Humans
have come a long way since taming the first fire, domesticating fire so that it
does the will of humans, it is fire that has led us this far in material
progress. Our first control of radiation. The relationship with fire has been
an enduring one such that we can not imagine existing without a source of heat.
Humanity
has come a long way in terms of material progress since the introduction of
money. The role of money has been outstanding in the growth of our knowledge,
we buy and sell knowledge. That car that we buy is knowledge, it is the
physical representation of knowledge. The engine is not haphazardly created. It
follows the laws of information, laws of existence for those materials and we
end up with an engine. The engine itself is continuously evolving as our
knowledge increases, this is accounted for by the tool we use to exchange
knowledge, money.
The
glass we buy from the shop is knowledge. That is why when one talks of
knowledge, for ease of understanding knowledge as it is applied in the economy
we talk of theoretical knowledge and use knowledge. Quantum mechanics is a body
of knowledge that deals with the matter with the smallest amount of mass in the
universe. When one studies quantum mechanics they are dealing with what can be
considered theoretical knowledge. Theoretical knowledge as such has no market
value or if it does it is not worth very much because it is not seen as
immediate to the well being of an individual, nobody will say I can eat the
first law of information, that everything is information, everything is in a
relationship from the smallest particle to the largest galaxy and all
relationships cost energy to maintain.
But the
law comes from quantum mechanics that has given us radio, television, remote
controls, wifi, computers, microprocessors, artificial intelligence, solar
panels, electric cars, lasers, masers, nuclear bombs, nuclear energy, all these
goodies are a result of understanding quantum mechanics, they would be beyond
reach without the theoretical body of knowledge that comes from quantum
mechanics starting with Descartes understandings around light. But the
questions around light have been around, ancient Greeks, Romans, ancient India.
It does not matter being correct, what is important is that the questions where
asked and answers pondered. We see more clearly with increasing knowledge, but
humans had to start somewhere.
Without
quantum mechanics it would not be possible to reach the age of the end of fire
as the main producer of energy. Without fire it would have been impossible to
understand quantum mechanics so that humans can leave the age of fire. Quantum
mechanics is the theory, the television and wifi the by products of this theoretical
body of knowledge known as quantum mechanics. The by product of this
theoretical knowledge is what we call useful goods.
Theoretical
knowledge is not a new thing for humans, it has been the underpinning of human
survival since humans walked this earth. Every society uses theoretical
knowledge that it turns to a useful good, to useful knowledge. It is impossible
for humans to survive without this body of theoretical knowledge. It is
impossible for humans to survive by denying the basic scientific principles. It
is impossible to survive by denying reality, humans need to eat and they can
not just eat anything.
Food,
the need to eat shows us that at the very basic, humans have no time for
pretense, they understand this plant will kill them if they eat it, no amount
of pretense in calling mysticism will change the reality that a poisonous plant
is poison, so mystics touch other things to confuse and control people. However,
it is important to note, that at the very basics, food, humans use the
scientific principles, otherwise humans would eat whatever pleases them because
if the mystics where true the laws of the universe would be meaningless,
everything would be by will, if you want to turn water into wine, why not water
into diesel, depending on the times, when wine was expensive turn water into
wine, when diesel is expensive turn water into diesel.
At the
very basics, what humans put into their stomach, since humans walked this earth
has been about the scientific process, it has been about accepting that some
plants can cause fatality and some plants do not. It is best not to have a
relationship with plants that humans have identified as poisonous. There is
this thread in mythology and in mystic thoughts that it was the gods that
taught humans what is poison and what is not. Even then, the gods showed humans
science, if they where all powerful why did they not just command say this
prayer and the poison will go from the plants. Why don’t these shamans say dance
until your feet fall off and the poison will be removed from these plants and
they will be edible, or better still, one will be immune. This is because
prayer and all this other mystical stuff will never change the poisonous plant
from being poison.
It is
the human understanding from first principles, relationships with food that the
mind and the investigative process is about a better survival. Even if survival
is random there is a limit to mystical stuff, because the mystical stuff can
not remove the poison from a poisonous plant, there would be no humans left to
worship the gods if eating plants was about a prayer not tested reality and the
application of the principles everything is in a relationship, it is such that
some plants have highly toxic relationships with human beings when ingested.
The
tool of the human being to survive from the very beginning was not the mystical,
it was the acceptance of the reality of the material in front of them. The
reality of the material in front of them provided food, shelter and clothing.
Accepting
this reality, if one accepts that food is about what can be ingested, about
material that has an agreeable relationship with humans ingesting it and
benefiting from ingesting that material has nothing to do with anything but the
material, and anybody by observation could find this nourishment. The first
humans knew it was their judgement that ultimately ensured they did not eat
poison, and there was no way around this fact except to accept a principle for
what it is. This knowledge would be passed on to their offspring.
From
the beginning, to survive, humans had to be true to themselves about
relationships they had with their surroundings and take the surroundings for
what they are. No amount of denying reality or implanting illusions in ones
mind will make a poisonous plant non poisonous, it is best to avoid such a
plant unless it possesses some other property useful to humans, some other
property that will induce human beings to have a relationship with that plant.
Today humans
are far in time and knowledge from the first human beings who had to judge a
plant for what it is since the time before humans built such a close
relationship with fire. It is about accepting reality for what it is, that
relationships are governed by principles and no amount of denying the
principles will make the principles work. A thing or a principle is what it is
and humans can only deal with it by accepting that any relationship with that
thing must be for what that thing is. One can not wish for a healthy
relationship with what is poisonous to humans, the principles of reality will
just not allow that.
We now
understand something that would not be possible had not the first humans
accepted the reality that this plant is edible, and this plant is not. That is
why they gave their enemies poison. We understand that everything is in a
relationship and all relationships need energy to maintain them ensuring
structure to that relationship. This is true for every relationship, thus for
everything that exists as everything is in a relationship and these
relationships began before the big bang, before there where particles, the
material that created the particles is where relationships began. Most of the
relationships have very similar characteristics and some of the greatest human
innovations have been to mimic nature, understand it and mimic it for the
benefit of humans.
Take
heat, in the universe it comes directly from the stars, the stars burn in a
mostly predictable way. Release of energy from a star is mostly predictable
thanks to minds of the past. The stars are a reactor giving predictable amounts
of energy. Bodies of mammals release predictable amounts of energy most often
at a basic level, that is why different mammalian species function optimally at
certain temperatures.
Controlling
fire is to make sure it releases energy in a location at a certain temperature
is merely mimicking our bodies and the sun. Even if humans did not understand
it, but that essentially was what controlling fire was about, the controlled
predictable release of energy. Our bodies to produce heat rely on chemical
reactions withing our biological bodies, the fuel comes from food. We know the
heat is predictable because since time immemorial people have known how long it
takes for something to cook.
When
early humans learnt how to control fire, they learnt to mimic the sun, their
own bodies and other mammalian bodies, keeping the source of heat in a definite
location. Location implies a relationship. The fire was coming from the wood
that the humans had placed and lit in a certain location, making sure the fire does
not spread and burn the whole cave or hut. All debris was cleared around the
fire to increase the chances of it being controlled by human beings.
It was
the open desire to fly like the birds that led humans to have aeroplanes today.
Humans did not hide the desire to fly was out of the wish to mimic birds, but
humans can now send instruments outside the relationship with the gravity of
the earth, from the open desire to mimic birds. Mimicking nature is possible
because all relationships have the same underlying principles around them. What
then is the greatest scientific achievement human beings could possibly ever
achieve given that everything is in a relationship and we often mimic our
surroundings, because we have a relationship with our surroundings and our
surroundings inspire us.
Our
entire material progress has been about understanding relationships, and we
know all these relationships are random. Looking at relationships themselves is
also a relationship, the reality that everything is in a relationship and all
relationships take energy to maintain. At any point in time a relationship is
random. It can not be strongly emphasised how this must be taken with utmost
seriousness, for if humans are to get there and appreciate the greatness of
what is possible and steer away from their minds half hearted grotesque
attempts because the real achievement is seems too difficult. The achievement
must be a culmination of our scientific knowledge, by culmination of our
scientific knowledge it implies that our greatest scientific achievement will
be using key relationships in all the knowledge we have learnt at a given
moment.
Every
new truth, especially a scientific truth, something with experimental backing
pushes back the boundaries of what we can achieve because it increases our
imagination. Our imagination is influenced by our surroundings and the
relationship society has in that location with knowledge. Our imagination is
influenced by our relationships with the world outside ourselves. What are the
boundaries of our imagination given that everything is in a relationship all
relationships need energy to maintain, as well as need energy or lack of to break?
Who
will find this knowledge that will give us the greatest scientific achievement possible?
That answer is clear from the nature of relationships, all relationships are
random. The best system would be the one that accepts knowledge is random and
encourages anybody who is equal to the challenge on increasing the knowledge
base to participate. This not only increases the chances of finding new
knowledge but also brings a culture of acceptance that all are just humans.
The idea
of life has always fascinated human beings. With our increasing knowledge base
some have been fascinated with creating life, the greatest mimicking of nature.
Life is our greatest gift, and mystics have used life in their methodology
since a very long time. Entities raising the dead, giving them back their most
precious gift, only something so powerful can manage to do that. The idea of
one being able to give one’s life for a cause has always represented the
ultimate dedication to an ideal, to a cause.
Stories
of human beings with such power they can create life has always abounded,
zombies, risen from the dead, Frankenstein. As knowledge progressed, we started
human transplants, a transplant leading to some to say humans have created
life. Supposedly so, without that heart transplant one would have surely died.
Test
tube babies came about with the advancement of knowledge, surely now humans
have created life. As knowledge continued growing scientists realised one could
play with the biological building blocks of life, the genes. This knowledge has
changed the expectations from society about the possibilities of the future.
Once we
have knowledge, and write it down, find a store for that knowledge so that it
can be passed on it becomes timeless with that society. It is there a member of
that society has access to that knowledge without having to reinvestigate. One
member having access to that knowledge means the entire society has access to
that knowledge, this is why society needs to allow anybody willing to take up
the challenge of getting to reality and how we can exploit that reality for our
best benefit. This means hat society has access to that knowledge of the one
member who has that knowledge.
We know
there is access to knowledge that can understand genetics to such depth that
people believe in the future humans are close to creating beasts that have not
yet existed in nature that we have seen with our eyes. We have seen such
pictures in for example Egyptian hieroglyphics, in many legends these creatures
that are made up of more than one creature. Head of an eagle and body of a
lion. Upper body of a human and body of a hoarse, body of a snake and the end
of it a human being, creatures truly exotic to this earth. That is manipulating
with genes and not creating life. To create life is to give something a life
force, manipulating genes is manipulating the basics of life, they are already
there.
That we
could get to everything is in a relationship and it starts with the particle
allowed us to realize that if everything is in a relationship and it starts
with the particle the particle itself must be a creation from a relationship.
This we know from the creation of neutrinos and evidence from the biggest
science experiment of them all, colliders.
For
humans to truly create life is a very long process and we are far from it. Our
existence starts because of the big bang, our reality. There was existence
before the big bang. Because we know when the big bang occurred, it too is a
result of relationships. Particles did not just appear from nowhere; they are
all made of the same stuff that has been called konke. For humans to ever claim
they have created life, they can at the very least start from the particle. That
means there is still an enormous amount of knowledge for human beings to
acquire if ever we are to truly believe the headlines, humans have created life.
By the
nature of the universe we get knowledge from back to front, we started with the
tree and have ended up with what came before, the particle. For humans to truly
claim they have created life they must then start with the particle and work
their way up, that will justify the vanity of claiming to have created life.
It is
all about understanding relationships, what where the relationships that
created the particle? That is the first question to be asked if humans are ever
to achieve this greatest of feats, creating life in any meaningful way
befitting the boast. Creating life is one great achievement after another
scientifically speaking.
All
particles are made up of the same stuff that has been termed konke. Understanding
this konke and the period just before the big bang, humans will understand the
relationships that allowed this konke to have the relationships that led to a
particle. These relationships gave each basic particle mass and its
characteristics. Characteristics of basic particles can be said to be
determined by mass. That is why particles of the same mass are classified as
such and such a type of particle.
Creating
a particle would be a great achievement no doubt. But those particles must be
put together to make an atom. Making an atom itself will deserve many awards
and great recognition. Humans must then take those atoms and create molecules.
After these great achievements to at any time boast they have created life,
from those molecules they must create a living cell, the proteins,
carbohydrates,, combine it all to make a living cell, no doubt this would be a
fantastic milestone. Far greater a milestone than splicing genes and looking
for a way to mix humans and jaguars, or snakes and lions. Creating a cell, then,
and only then can humans claim to have created life.
With
greater and greater practice, humans create germs and viruses, a multi celled
creature until finally they can make at the very least a mammal, or a baobab
tree starting of with creating the particles that go into that mammal. This
indeed would be one if not the greatest scientific achievement, a combination
of most of our scientific disciplines. We then will be able to say we have
mimicked nature we have created complex life.
Bhekuzulu
Khumalo
If you like what you read, be generous if you can it will be appreciated
