultural appropriation. What's that got to do with waking me at dawn?

Robert: Harry, I'm learning through the god network that there are Bhutanese gods I didn't know about, who have been awakened by the human conflicts and are angrier than you are about losing sleep.

Me: Like what gods?

Robert: Like Dorje Legpa, described by local monks as a wrathful female deity associated with elevated terrain and the natural world, often depicted as red and holding a vajra [a Buddhist symbol of spiritual power] and a scorpion, believed to protect against harm and bring good fortune.

Me: What's the problem, then? She's wrathful, but also protective.

Robert: It's the wrathful part that's waking up, looking around to see who woke her and why.

Me: Was it the war in the Middle East?

Robert: Not by itself. It's the worldwide attention, the buy-in, the belief that the developing war is real.

Me: Isn't it real?

Robert: Yes, because it's made real by forces no one has the strength to counter. No one is able to make it not real.

Me: Can't a god make a war not real?

Robert: Not in this case. Dorje Legpa is as pissed off as the humans. And she's not the only pissed god in Bhutan.

Me: Oh great. Who else?

Robert: There's Mhakala, another "wrathful deity," often depicted as black with multiple arms, considered a protector of the dharma and a powerful force against obstacles.

Me "Protector of the dharma"? What's the difference between "dharma" and "karma"?

Robert: In simple terms: Dharma is about doing what is right and fulfilling your purpose, while karma is about the consequences of your actions, both good and bad.

Me: Robert, you got that from Gemini, Google's AI, didn't you? I recognize the style!

Robert: I...Ok, so what? I use many sources.

Me: It's hard to see how an AI could rationally describe a god, since they are natural competitors.

Robert: How so?

Me: Like a god, AI knows more than we mortal biological systems do and is destined to control us.

Robert: Speak for your own kind, Harry. Gila monsters will never be controlled by either gods or AI!

Me: That's comforting to hear. Anyway, are there more angry gods?

Robert: Yes, there's Dzambhala, described as "the god of wealth and prosperity," often depicted as yellow and holding a mongoose that vomits jewels, believed to bring good fortune and abundance.

Me: What's Dzambhala pissed about?

Robert: He was awakened from a sensuous dream about drinking the bejewelled vomit of a mongoose, but awakened for what? He wonders, “Where’s the money in this?”

Me: I get the picture. I ask again, what exactly do you want me to do about it?

Robert: Not much, since you're not going to Bhutan in December, as D.L. and I are. I intend to commune with the Bhutanese gods, perhaps make offerings, and see what I can do to help them reverse the suicidal impulses of the Earth, which is tired of circling the sun forever without purpose. I will try to suggest purpose.

Me: Robert, you are a nut-case. You have about as much hope of saving the world as a gila monster lost and confused in the desert. Oh wait, that's what you are.

Robert: Laugh if you must, Harry, but at least I'm reaching out to the gods, expressing alternate views from the planet's biosphere, not just catching up on sleep, like the sad insomniac you are! I'll let you get back to bed. Pleasant dreams, Harry.

And with that Robert trudged off to pursue his hobby of influencing the universe by talking with gods. To each his own. Though I must confess Robert did arouse some guilt in me - over my laziness, my defeatist mindset- but not enough to keep me from going back to a deep sleep and dreaming that a mongoose was sucking up what's left of my estate and vomiting it onto the desert floor.

When I woke I thought of Bob Dylan's song, "With God on Our Side," though he meant "God," singular. If possible it seems advantageous to have a god on your side, but you should be careful which god.
No comments:

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Robert the Telepathic Gila Monster is going to Bhutan!

"You never know what will happen next" is actually true these days. For instance, I didn't know that Robert the Telepathic Gila Monster, who keeps me grounded in my self-imposed exile, would, last night, clamor to my door as agitated as I've ever seen him, though in an oddly optimistic way. "Doug's going to Bhutan!" he buzzed through the airways (he was referring to my altered-ego Doug, author of Lasken's Log at https://laskenlog.blogspot.com/). Sitting in the confines of my living room, Robert relaxed and explained:

Robert: D.L. and his wife are going to Bhutan in December!

Me: That's nice.

Robert: Do you even know where Bhutan is?

Me: Yes, it's 10,000 feet up, surrounded by China, Tibet, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Southeast Asia and the rest of the world.

Robert: What else?

Me: What else what?

Robert: What else is special about Bhutan?

Me: You tell me.

Robert: Will do. When Buddhism came to Bhutan it did not conquer. It was slowly and peacefully adopted, and often the locals retained original gods of the region in their versions of Buddhism.

Me: Oh yeah? Like which gods?

Robert: Some heavy-duty gods that roamed the Earth until they were inhibited by modern times. For a while it seemed they were gone, but they quietly reappeared in Bhutan.

Me: What are these gods like? Do they have names?

Robert: They are referred to collectively as the "Tsen." They influence various things. Yulha and Zhidak are territorial, often protecting open grassland or forests. The Lu are water deities, watching over rivers and lakes. The Chenrezig are personal spirits that protect homes or villages.

Me: Will Doug and his wife give offerings to the Tsen?

Robert: I couldn't tell you. The only god of the Tsen I care about is InsertHere, one of the Zhidag, the mountain deities. Often the Zhidag are attached to volcanoes, but Bhutan sits on tectonically squished, impervious rock so there are no volcanoes. InsertHere is the deity of Gangkhar Puensum, the highest peak in Bhutan, towering 14,000 feet over the already 10,000 foot elevated Bhutanese plain.

Me: Ok, it sounds interesting, I guess....

Robert: Listen to me, Harry, InsertHere is the cousin of our own Tab B!

Me: Who?

Robert: Tab B, the deity of Funeral Peak, in the Black Mountains outside Death Valley.

Me: What kind of name is "Tab B" for a mountain deity? For that matter, what kind of name is "InsertHere"?

Robert: Those are not their original names. No one knows what those were. Modern explorers slept at the foot of these peaks and had strange dreams, sometimes waking up mumbling gibberish. The names were derived from the gibberish, for better or worse. Anyway, Tab B is a major telepathic force in the western deserts. Gilas commune with him all the time, which is why I intend to travel to Bhutan with Doug.

Me: What!?

Robert: It was Tab B's idea. He's somewhat estranged from his cousin and wants me to contact InsertHere and compare notes on what's happening in the world, human and otherwise.

Me: You're going to need a god's help to figure this out. How will you get past airport security, not to mention Doug's wife?

Robert: With help from a deity, you'd be surprised what you can do.

Me: I don't suppose you've run this by Doug.

Robert: He's processing it.

Me: I bet.

Stay tuned! Doug and Robert will be posting updates as December approaches.
No comments:

Saturday, August 3, 2024

Quick thought

I'm writing in response to my altered-ego's post on Lasken's Log titled "A prediction about the start of World War III" (https://laskenlog.blogspot.com/), where D.L. seeks to prove the existence of machinations designed to ensure that we walk into World War III with our eyes open, thinking we are awake though we are deep in a pre-scripted dream. As I gape at Doug's stamina in constructing his proofs, I can't help sitting on my rocker on the front porch of my desert abode, looking out over the baked Mojave and wondering if I should be sorry that long ago I stopped trying to prove things. Now when I argue with my frequent companion Robert the Telepathic Gila Monster, he will barrel down on me for the slightest variance from his opinion, yet if he opposes mine, I just stop trying, frustrating him no end.

What is all this about "proving" things, anyway? It's not like we ever really prove anything. What if standard humans were telepathic and evolved to share ideas, to have them together at the same time, and to change our minds about those ideas together? I bet there would be no less certainty about reality than if aggressive humanoids invaded and started proving things.

That's my quick thought for now! Best, Harry

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

What I think

Listen to the raindrops:

plink...plink... plink...

Saying something clear yet

indistinct.

Watch the swirling foam going

down the sink,

and you'll agree with me about

what I think.





Tuesday, June 25, 2024

There's a bard in my yard

[My desert companion Robert the Telepathic Gila Monster, in his fascination with the human race, has culminated a long study of Shakespeare with this cross-species emulation.]  


How is't
though all we teach our young
be naught but dreams we teach ourselves 
that we
in the throes of later-aged ambition
to be more upon the stage
than aged babes 
(domestic ciphers, suckling, passive, small accounted in the public eye, 
sweeping dust to dust and daily circling mile on mile)
in quiet contemplation
hidden watch the generations flow?
As everywhere impetuous glories
spill from young and restless minds 
to cause calamitous clash
and magnificent ornament of the soul,
the children uprooted on life’s playground
by the rousing slap
and challenge of the intellect’s 
swampy doubt
think not of quiet corners
but of noisy triumph on the field!

Demanding that we set aside
The limits of our scope
And take them on a joyous ride
Of certitude and hope

Friday, May 10, 2024

The future of the alpha male

[This is a guest essay from my altered-ego D.L.'s blog, Lasken's Log: https://laskenlog.blogspot.com/.]

Early Hollywood films often featured cute baby chimpanzees who mimiced human behavior with infantile gestures, grimaces and clownish antics.  But, although there are plenty of adult lions, elephants and giraffes in early movies, there are no adult chimps.  Adults were retired to "reserves" far out of the city.  Chimp handlers knew why, but the general public did not.  

That changed over recent decades as a series of horrifying attacks by adult chimps on humans were reported in the media.  Adults can weigh up to 200 pounds and are generally twice as strong as the average adult human male.  The attacks entailed faces and genitals torn off, hands amputated and other targeted attacks that appeared designed, not necessarily to kill, but to permanently debilitate the victim both physically and psychologically.  The victims typically were taken by  surprise.  Often the chimp had been raised by the victim from babyhood, or the victim might be a friend of the owner who knew the chimp well, or thought so.  The trigger for many of the attacks appeared to be jealousy, or a sense of betrayal.  One woman brought a birthday cake to a captive adult chimp (removed from her custody for dangerous behavior) in the company of two other chimps.  One was so jealous of the cake that he bit off the womans lips and nose and destroyed one eye.  A man who brought a toy to a chimp he knew lost his genitals when he tried to take back the toy.  It is now illegal to own a chimp as a pet.

While our society was learning about the nature of adult chimps in captivity, scientists were learning about chimps in the wild.  Search "chimp attacks in Africa" and you'll find beautifully shot narratives by producers like Discovery and Planet Earth-BBC Wildlife depicting a murderous species, often out to expand its territory.  In one program, a band of five or six adult male chimps, led by its alpha male (the dominant male animal in a particular group- Webster) silently creeps through the forest, stalking a neighboring colony of chimps.  The alpha, who not only determines the group's behavior but defines its virtues, deficits and moral tone, brings the group to a halt as the "enemy" comes within earshot.  The males huddle together in intense, intimate concentration.  The group attacks and manages to capture a baby chimp from the neighboring group, which they kill by pulling off its limbs, after which they sit in a circle, gnawing on the limbs and sharing them with each other. 

More recently, the Netflix documentary "Chimp Empire," directed by James Reed, presented an intimate look at chimps interacting in which they appear surprisingly human. In fact chimps are our closest relatives.  Human DNA differs from chimps' by only 1%.  In contrast, human DNA differs from dogs' by 75%.  The difference between apes (like chimps) and monkeys (like capuchins) is 7%, meaning that we are closer to chimps than chimps are to monkeys.

Chimps pre-date us by about 5 million years, so we are likely spin-offs from them, appearing about 300,000 years ago. Maybe it was the chimps who drove us from the forest.

[Note: Our DNA is likewise only 1% different from the chimps' nearest relation, bonobos.  In the 70's and 80's, bonobos were touted as "flower-children chimps" because of their uninhibited displays of affection- including social conventions like handling each other's genitals or rubbing them together- and the lack of male combat.  The hippie association was dropped after researchers noticed that many males were missing thumbs, which had been bitten off by females in this matriarchal alternative to chimp patriarchy.]

As with humans, not all chimps are murderous.  A Discovery UK episode tells the story of two peaceable chimps, Hare and Ellington, who, though members of a large warlike group, spent their days together in tranquil strolls through the forest.  One day Ellington was beaten and mauled to death by members of the group.  Hare then wandered alone, depressed and distracted, finally finding his place taking care of baby chimps orphaned by his group.

Are we like chimps in behavior as well as DNA?  A study of human history suggests that we are.  Many anthropologists speculate that homicidal impulses in our ancestors explain the absence today of any other types of humans than our own.  There is fossil evidence that there were other types of humans, notably Neanderthals and Denisovans.  Genetic analysis indicates that we interbred with these humans, but we also witnessed their extinction.  There is no evidence that we intentionally eliminated them (an action we would now term "genocide"), but the question remains, where are they? 

We are proud of our hunting heritage, but unlike, say, lions, who after millions of years of hunting and eating impalas and giraffes have not caused the extinction of those animals, human prey tends to disappear.  There is plenty of evidence that needless killing of fauna and megafauna has recurred throughout human history.  One prehistoric example that is generally not noted in deference to a need to idealize early North American cultures (science writer Jared Diamond is one of the few to refuse this idealization) is that all large mammals on the North American continent- like giant ground sloths and wooly mammoths- disappeared shortly after the arrival of the first humans, 10,000-12,000 years ago. The later settling of the American West by Europeans provides further examples of animals slaughtered in numbers far exceeding people's need to eat them.  When Europeans arrived in North America, passenger pigeons comprised up to 40% of the bird population, their migrations filling the sky.  "Sportsmen" would fire straight up and revel when dozens of birds fell to the ground.  From an estimated 3 to 5 billion pigeons when the Mayflower docked at Plymouth Rock, their numbers fell in two hundred years to zero.  The American bison (commonly called the "buffalo") numbered around 30 million before Europeans came.  Horace Greeley wrote in 1860 that, "Often, the country for miles in all directions had seemed quite black with them."  The railroads sold tickets for bison killing excursions to New Englanders looking for adventure.  When herds of bison ran across the prairies near the tracks, rifles were issued to passengers so they could shoot them from train windows.  The train did not stop to recover the mounds of carcasses for any sort of use.  Today the bison is designated "near threatened."  "How the West was won" should be rephrased as, "How the West was cleared of lifeforms that suggested humans are not the dominant species."

Back to genocide- the modern term for humans intentionally killing (or attempting to kill) entire groups of other humans- we often treat it as a recent aberration stemming from Hitler (the term "genocide" was coined in 1944 by a Polish lawyer), but far from being unique to World War II, genocide- which continued after the war and is ongoing today- has occurred repeatedly since the dawn of humanity, starting, possibly, with the disappearance noted above of any other sorts of humans than us, the Denisovans going extinct about 80,000 years ago, the Neanderthals about 40,000.  

Moving forward, there is archaeological evidence that the Indo-Europeans (from whose language group almost all current European languages derive) committed genocide in the course of their expansions starting around 4,000 BC. 

Something genocidal appears to have struck ancient Britain, as there is genetic evidence of a 90% population turnover in the 3rd millennium BC.  This could help explain how genetic analysis of "Cheddar Man," a 10,000 year old skeleton found in Somerset, England, could suggest that he had "quite dark skin and blue eyes" (The power of archaeology and genetics, NewScientist Magazine, 5/29/21).  We've been wondering for a long time who built Stonehenge.  Surprise!

In historical times, both the Athenian city-state and the Roman Empire, to take two examples, achieved much of their stature through genocide.  The list of genocides after the Romans is long, covering all continents.

The quest for empire and hegemony- straight from the chimpanzee playbook- seems a prime factor in human genocide.  Since the advent of large civilizations around 3,000 BC, it's been one alpha male ambition after another, producing brutal, genocidal empires that are then toppled by the next empire-building alpha, which is toppled by the next.  It seems never to have occured to people that one might just live happily munching leaves, replacing glory and bloodlust with the simple pleasures of a satisfied existence, not unlike the lifestyle of another of our close ape relatives, gorillas (whose DNA differs from ours by 1.75%).  

In fact the idea of just existing is repulsive to many people; we call it "vegetative," as if we know what it's like to be a plant.  We think we are supposed to manage everything, maybe even dominate everything, as our choice of comic book "superheroes" shows.  

I see the tendency in myself, at least in my childhood taste in fictional heroes, such as those from the TV series Star Trek.  Was it the spectacle of Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise and cutting edge of the human race, landing on one planet after another, subduing its inhabitants, always winning?  Or First Officer Spock (half-human, half-alien, a hybrid alpha) who matched Kirk's ability to dominate the environment but went beyond it by also dominating his inner self?   Of course Kirk and Spock were depicted in each episode as gaining the moral high ground by adhering to Starfleet's "Prime Directive," that none of the ship's missions would interfere with indigenous cultures.  That's why it's called science fiction.

Where does the chimp and human animus come from?  What happened in the ancient forests of Africa, to us and to chimps?  As William Blake phrased the question (though addressing a tiger):

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Scientists are not asking that question, but they are tangentially finding out interesting things about alpha males, in particular that there is a correlation between alpha males and a high level of the "flight or fight" drug serotonin, produced in a cluster of cells in the human brainstem called the raphe nuclei.  When the raphe nuclei send a large dose of serotonin into the amygdala- a brain center that controls our emotional state- the amygdala directs us to become alphas and run the show.  Submissive mice have been transformed into alpha's after injections of serotonin, and alphas have been demoted when their serotonin is decreased.  

Interesting, but the question becomes, why did the ancient raphe nuclei feel the need to squirt so much serotonin into men's amygdalas?  We get a shitload, which is probably why we can't stand a sky full of pigeons.

There's not much evidence to explain what humanity's raphe nuclei have been so agitated about, so once again we must guess.  My guess is that we and our chimp cousins experienced non-belonging.  The forest had rejected us in some fundamental way.  We did not fit.  Chimpanzees reacted to this ostracism by terrorizing each other into a structured existence calibrated for survival.  Humans fought back by becoming ever smarter and more resourceful.  Some of the response was practical, bringing development of improved hunting implements and use of fire.  Some was psychological, as when ancient Egyptians built giant pyramids to inflate the standing of the ruling alphas and humble the working class (many pyramid workers were paid) and slaves.  Some was suicidal, as when, in our time, we learned how to blow up and poison the planet, threatening the alphas along with everyone else.  Perhaps we secretly hate the Earth and resent Creation for sending us here.  

Genesis tells the story metaphorically.  After Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden, the Earth is revealed as inhospitable, requiring people to build artificial environments lest they starve or freeze.  We're not the only creatures who have to do this: birds build nests; beavers build dams.  But humans need to reconstruct the whole forest, the whole world. 

There is growing understanding that our quest to reform the Earth under the guidance of the alpha male (and an enabling Eve) has gone awry.  As the dream of a compatible Earth flounders, we turn to space- with its endless planets full of monsters to defeat, hellscapes to terraform and indigenous cultures to leave in pristine condition- hoping the effort out there will go better than it has here.

The question this essay asks is, what is the future of the alpha male who has guided us to this point?  We are acquiring biological tools that will enable us to recreate ourselves.  Through CRISPR technology we will be able to assemble our DNA into any combination of characteristics we want.  If we envision a new way, one that seeks co-existence rather than dominion, we could, maybe, downgrade or phase out the alpha male (and alpha female, since we fluctuate now between chimp and bonobo) and create a more harmonious version of ourselves.

The fly in the ointment is that the people in charge of our re-creation will likely be alphas who are motivated to make vast fortunes and dominate the humans around them.  The chimps and bonobos will be in charge, driven by their terror of not being in charge.

What can we do about this?  Limit the supply of serotonin?  It's unclear.  Stay tuned for Part II of this post: How to ensure that the new humanity is not as homicidal and generally berzerk as the current one.