Evolution of Human Needs

Evolution of Needs

Disclaimer: This is a small satirical version of my one of my favorite movies: ‘Swades’. The characters from the movie are shown in the future mindfully keeping their essence intact.

Date: 21^st September 2030

Breaking news: India's Rocket Vikram Lander lands on moon!! Success attributed to Betal Rockets.

Mohan Bhargava from ‘Swades’ fame is sitting on his wonder machine and typing codes to communicate with Vikram.  His expertise of finding water source for electricity in remote villages and off course his side project of “Global precipitation measurement” has made him the Project Manager of Chandra-Haran. Chandra-Haran is an adventurous project to fuel our ultimate need to find Food, Clothes and Shelter on the moon. Mohan worked day in and out for the success of Chandra-Haran   

To take a break from his hard work, Mohan takes the hyper loop from Delhi and reaches Charanpur in a matter of minutes. After listening to Honey Singh’s rap of ‘Yun Hi Chaala’ on his i-phone 20 on the way, Mohan reminisces about his journey in 2002 with the travelling sage: Makarand. His Sawariyaa is sitting besides him, engrossed in her i-Pad looking for sale on Amazon. Kaveri Amma(his nanny) is busy on skype demanding rent from the farmer on the opposite end. Mohan is still getting annoying Whatsapp messages of Melaram on 50-50 partnership of Hotels on the moon. In fact, Mohan hasn’t heard Melaram’s voice for the last 5 years. The progress is great but there is something unsettling about today’s man inanimate behavior.

The pensive Mohan

Mohan thinks: Here I see people with cellphones but without hearts. I see Emoticons but no real emotions from people. Phone, intended to connect people, have distanced meaningful heart to heart conversations. Early morning walks have been abandoned for i-pod blasted Treadmills.

Mohan cannot bear it anymore and gets into his Time Traveler machine and goes back into the past to look at where we diverged living life that bore emotions to superficially surviving with everything other than heart and mind ?

Year 150,000 BC:

Human Needs: Survival instincts and Food

Homo Sapiens evolved from our predecessor. The brain evolved more. The complex structure of humans enabled them to think and learn. Man adapted to his new super power: his brain. However, the surroundings were hostile. Survival against animals as big as Elephants and as small as Bacteria were lurking around the corner.  Food was not easy to get. One can’t imagine the number of deaths that might have happened with trial and error on eating a certain fruit/ root. A human was quite low in the food chain and hence his survival depended on protection against animals and availability of food. The key need was to form groups and survive.

Needs: Survival and Food

Some 1000 years before B.C:

Human Needs: Fertile land and weather

The human mind evolved more and application of it further. Observations and Trial-Errors taught man to learn tricks of the trade for life and death. Some random wheat bush caught the eyes of the humans. The food chain got a new element: Agriculture. We innovated and brought food to us instead of us to them. The cultivation of wheat tamed humans to be confined in fixed places to grow crops. Every year the farmers prayed to the sun and moon for adequate rains and sunshine. We started the de-humanization process by abusing the balance of Mother Earth by de-foresting and cultivating crops. More and more land came under the rule of humans. The earth became his playground and nature his toys with which he could do anything.

Needs: Fertile land and weather

2000-3000 years before today:

Human Needs: To rule the World

Tigers mark their territory to display power and rule.  Man laughs at the triviality of animal mentality and decides that his territory is the world. Rules of Nature were held lower than the rules of men. The will to capture the collective imagination of earth bore seed in the mind. Peaceful harmony among species became a joke to man as he embarked on the mission to become God on Earth. Alexander and Genghis were the chosen ones among the tribe of men to elevate the status of Humans to God. Where imagination about the expanse of the earth ended, that’s where the human desire to rule started.

1000-2000 years before today:

Human Needs: Ability to comprehend the unknown-Religion

The sight of sheep flocking together led by one shepherd is common. Without the shepherd, the sheep scatter and create havoc. We (humans) are the sheep and Religion is the shepherd. Some experts say that one of the best things to happen to man is religion. Religion is a force which created unity among people to fight all odds and the unknown. Man has the compulsive need to dimensionalize things to understand it better or he will have a nervous breakdown. But what about things which can’t be imagined and expected (death, weather or insanity) or fit in the frame of human psyche. Necessity led to Invention and that’s when we created Religion. The black cloud of human greed bore torrential rains of unexpected disaster and thus we invented the imaginary boat of God’s religion to sail through the oceans of distress and unknown. My religion is with me and hence I have the hope to lead a peaceful life. Religion was hope for people. Religion was a way of life for people without direction.

Needs: Hope through religion

However, today the religion which was to be our savior has indeed become the villain of normal living. Fanaticism and lack of clear understanding of the real purpose of Religion has allowed us to get caught in the cobweb of lies and hatred. The spider in the cobweb to feast on us is obviously – Us (humans)

In the 1300s; 

Human Needs: Protection against Black Plague

Nature has an intriguing way of reciprocating the imbalance of power in the hands of Man. To show who’s the boss, nature has various tricks up its sleeve. Tsunamis, earthquakes are just the appetizers in this feast of death. Black plague was the Nature’s dessert to feed on millions of humans like the million calories it contained. The raw vulnerability to small diseases shocked us and we prayed for recovery and salvation of our sins.

In the 1500-1600s: 

Human Needs: Renaissance of Arts and Science

With the backdrop of Mughal and Maratha wars in India, Europe was brimming with artists and philosophers in what could be called the golden era of humanism. People lived in free societies and encouraged the human expression of painting, philosophy and engineering. The likes of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo graced this beautiful earth with their painting palates and scientific curiosity. The kings and folks around would yearn for songs, parades and artistic fodder.

In my opinion, the true human quality is that of artistry. Human forms of purity: paintings, singing, comedies and various other art forms are the true genes, which makes us uniquely ‘Man’ enough to deserve a place on this earth.

Leonardo da Vinci's scientific and artistic curiosity

In the 1700- early 1900s: 

Human Needs: Protection from fellow men

As humans, we reached a new low. This was a period of brutality and insensitivity. Colonialism and racism were rampant dangers to the democracy of humanism. This evil of lurked in most parts of the world. Not long ago man feared the wild animals and vagaries of nature, Today-‘Man’ is the only species which fear their own selves. I don’t hear squirrels staging an uprising against other ‘racially’ superior squirrels for survival. That impossible feat of destroying your own species was attained by our excellency ‘The Human.’

Nazis in Europe or the Whites in America or the British in its various colonies across the world: The common link of false sense of superiority over other Humans. No wonder these ‘superior’ species (avoiding the word ‘humans’ in fear of soiling Nature’s creation) had to bite the dust. Majority of the people hoped for independence and threw away this tyranny.

The Holocaust concentration camp: Man killing other Man in name of Race

1900s- 2000s:

Human Needs: Scientific Temperament

One of the golden eras of Man across the years. A new world of humans arose to the sunlight of Science. Major discoveries and breakthroughs happened in this era. People built their nations and capabilities to fuel a smooth human civilization. Machines, books, cars, cameras, rockets, medical instruments and new surgery techniques paved way to a new existence of reform and integrity. Global collectivism paved way for true human nature of co-operation. Russia and US got into the competition of outer space glory, India and China in the competition for manufacturing and service excellence.

Mohan returns to reality in his time machine. He is lost in thought and ponders over the Moon mission that he undertook few years back. It brought him great pride in the fact that the mankind leaped towards scientific victory. However, the Time travel over the previous centuries makes him think of the actions. He remembers Dante’s -Divine comedy about the Sins and Levels of hell.

Sins of Man

Figuratively the Moon mission is just man’s lust of touching the moon, Gluttony of capturing outer space, greed of Power, sloth of trying to reverse Earth’s destruction, envy of of other nation's success, false sense of ‘Pride’ in our inhuman achievements and wrath of not being in control of our Future. We mask all of this into our basic needs of food, clothes and shelter. Moon is just another avenue for us to satiate the need of dominating.

As Humans we have regressed, as inanimate machines we have progressed. We have lost our identity/ purpose amidst this chaotic human circus of will. A living specie? Ruler of the earth?  We were just a single celled organism on the face of this beautiful earth. How did we end up here? What is our need for the future?