Mana'GENE'ing the Future

Janta Curfew- Opportunity for Random thoughts

Locked down in the four walls of my house, I must thank Narendra Modi for giving me a mental break from the mundane things in my life. What intrigues me is the unexpected (Covid- 19) which has played around with my expected way of life. 

What’s the expected way for humans. By humans, I mean the animal called ‘human’. Before ‘Man’ claimed to be the master of this world, there was a tiny little thing called a ‘Gene’ which ruled our lives. The gene believes in simplicity: Be born, get nurtured by parents till adulthood, empower yourself with things to sustain yourself, find a mate/ mates (depending upon brawns), have babies, nurture them and wait for the inevitable. Now that’s how simple life was. It was universally accepted and followed. The main contention in this flow of life was ‘survival’. You had animals to eat you up, climates to heat you up and vagaries of nature to screw you up. You get food, you survive. You get a mate, your lineage survives. You get both and a civilization survives. To quote Lord of the Rings “One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them” In our context the ring was a double helical structure “the DNA”. The DNA ruled every aspect of our life.

Humans ruled by Genes

Then enters ‘Homo Sapien’ part of us into the evolution equation. This chapter of Homo Sapiens comes with the pre-frontal cortex and the other part of the brain which is logical and leads to creation of Pythagoras theorems, Laws of motions and every scientific theory that we as children dreaded. The ‘Consciousness’ gave us the power to rule the world. The Sapien evolved from Genghis Khan and Alexander who wanted to rule the world. What does Rule the world even mean? Alexander wanted his name to be etched in history to be the Ruler of the world or have the sense of power over Sapiens across the world. Let’s dig a little deeper. What is this sense of power that we as humans are so crazy about? Power to drive changes, power to achieve greatness, power to be superior or power to reflect individualism over collectivism. I can go on peeling the onion of power. In its bare minimum, I think it is the ability to forge the future that drives today’s Homo Sapien. The Genghis Khan of today- Jeff Bezos or the Alexander of tomorrow- Elon Musk have changed the territories of success and bars of power. Today each child is driven with the passion to do something about our lives and future. For Indians, it is getting into the elite IITs and IIMs. To be more in sync with the youth aspirations today- ‘Build a successful Startup’.

The Alexander of 'Tomorrow'

The Genghis Khan of 'Today'

Something is amiss here. We are still governed by the ‘Laws of the Genes’. The Laws are nothing but your ritual of birth, adulthood, Matehood and Senilehood. Animals and Trees around us still follow the age-old way of living and dying. The genes don’t care whether you were from IIM-A or you are just a beggar. The genes way of passage into the future is through Sperm and Eggs. Homo Sapien has built an architecture of good job, good family, Good ‘Family Values’ and ‘Power to Rule’ over and above these genes for the passage into the future.

The human brain is supposed to have 2 parts to it. One is the animalistic one- controls feelings, aggression and basically everything that man cannot control or foresee. This is part of the brain is the closest to Nature and Genes. The other part of the brain is the logical and rational one. That’s the part which differentiates us from the Giraffe who still stands tall and eats the same grass his ancestors have eaten. Now imagine we Homo Sapiens today have something in possession (Our super Human Brain) which is do not agree with each other every time. Animalistic feelings generated from our Genes part of the brain are sometimes abhorred in your human society.

The Animal Brain competing with the Logical Brain

 Not to be chauvinistic or support this example (fear of ostracizing by Homo Sapien part of the brain) but I want to give you a perspective. The Genes part of the brain has been developed over thousands of years and has encrypted data of ‘Living’. One if it says that man to pass on his genes would like to mate with as many partners as possible. Biologically it makes sense. But the logical Homo Sapien part of the brain has developed societies that promote Monogamy. Now imagine the plight of the Human who has the both: Animal part of the brain and the Homo Sapien part of the brain. IS that one of the reasons of infidelity? The man was acting out like his Genes told him to. Without getting into the society defined moral character of this story, the Homo Sapien is confused between it's genes related Urges and human related control of these urges. I don’t defend the actions of this person, but thinking on these lines is paramount.

Corona Virus following its Dharma: Birth, Procreate, Die

Another classical example in today’s world is the ability to make it big. Person without an ambition to be great is thought to be worthless. Shame and despair linger in the house of such people who just want to live normally without the burden of expectation of ruling the world. I don’t see zebras putting themselves under utmost pressure to be the King of the jungle. Yes, on a lighter note the Corona virus is set to rule the world. I am sure that this virus is doing nothing but following the dharma of its existence: Birth, Procreation and Death. It inherently does not have the consciousness that with this Procreation it is trying to Rule the World and get rid of the Humans. I have not seen Corona virus among tigers in a way which annihilates them. Off course we have the ‘Human- 2020- virus to do that job.

All I want to leave you is with the thoughts that Genes way of simple living continues in the nature. Man, is also one of the manifestations of nature. However, some couple of thousand years before, we drifted away from this clear path of Genes way of living. Now we lead the Man’s path of Living. What the future holds will be a weighted average of the Genes way and Homo Sapien way. The weights will determine whether we are God or just an average Human in this world.

In this final paragraph of my imagination: do you think Genes had a role in making this ‘Homo Sapien’ side of the brain to spice up things on this great place called ‘The Earth’ or is it another neuron of that side of the Brain which wants you to believe it?

Be safe and Enjoy the Social Distancing!!!