Human

   

  

  F  I  R  E

 Learning to make a fire was a must skill.

Like learning to drive a car, it was

a rite of passage.

H  E  A  T

 

Flames to warm cold nights and

cook foods till they are tender.

Turn tough tubers into tasty potatoes.

Meat becomes hot and juicy.

You ain't a real caveman until

you've got the knack for making a 

decent fire.

The next step is to fashion a pot 

for cooking over flames.  That means

using metal that is mined from the ground.

You will also need people experienced at

fashioning tools from metal.

What are you using for transportation?

What do you use for money?

Suddenly things begin getting complicated.

A society develops.  There are roads to link

towns.  A civilization forms around people

with a common language and heritage.

It's the time-honored birds of a feather rule.

C  R  A  N  I  U  M

It can be troubling to find our distant relatives

showing up in the ground around us.

The Ancient Ones appear so unrefined,

with their peg teeth and brutish brows.

Also, they aren't much for foreheads.

But they still overcame.

Compared to the other two, the guy on the

left has a ridiculously large cranium.

For tens of thousands of years the human

species walked around using their 

rocket science brains to play with yoyos.

They also turned to the night sky

with questions.

The discovery that we possess such a mind,

ranks as one of the most consequential

revelations in human history.

 

 D E X T E R I T Y

Humans are ready made to use Legos.

Our thumbs can touch the hand's

smallest, opposing finger.  

No other primate can do this.

For them, the need isn't there.

Chimpanzees strip leaves from a twig

to gather up termites living in a hole.

Humans create containers for water

requiring numerous tools and 

exacting skills.

The hand is engineered to meet the mind's 

own dexterity.  Solutions are made with

hammers, saws, and screwdrivers while 

often having to work in cramped, dark spaces. 

 

A  B  S  T  R  A  C  T

 

The human mind wanders into areas

that allow us to imagine what is not,

in place of all the immediate details

of the present here and now.  Imagination

enables us to visualize a landscape

that is modified for human purpose.

Ideas with no tangible form are 

conceptualized.  Reason

itself may have no words.

And all this may be to serve up

little more than nonsense,

for the purpose of entertainment.

We must have our amusements.

  

A  I      G  E  N  E  R  A  T  E  D

     The good news is we are being replaced by

the best and the brightest.  The world will be

a scientific marvel, witnessed only by agents

that take on the human form, in honor of

the ancient ones that once lived in

the Period of Biological Life.

 

 

  

*   *   *   *   *

©  Tom Taylor

 

OVER   EASY

 

  

coldValentine

Good Morning Jessicca...

Letter to my Daughter
Sunday, 19 January

What it means to be human

Good Morning Jessicca…

Numbers and words have no existence outside the human mind.  A world without people reveals no evidence as to the validity of these concepts of intellect.  Until recently the surface of the planet Mars simply existed, without the need to account for itself in any way that might be construed as a reason for being.  Then came machines.  They crawl about the land of Mars, occasionally stopping to break its surface and dig into the soil.  They were sent by humans inhabiting the neighboring planet Earth.  These mechanical devices are missionaries that bring the first evidence that there now exists a mental construction, fashioned from words, which humans refer to as meaning.  These roving devices are precise constructions of a preconceived purpose.  Purpose is like numbers and words.  The idea of purpose is of no consequence outside the boundaries of the individual human mind.  This mind is unique in a number of ways.  It is self-aware and wonders of the nature of its own existence.  The mind is a form of consciousness that endlessly explores itself and its perceived surroundings, armed with a revolutionary potent tool – the question.  The question is a mental device that goes beyond the biological instinct known as curiosity because it is based on a formally constructed purpose we will call intent.  Questions displaying intent rely on the analytical words how and why as well as specific fact-seeking words such as what, when and where. The intent-based question requires another tool unique to human consciousness.  This is a tool fashioned from a capability human’s have developed over time and we’ve termed it reason.  Reason is a concept founded on the growing belief that every object and every event in existence is the result of one or more specific causes and that this cause-and-effect phenomenon is potentially predictable because existence is fundamentally neither random nor arbitrary.  The human mind has grown increasingly confident that the brain’s ability to reason makes understanding existence within the realm of possibility. 

Why did human beings go to the expense and trouble of sending a machine to Mars?  There are many reasons having to do with the intent to answer arcane scientific questions and to further develop human technological capabilities but, uppermost in most people’s mind, is the question whether life has existed on another planet.  If it is determined that no life ever existed on Mars then the question becomes, “If not Mars, where?”  If, on the other hand, life or its remnants have been proven to exist on Mars then the minds of human beings are flooded with new questions.  We humans find renewed motivation to speculate on numerous intriguing avenues of possibilities.  What is the source of life?  Are there other forms of consciousness comparable to ours?  Do they believe in God?  If not, why?  If yes, then what is the nature of their God?  Is the concept of God inherent to the thought of higher consciousness?  If God is absent in the consciousness of others then what does that imply about human spiritual beliefs?  Does our hope for God’s existence have to do with our desire for meaning in life?  What is the nature of meaning without God?  A machine searching the sands of Mars for evidence of life is invested with the meaning of what it is to be human.  We don’t want to be alone.  We want our lives to have purpose beyond generating our biological offspring.  We want something of greater value than just merely existing.  The many monuments we have created throughout human history – churches, statues, a flag on the Moon, a simple blue ribbon – all have to do with instilling in us the value of meaning.  We matter.  No one celebrates the life of an individual sparrow.  Who mourns the rose separated from its stem? 

Numbers and words – we have each a name.  We each count the length of our solitary existence and share our sentiments with those close to us.  We all have ingenuity, love, happiness and fear that together makes us each somewhat unique.  Here, then, is the kernel of our meaning – modest as it may seem.

Love,

         Dad