In 1973, Jacob Bronowski copyrighted The Ascent of Man. The word, ascent, implies upward movement as in the phrase to ascend the stairs. Whereas ascent implies movement along the vertical axis, progress could be understood as movement along the horizontal axis. In both cases movement is the change from one position to another position. This is, if you will, a change relative to some point of origin. Change relative to a point of origin as expressed along the horizontal is easily displayed by the mathematical number line which is commonly known as the X axis:
Movement from 0 (the point of origin on the X axis) to the point labeled 4 constitutes a change of 4 units. This is all very elementary and in being so elementary is the best reason to use it to begin my reflections concerning sex, humanity and food. Movement from 0 to -4 is also a movement of 4 units. Mathematicians do not judge 4 to be better or worse than -4 nor is -4 better than or worse than 4. Mathematics is neutral. It is nonjudgmental and merely describes the state of things regarding quantity and position. What is true about the X axis is also true about the Y axis which easily describes the movement from the point of origin in a vertical direction either up or down. It is also elementary that the X axis combined with the Y axis defines two dimensional space. If we add the Z axis which intersects both the X axis and the Y axis at the point of origin such that it is perpendicular to both, then we have the basic coordinate system that describes three dimensional space. The number of points along the X axis is immense (infinite to be exact). When we combine the X axis and the Y axis together we have a far greater number. Our biggest, baddest, most awesome super computer cannot name (count) all of the points on the X axis, let alone all of the points on the X axis and the Y axis nor all of the points within the area of two dimensional space. Now grasp the magnitude of three dimensional space. We are not capable of counting each and every point, but we can locate any one point or selected points if we so desire by using formulas, mathematical conventions and processes to find what we seek. The language of mathematics which has been developing over time allows us to cope with the infinity of infinity.
Language is powerful. The language of mathematics has allowed individuals to wrap an individual in a space suit (more than one individual to be exact), place him or her in a space ship, launch this traveler from Earth to fly to the moon, land, step out and walk or ride on the moon. However, and this is critical, the language of mathematics is neutral. It does not make judgment calls. Minus 4 is the same as plus 4. The only difference is the direction of movement from the point of origin. I want to hammer home the neutrality of the mathematics.
If I want to describe movement from -4 to +4, I can express this movement with the mathematical sentence: -4 + X = +4 and then resolve this sentence as follows:
-4 + X = +4 [original sentence]
+ 4 -4 + X = +4 + 4 [Adding 4 to both sides of the equation
does not change the equation (basic
algebra)]
0 + X = + 8 [+ 4 – 4 = 0; + 4 + 4 = + 8]
X = + 8 [resolution]
In this instance -4 is the point of origin as the starting point of our movement. If we work the movement in the opposite direction we have the following:
+ 4 + X = -4 [original sentence]
+4 – 4 + X = -4 – 4 [Subtracting 4 to both sides of the
equation does not change the equation
(basic algebra)]
0 + X = – 8 [+ 4 – 4 = 0; – 4 – 4 = – 8]
X = – 8 [resolution]
Remember + 8 and – 8 are no better nor worse in magnitude. The plus (+) and the minus (-) only tell the direction of the movement (accurately). One movement is 8 units to the right and the other movement is 8 units to the left. No judgment is made to determine if it is better to move to the left or if it is better to move to the right. It is eight units either way. However, the word ‘ascent’ in the Ascent of Man feels like it implies something inherently beneficial or good in Man ascending to a position higher than his point of origin. In this country, this apparent implication comes not from the language of mathematics. Instead, it comes from our English language. Judgments, the discussions and/or debates concerning issues involving a required judgment are the province of the general language of the culture, society or nation in which the judgments are rendered. The language of mathematics mapped the path and critically facilitated the design of the tools needed to get to the moon from the surface of the Earth. It was the facility of the English language, however, that rendered the judgment that it was beneficial to have such a trip as a goal in the first place even before all of the needed mathematical calculations had been compiled.
The magnitude of reflecting upon sex, humanity and food feels like contending with every point that fills three dimensional space. Actually, Earth only occupies a very small, perhaps only a minuscule part of the actual area encompassed by three dimensional space. When I compare my self to Earth as a physical object, Earth is immensely immense especially when I am standing outside in the middle of a big field, but in truth, Earth is only a tiny speck in our Milky Way galaxy which is only one of many galaxies in the universe. This fact does not mean that humanity by itself does not occupy an infinite amount of points to identify when reflecting upon it.
Consider just one unit of movement along the X axis, the unit of movement from 0 to 1. The point half way from 0 to 1 is one half ( 1/2 ). The half way point between 0 and one half ( 1/2 ) is one quarter ( 1/4 ). Between 0 and 1/4 is 1/8. Between 0 and 1/8 is 1/16. Do you see the pattern? There is always a point half way between any two points. If you work this out to its crazy conclusion, you will discover that there are an infinite number of points between 0 and 1.
To translate this into general English: When considering one element of an array of related elements, that one element will have multiple elements which constitutes its formation. Each of those multiple elements may have elements of their own. Sex, humanity and food are three elements that have multiple elements which constitutes their individual domain and each of those elements within each domain may have elements of their own and so forth and so on just like the movement form 0 to 1 has an infinite set of points. But I do not have to reconcile all of the points between 0 and 1 if I want to get to 4. All I need to understand is that I must travel through 1, 2, and 3 to get to 4 and that all of those units each have the same magnitude (and the magnitude is infinite).
I am not going to discern or even name all of the elements present in sex or humanity or food but I am seeking to travel down a path that has a point of origin and an end point. All reflections come to an end, but I have never had a reflection that exhausted any issue completely. That is a good omen because such a condition reflects the fact that I am still learning and developing, even now as I am moving to my point of exit.
Reproduction is critical to the survival of the species. Human beings are biologically divided into males and females. To reproduce offspring necessary for the species to survive, males and females must both participate in the process of producing more human individuals. This would have been a simple statement 400 years ago. I could have easily written at that time: It takes a man and a woman to make a baby. Now, with the LGBTQ+ awareness, sexual identity is not so easily defined. More importantly, sexual identity is not the defining quality of the individual. I would have said ‘human personality’ but I mean something more inclusive than the psychological. Before I tumble into a chaotic discourse, I must admit that I have jumped way ahead of my point of origin. I am more toward the end point when talking about the reality of LGBTQ+ awareness.
Back to the point of origin. The natural mechanism of the biological reproduction of a human baby is the sperm and the egg. At this point in time, even if fertilization occurs in a test tube, the egg and the sperm are required. The egg is female and the sperm is male. This fact was true in the time of Plato’s Socrates. It was true thousands of years before them. In fact, this is my point of origin.
Our bipedal ancestors living among the animals as mammals had no name for themselves. They had no name for themselves because the voice box had not moved to the spot it now occupies in the biology of our ancestors that began the process of developing a spoken language. The point of origin for this reflection is the time when our primate ancestors lived among the other animals as animals themselves before language, before tools, before fire and villages. At this point of origin, there was no word for male or female. They did not (and this is important) label themselves as males and females. They acted as males and females nonetheless. Our very existence is proof of that observation.
The obviousness of this fact is like the elementary aspect of the number line. The realities that are most obvious to the great majority of individuals serve as excellent points of origin. At this point of origin regarding our reflection of sex, individuals are sexual beings who sexually act but, more than likely, did not give it too much (if any) consideration. The process of reproduction necessary for the continuation of the species simply occurred naturally without fanfare. The critical aspect at our point of origin regarding sexuality is that the desire for sexual activity is hardwired in our biology. Since it is so critical for the continuation of the species, the drive (extreme motivation) to act sexually is extremely strong and is pretty much commanded by the biology as is evident to the great majority of all individuals. Again it is most obvious and apparent once the individual enters puberty. Experiencing puberty is not a choice. Biology takes over. Girls enter their menstrual cycle and boys have wet dreams. Individuals do not choose to be sexual creatures. The biology of the individual forces the issue.
Choice enters into sexuality when the individual is confronted by his or her biology and the actions each individual employs to cope with those biological demands. As we were then, are we, still now, most like the animals in the wild regarding our sexual behavior? If not, then how do we differ? If we have significantly changed, then can we discern what facilitated that change? These are questions that may be best laid aside for the moment until we move a bit further through our reflection, but it is most important to note that we can and have posed these questions.
The point of origin for food is quite simple. We have never not needed to eat. From birth we have needed to consume organic matter (food). As mammals we are first dependent on the organic matter presented to us by our mothers by way of breast milk. From there we begin to demonstrate our tendency to be omnivores. However, did the same distant ancestors which we defined at the point of origin regarding sex start out as herbivores to branch out into being carnivores at times and finally become the omnivores of today? Regardless of what they ate, they had to eat organic matter because mammals are not primary producers on the food chain. They cannot ingest inorganic matter and convert such raw material into the energy-enriched food stuffs needed to carry on our bodily functions. What organic matter was consumed in the earliest years of our ancestors may become more easily discernible as this reflection unfolds itself.
This brings us to the third major element of this reflection, humanity. The point of origin for humanity may be the most illusive. I am not sure that I have, myself, perceived the point where humanity began or begins. Perhaps seeking this point of origin is the driving force behind my reflection? Is the point of origin for humanity when we gained language or when we began making tools or when we began settling in villages or maybe when we painted on cave walls for the first time? Is there a defining element of humanity which could illuminate its point of origin?
In my lifetime I have noted an insult that has been levied toward individuals who have been perceived to have acted badly. The insult is in the form of an observation — “You are acting like an animal,” or ” He (or she) acts like an animal.” It can also come in the form of an imperative — “Don’t act like an animal.” The implication is that our humanity is what separates us from all of the other animals.
If we assert that human beings are in fact significantly different from all other animals of Earth, then the obvious route to take would be to answer the question, “How are we uniquely different from all other animals?” Once this question is answered, an evaluation must be made to ascertain if such differences are significant. The point of origin for the emergence of humanity would be the point where individuals began to act significantly different from all animals. That significant difference would be somehow much more than a sexual or foraging matter. We can cut to the chase by first focusing on how we are different from all other animals. If we can discern no significant differences then we have answered our quest — humanity is not a distinction of significance.
Did our humanity exist before we became enthralled with tool use and tool making? Again, it is too obvious. No other animal species has become tool makers, manufacturers of machines or the builders of concrete jungles. And, yes, this distinction is significant. Is the point of origin for the emergence of early humanity the point where the first individual used the first tool or where he or she manufactured the first tool?
The use of an object as a tool from the surrounding environment is dependent upon the individual discerning the nature of the given object and how that aspect of said object could function as a tool to affect the desired result. This behavior demonstrates that this individual’s thinking processes are beginning to move in potentially new directions. Is humanity a cognitive process, a process in which we begin to think differently from all of the other animals?
Hunger, the drive to eat, motivates us to seek out food. The drive to reproduce motivates us to seek out a sexual partner. What drives us to think? Is the process of thinking driven by the need to eat or the need to locate a sexual partner? Hunger and sex are common to all animal species and are driven by strong, very strong biological commands to act accordingly but thinking appears to be something significantly different. Did our mental processes used to acquire food and to alleviate our sexual drive begin to be applied in other pursuits?
Is it perhaps more accurate to understand humanity as being the outcome of the interplay of more than one of the elements that constitutes what we are? Is humanity the interaction of several aspects of biological functions with thinking being part of that array?
During my elementary and high school days, human language was the most distinguishing element of the human animal. However, during my college and adult years certain primates have learned some American Sign Language and have communicated with humans. Dolphin sounds are being studied with the intention to discover if these sounds collectively form a language and if so, then what are the structural components of that language. This presents the question, “Does our language behavior significantly distinguish us form the other animals?” Certainly, our written language and our libraries full of books, especially from texts thousands of years ago, distinguishes us from all other animals. Language, however, especially written language, is about symbol making. Symbol making is about attaching meaning. Symbols represent something that is meaningful.
Enter the cave wall paintings of our ancient ancestors. The one that Jacob Bronowski highlighted (and I believe he did so correctly) was the simple print of a human hand. Perhaps this is the first recorded human signature. Perhaps this is the recorded point of origin for the emergence of humanity. To me this hand print quietly asserts the emergence of consciousness. Consciousness exists when the individual is aware of him or her self as unique in the world and the relationship that exists between the individual and the other living beings in his or her world. Humanity cannot exist without consciousness. Humanity flourishes as the individual reflects upon his or her consciousness.
Consciousness is about awareness. Hunger stimulates the drive to eat and motivates the individual to act. Awareness aids the individual’s pursuit to locate and procure the food needed to fend off death by starvation. Hunger moves the individual to hunt. Successful hunting is about the individual’s powers of awareness. From the massive amount of diverse visual stimuli presented in the forest to the individual, the hunter must pull out any small movement of the camouflaged prey or the hunter must see and recognize the foot print of the animal being hunted. Tracking an animal requires a large amount of awareness on the part of the hunter reading various signs of the passage and trail left by the prey — scat, tree rubbings, pawing of the ground and of course the animal tracks. Awareness is not consciousness but consciousness does not exist without awareness. When the hunter becomes aware of and gives meaning to scat found lying on the ground and tree rubbings where a buck has rubbed his antlers or the ground pawing where a doe has urinated to attract bucks and then gives meaning to all of these signs, his consciousness grows.
Reflecting upon the various elements of my awareness stimulates the possibility of perceiving meaningful relationships which, when discovered, increases my consciousness. So, hunger motivates the individual to act (hunt); awareness allows the hunter to gain better experience; reflecting enhances the probability of finding meaning in the experience and, consequentially, consciousness expands. The experienced hunter has a greater consciousness of the animals hunted than the beginner or novice. It is my view that the ancient cave wall paintings are collectively the expression of our early ancestors’ consciousness. The hand print however is the point of origin of the individual’s consciousness of himself in a very dramatic way.
I searched the internet for “ancient cave wall paintings” to attempt to get some guidance of facts as accepted by my contemporary times. What I found in my hasty, cursory search was information on “The Oldest Cave Paintings in the World.” The information was organized from the earliest (6300 BC – 3000 BC) to the oldest (35,600 years ago). This oldest cave is located in Spain and was discovered by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola. The name of the cave is the Altamira Cave and the information listed ochre and charcoal images of handprints, bison and horses. The incredible quality of these images led to an argument in which some thought the images were too good to be true and therefore might have been fraudulent. In 1902 these images were given the seal of authenticity.
Not being a professional archeologist, I leave the search for ancient artifacts and the ensuing discussions concerning the dating and authenticity of the various finds to the professionals. However, I am a curious individual who is interested in the history of humankind’s presence upon Earth. As such I have availed myself of various publications and texts concerning the subject. In my readings, I have encountered the recording of the phenomenon known as Piltdown Man in the book, Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes by Stephen Jay Gould. Piltdown Man was a paleoanthropological hoax that lasted about 41 years before it was finally declared to be a forgery. I mention this fraud because:
1) I may cite facts that are or will be proven to be inaccurate,
2) humankind’s consciousness is still developing,
3) Earth was once thought to be flat, and
4) individuals should always remember that every person
regardless of his or her profession or position and regardless
of any other element or characteristic is always an entity
composed of both light and dark forces in opposing tension
affecting every personal decision.
The issue here is not an accurate chronology of archeological history. The issue is the location of the point of origin of the onset of humankind’s humanity that distinguishes humankind from all other animals. If the dating of the cave wall paintings in Altamira Cave is correct, then the handprints on those walls are the oldest known record of humankind recognizing its handprint as significantly different from the human figures presented in all other cave wall paintings. What is the significance? It is the individual claiming individuality, claiming uniqueness from the generic representations of humans depicted in the general activities of the times, and it is poetic that the hand was chosen to be highlighted because the opposing thumb is a critical biological distinction from all other animals in the world that has allowed humankind to become massive users of tools and tool makers. I cannot know for sure if the individual who immortalized his or her handprint was aware of the significance of the hand, but it can be easily asserted that the individual knew the difference between his or her handprint and all other representations of “people” in his or her world at the time. Lastly, the “artist” was definitely moved to put his or her handprint on the wall of the cave where other images were considered to be important enough to be recorded. The handprint, his or her handprint, was considered meaningful. The self enters into this individual’s consciousness. When the self is recognized as unique and valuable from all other elements in the environment, then humanity begins to emerge.
This being the case, it can be argued that the first burial ceremony would be the depiction of the individual as a unique, meaningful individual worthy of respect and not left to be eaten by scavenger animals. According to another of my hasty, cursory internet searches, Neanderthals intentionally dug graves and buried the dead.
Ker Than wrote, “Neanderthal Burials Confirmed as Ancient Ritual” for National Geographic which was published December 16, 2013. In this article he wrote:
“The site at La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France, however, has always been something of a question mark. In 1908, two brothers who were also archeologists uncovered the 50,000-year-old Neanderthal skeleton in the cave, and almost immediately they speculated that the remains were intentionally buried. But a lack of information about the excavation procedures used by the Bouyssonie brothers—as well as the fact that they were Catholic priests—caused many skeptics to wonder if the discovery had been misinterpreted.
In 1999, French researchers reexamined the site. Their excavations, which concluded in 2012, showed that the depression where the skeleton was found was at least partially modified to create a grave.”
Wikipedia states that Neanderthals walked on Earth sometime between 400,000 to 40,000 years ago. The El Castillo Cave has the oldest dated handprint at 35,500 BCE.
Humanity is about consciousness. Consciousness is about reflection, specifically about reflections by the individual upon the awarenesses that he or she has gained. Consciousness has the capacity to expand but capacity is not a predetermination to expand. Expansion is a matter of choice.
Awareness is about collecting details and reflecting. Meaning emerges out of that reflection and the individual becomes conscious of the meaning of related details within his or her awareness. As the individual’s consciousness expands, the individual begins to perceive different choices. As decisions are made and related actions are taken, the individual then has the opportunity to reflect upon the outcome(s) of the action(s) taken. In this fashion, consciousness expands. At any level, at any stage in this process the individual can choose to not reflect. The individual can choose to not seek out new details to consider. During this whole process, the individual can act randomly and not choose to consciously look for or seek differences in the environment. Expansion is a choice of action or inaction and which path to take. The expansion of one’s humanity, in my understanding, is about the Decision-Making Coin.