20 Questions - age 54

I was challenged by Ian Mackenzie to answer 20 questions at this stage in my life. In fact, Ian challenged all readers of his wonderful on-line magazine Brave New Traveller to record their thoughts based on their current beliefs. The idea is that these document way-stations on our individual paths to personal discovery, and perhaps even enlightenment.

I took this challenge on August 7, 2009, at the age of 54 years. My age is important as this is a record of my thoughts at this point in my life, after 54 years experience. You might also be interested in my philosophical views of life, which I have expressed in an earlier post - http://makiism.blogspot.com/. That too is a reference point in time, developed after considerable contemplation over the past 10 years. And yes, I only started thinking about all this in my mid-40's.

So here are my answers...

1. Why is there poverty and suffering in the world?

Poverty is a relative term, in that something will always seem impoverished relative to something less impoverished. Take away our concept of relative benefit, and poof - no poverty. These are simply different states of existence, each with it's own characteristics, some positive, some negative.

As for suffering, I see this in two ways. Again, in a relative sense, where one's experience is perceived to suffer more/less in relation to someone else. For the same reason as above, remove the "relative" concept, and this type of suffering disappears.

A second concept of suffering is true pain or anxiety that is experienced as a consequence of the situation that one finds oneself. We evolved to have anxiety and pain to make us avoid these experiences, and this makes us successful as a species. We need these sensations. If we did not have anxiety or pain, we would most likely die before we reproduce, and our genetic code world not continue. So anixiety and pain in humans is part of our life experience, part of our evolutionary heritage. Once we accept this, the rest is relative.

2. What is the relationship between science and religion?

Humans like to figure stuff out. We are rewarded with happiness when we solve something, and this evolved ability is a significant distinguishing characteristic of our species. In this context science and religion are the same thing - science is a more logical, and rule-based methodology to figure stuff out, while religion uses more empirical evidence and feelings. Both arize from our natural desire to figure stuff out.

As science methods slowly put together the infinite Rubik's cube that we call life, religious rationale for various experiences get eroded away. However, a significant benefit of religious answers are their ability to appeal to the deeper sense of community (social value), and other emotional triggers, such as love and trust that are the most powerful influencers of our behaviour. These underpin our drive to raise children and develop families and societies. Emotions generally win out over facts, so I expect religions and religious "solutions" to the life question of meaning will survive for some time.

In my understanding and acceptance that we are simply wired to figure stuff out, just like a bee is wired to find flowers, I find I take this all (and myself) a lot less seriously. Note that I believe the Rubik's cube of life is indeed infinite, and cannot be "figured out". But I still enjoy figuring stuff out - I am human

3. Why are so many people depressed?

I really don't know... How many people are depressed, and relative to when? Are we more or less depressed than 20 years ago, 100 years ago, or 2000 years ago?

However, assuming we are currently "over-depressed" as the question implies, perhaps our hyper-active skill at figuring stuff out, which is applied both to removing "suffering", or simply to have "whiter teeth" is the root of what we think of as depression. We have a notion that some things/experiences are better than others. Add to this that the accumulation of resources/wealth/stuff/experiences has proven to be successful and our figuring out of how to hyper-communicate (TV/Web etc.). This has lead us to drive the behaviour of others by creating anxiety (my teeth are not white enough!). If we do this too much, do we get depressed because we are in a constant state of relative inferiority?

Depression is also chemical and the results from some kind of brain imbalance which is often genetically inherited. If this imbalance occurs before mating it will simply evolve away, assuming depressed people are less likely to attract a mate. But if it happens after mating then it is interesting to think through how it will evolve away in time. Perhaps the children of the depressed will have a harder time attracting a mate due to this unhappy family situation? Or are people from depressed families more interesting and attractive?

4. What are we all so afraid of?

We are afraid of death. This fear makes us successful as a species. Those who are not afraid die young, so this death-defying gene has little chance of long-term success.

We are afraid others will not like us. Similarly, if we did not have this fear, we would not make ourselves attractive to the opposite sex, and hence would not have children to propagate the characteristic of being afraid that others will not like us.

5. When is war justifiable?

On one hand, the word "justifiable" implies a moral judgement, which I will step over. To me it is better to ask why human beings wage war? I have an answer, though I don't particularly like it.

Humans have always waged war with the other "tribe". The winner of these wars harnesses more resources and becomes more successful. Hence the human attitude to wage war is an evolved, beneficial behaviour. It's really as simple as that. Peaceful tribes over-populate the limited resources of their domains and then die from lack of resources. Or they make their species vulnerable to attack by disease. War, and the struggle over limited resources, helps keep our species in check and momentary balance with life on earth.

Now you see why I do not like the answer...

6. How would God want us to respond to aggression and terrorism?

The notion of a "God" wanting us to behave a certain way does not make sense to me. We simply react to avoid discomfort or in the pursuit of happiness. Makiism explains this. My answer is how I react to aggression.

First, I would defend myself, my family, and those close to me from immediate harm. This is a natural and primal reaction, and the benefits are clear. Note that this defense is not "thoughtful", it is an automatic reaction to a threat. Could this defense lead me to killing? I'm lucky that this has never been tested in me. But it has been tested in my family, and in my father, who made a career in the Canadian Infantry. So if tested, I expect I too could and would kill. So many other humans have done so, and I am human.

However, I am enlightened enough, and strategic enough not to take an attack with anger beyond the immediate defensive reaction. Once the immediate threat is understood/handled, I stop and think about what motivated the situation. My goal is to change the conditions of this motivation to prevent attacks in future. I have learned this comes from building familiarity and trust from the lowest level possible - the human level. When we truly understand/trust the other, and bring them to trust us, we are on the right track.

But beware, this can be difficult, or even impossible in one or many lifetimes. So if this cannot be achieved now, I will attempt to put the seeds in place to create what I think gives the best opportunity of success at some point in the future.

However, all good intentions aside, humans have a very successful characteristic called "cognitive reinforcement". This is a belief that one's perception is the right one. And once we have that belief our brain simply disregards information counter to that belief, while information that supports the belief is added to the belief (there are good papers on this, but I cannot find the links right now). We ALL do this - it is what allows us to function as humans, and it makes us efficient and successful. Cognitive reinforcement is very powerful, and it is the most difficult thing to overcome in others for whom the beliefs have deep roots. And this goes well beyond the individual - belief systems are implanted within cultures, religions, neighborhoods, circle-of-friends, and families. I cannot over-state the importance and power of this point... But I will leave this for now.

So, breaking down our own "cognitive reinforcement", we need to see aggression and terrorism through the lens of those we perceive as the perpetrators. To them, these actions (aggression, terrorism) are simply the strategies they have chosen to defend themselves from what they perceive as a threat to them. They are humans just like us, but with a different set of inputs and circumstances that have led to their own "cognitively reinforced" position.

So within the "cognitive reinforcement" characteristic, our desire to avoid the discomfort of change, and our urge to optimise the pursuit of happiness of current and future generations, we have the seeds of conflict, aggression, terrorism and war.

7. How does one obtain true peace?

For personal peace, we do this by accepting the amazing experience of life, brief or long as we are able to experience it, in a wondrous way. I personally do this by lingering on happiness - the joy of acknowledgement by others, the satisfaction of figuring something out, the pleasure of various senses. And I move through anxiety and discomfort as quickly and efficiently as possible.

For social/cultural peace - I am not optimistic that we can obtain this. Given the current human condition, and our escalating need to consume resources from our limited planet, we will inevitably continue to compete or resources and conflict will be the result.

At this point I could get into some crazy-talk, but I will leave this for now...

8. What does it mean to live in the present moment?

It's accepting the feelings of discomfort or happiness that we have at the moment. I add to this the notion of moving past discomfort and on to happiness when possible, and lingering on happiness when we feel it.

I generally feel comfortable in the moment, whatever it is. And I am also comfortable that decisions are made in this moment about the next moment, and moments beyond. One of the features of our brain is the ability to use patterns of information to predict the future. I use this ability to make decisions that allow me move through anxiety/pain as efficiently as possible, and I choose to linger when I find happiness. In this way, I insure my cup is considerably more than half-full.

I feel this future-predictive characteristic of our brain goes along with our desire to figure stuff out. It is a distinguishing characteristic of our species. Note that predictions are not reality, but the better we are able to predict, the more successful we are, so this too has emerged through our evolutionary path.

9. What is our greatest distraction?

Distraction from what? To live in the moment, to accept and appreciate life, even accept and move through discomfort, is what we are all experiencing. There can be no distraction to this.

10. Is current religion serving its purpose?

If a religion is successful, people follow it, and propagate the religion to future generations - it serves it's purpose. However, on the surface religions have stated purposes that to me are rationalizations for why the religion exists in the first place.

Do religions actually serve their stated purpose? I guess some do, and some don't. But I really don't think that is the point of religion. Religions provide a simplification of the rules of life that allow us to more efficiently apply our limited effort to other activities. They let us move through anxiety by giving us answers. That is why religions are successful - they are efficient. Followers are able to spend more time doing other things that give them competitive success.

11. What happens to you after you die?

I take death to mean the disintegration of the organism that is the me I see in the mirror. This little piece of life houses my thoughts and lets me type this communication for you, the reader, to tickle your own figure-it-out dimension. The organism that is me must die because this allows our species to evolve. Life depends on death. See more on emergence to understand the profound reason for this. (I highly recommend Steve Johnson's book Emergence: The connected lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software, which makes this subject very understandable.)

And when I die I basically return to the matter that makes up what we know as the Universe. And in that context, I never die because I came from the Universe and I return to the Universe. This experience of conscious life is the wondrous anomaly that I enjoy right now.

12. Describe heaven and how to get there.

The Universe is heaven and we are already there.

13. What is the meaning of life?

Evolution, emergence. Life is simply the successful accumulation of matter in the birth - mutate - successful begot new life/unsuccessful die cycle of emergence. I'm not sure there is "meaning" other than this.

But I think humans are stuck on "meaning" because we have evolved the ability to figure stuff out. And when this is combined with our need for status, we are driven to understand our meaning. And when we figure something out (in this case "meaning"), we are happy, and when we fail, we suffer anxiety and we are driven to seek the answer.

14. Describe God.

There are many descriptions, but here are two that I tend to think of:

God is a concept invented by human religion to justify human beings as the ultimate species.

God is a concept invented by humans seeking the answer to "meaning", and failing to find it have put the word "God" in the blank space next to the question. There :), next question... I prefer 42.

15. What is the greatest quality humans possess?

I view this as the qualities that make our species successful and perhaps distinguish us. These are our ability to act as a social species that is dependent on others. This makes us stronger, just like an ant colony is stronger than the individual ant. The mechanism that drives this social behaviour in us is "status", which is basically the feelings we have for one another, either positive or negative.

The second "greatest" quality is our ability to figure stuff out and thus predict the future. But this may be our undoing as this success is driving us to over-populate our planet. This may ultimately result in a thinning of our ranks, or an out-right extinction of our species. But we will become extinct one day - it's just a question of time and circumstance. (Note - in case you have not figured it out by now, I am a geologist.)

16. What is it that prevents people from living to their full potential?

Anxiety over failure. In my experience there are two drivers for this. By far the most important is the negative feelings others create in us when we fail. Negative judgement pushes us down the "status" scale, so we fail to act in fear of other's thinking less of us.

The second (lesser) barrier is the risk/reward calculation. We know what we have and we are generally unwilling to risk this for the unknown, and our potential is in the unknown.

17. Non-verbally, by motion or gesture only, act out what you believe to be the current condition of the world.

18. What is your one wish for the world?

This world is special because life exists here - I wish life to continue for as long as possible. I enjoy the sensations of being alive.

19. What is wisdom and how do we gain it?

Wisdom is the alignment of patterns developed in our minds with the patterns we observe around us, combined with the experience and strength to act on those patterns. Wisdom makes us better able to predict the future. Wsdom requires time for patterns and experience to develop, which is why it is generally related to aging. Note, however, that we acquire wisdom at different rates in proportion to how much we engage life.

Wisdom is valuable to our species, but is infinitely over-rated as a driver for life. Life does not require wisdom. The most successful species have very little, if any wisdom as we understand it. Michael Pollan's talk on TED makes this point quite well. How much wisdom does corn have?

20. Are we all one?

Absolutely!