Material Progress and Everything is in a Relationship

 

The podcast can be found here: Material Progress and Everything is in a Relationship

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