Words&Dirt

“Regardless of cultural influences, what turns the brain on is still predominantly, though not exclusively, personal: sensory pleasure, love, family, friendship, wealth, material possessions, security, social status, emotional expression, art, sport, spirituality, and so on.  And in order for us to experience all these things, we must first survive and reproduce; hence, two of our strongest instincts are to live and to have sex.  Regardless of technological and social influences, it is just about impossible to change this situation as long as we remain human.  We should consider it appropriate that Thomas Jefferson–-a person with vast learning and a rational intellect full of the Enlightenment spirit––felt that ‘the happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.’

Even our concept of utopia, the notion of an egalitarian world of perpetual bliss and high-quality living, reflects the largely unchanging preferences of our brains.  Utopian images have not changed that much from antiquity.  From the Cockaigne (the medieval European mythical land of plenty) to American nineteenth-century utopianism to today’s affluent societies, our ideal picture of society remains one of basically limitless food and wine, leisure, freedom from worry, carefree indulgence, satisfying sex and romance, sports, music, and theater.  It’s a vision much like today’s lifestyles of the elite and the super-rich, minus the toil and psychological stress of maintaining that lifestyle but without the usual gross inequality––a place where everyone lives like a harmonious family without discrimination or exploitation.

Such images of ultimate happiness are very revealing.  Far from being a blank all-purpose computer, the human brain is genetically preprogrammed with specific drives, capacities, and instincts that are predetermined by its peculiar physical organization.  In particular, the brain has one dominating purpose––sex––just like that of any sexually reproduced species.  In his provocative essay What Are Brains For? the neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga says, ‘I would argue that the cathedrals we build, the books we read and write, the science we create, the cars we drive, the stocks we buy and sell, all of the mergers, the politics, and the wars we wage––in short, everything that constitutes the intricate web of life we have constructed around ourselves with our amazingly large brains––serve a very simple purpose.  Sex.’

You may find Gazzaniga’s statement extreme, and I would agree, but the point is that we should distinguish between what the brain is for and what it is capable of.  Most of us growing up and living in today’s society are not consciously aware that we are programmed by nature to have sex and reproduce.  in fact, many of us seem to be too preoccupied with other things that have sex––career, family, friends, food, entertainment, etc.––and this is especially true for those past middle age.  Actually Gazzaniga’s point is not difficult to grasp.  One can point to the scientific and artistic accomplishments as evidence that we have risen above our animal roots, but the roots have not been removed.”

––Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential: A Cosmic Vision for Our Future Evolution, by Ted Chu, pg. 159-60

“‘You wondered why I gave you the empty gun.  Why not?  I had another one in my bag.  Like this.’

Her right hand came up from her coat pocket and she pointed it at me.

I grinned.  It may not have been the heartiest grin in the world, but it was a grin.

‘I’ve never liked this scene,’ I said. ‘Detective confronts murderer.  Murderer produces gun, points same at detective.  Murder tells detective the whole sad story, with the idea of shooting him at the end of it.  Thus wasting a lot of valuable time, even if in the end murderer did shoot detective.  Only murderer never does.  Something always happens to prevent it.  The gods don’t like this scene either.  They always manage to spoil it.’

‘But this time,’ she said softly and got up and moved towards me softly across the carpet, ‘suppose we make it a little different.  Suppose I don’t tell you anything and nothing happens and I do shoot you?’

‘I still wouldn’t like the scene,’ I said.”

––The Lady in the Lake, by Raymond Chandler, pg. 209-10