“It is not half so important to know, as to feel…”

Rachel Carson, in The Sense of Wonder

 

Just a thought…

I think people can be divided into two- those who accept the world as they find it and get on with life, and those who pause to think about the world, are discontent with it and try to be the change they want to see. I wish I could be one of the former, because their lives are simpler, but it’s not a matter of choice. Most of the people belong to the first category and I think it is the natural state of being. But I feel that the latter is fast growing, in proportion to how artificial our lives are becoming.

 

Malayalasangeetham.info

It’s a great website- a comprehensive database of Malayalam film music.

At the moment I’m busy downloading all songs by Johnson, year by year, using it as a reference. I never cease to be amazed by the quality of the music in those days, almost every other song is unique and ever green. When I listen to these songs, I always wish I had been born some twenty-thirty years earlier, and lived my youth at the time when Johnson/Ouseppachan/Jerry Amaldev were at their best.

 

Muthappanpuzha-Olichuchattam

Ever since my first week at college, I have been captivated by the sight of a majestic mountain range, from the top floor of the main building. Most of the time it’s hidden behind a think shroud of mist, but when it’s visible it is an enchanting sight. The clarity of some of the features suggested that it was not far away, geographically. At first I used to think that it must be the Wayanad range, but after some researching, I learned that it was called Vellarimala, south of Wayand and west of the Nilgiris, separated by the Chaliyar valley. I also learned that the approach to Vellarimala is from a tiny village called Muthappanpuzha, about 25 km from my college. By the way, this range contains some of the tallest peaks of the Ghats (Vellarimala-2240m, Vavulmala-2339m).

The trek to the very top is very difficult (not meant for inexperienced trekkers) and takes more than a day, and it is nearly impossible without a guide, from what I’ve read. But there is a waterfall called Olichuchattam about 4-5 km into the trek, which is quite accessible. The thought of trekking to Olichuchattam has been at the back of my mind for some time now. Our second sessional exams ended on Saturday, and we were wondering what to do on Sunday, when I put forward the idea of going to Olichuchattam.

In the end, five of us, AKP(Arunkumar), Ashley, Nineesh, Nipun and I decided to make the short trip. We had planned to start out early, but being a Sunday, we were a bit late, as expected. We boarded a bus to Thiruvambady at 8.30 in the morning. I had thought that there would be local buses from there to Muthappanpuzha, but was surprised to learn that only KSRTC buses from Kozhikode went to Muthappanpuzha(which gives an idea of how remote it is), and we had to wait till the next one arrived. We had to wait for over half an hour. Our high spirits were also dampened by the premature return of AKP, who had received news that his grandfather had been hospitalized.

After what seemed to be an eternity, the bus left Thiruvambady. The ride was pleasant, albeit a slow one, and soon the road began to run by the banks of the Muthappanpuzha river, frothing its waters over the innumerable rocks in its path. I noticed that there were many churches here, which suggested that the people in this area are predominantly Christian unlike the rest of Kozhikode. Perhaps most of them are descendants of the farmers who immigrated from South Kerala half a century ago.

We got off at Aanakkampoyil and took an auto-rickshaw to the starting point of the trek (you have to take a diversion half a km before Muthappanpuzha). On the way, we got the first glimpses of the lofty peaks, and the driver told us that one of them was named Masthakappara, since it looked like an elephant’s head. We asked him for directions to Olichuchattam. A clear (jeep) track runs for most of the way before it enters the forest. He told us that we’d have no trouble with finding the way. But he warned us that it may not be easy finding the track inside the forest, since the season’s not yet started and not many people have been there this year. He told us to keep close to the river which would be on the left side, and we’d be fine.

Our spirits rekindled by the fresh air and the green all around, we started the trek. It was around 10.30 by then. Vellarimala is not a tourist location and only trekkers going to the Vellarimala or Vavulmala peaks come here. We soon crossed a bridge and found the river to our left, but the track led away from it. We kept following the track, which was steadily climbing. It is worth mentioning that the base of Vellarimala, unlike many other mountain peaks of similar altitude, is quite low-lying, with Muthappanpuzha at only around 400m above MSL. So the climb is indeed very rapid.

The track contined to lead away from the river and soon we heard the sound of another river on our right side. Later I learnt that this was Iruvanjippuzha and the one on the left was Thenpara. The track continued to climb and we took short breaks. The sun was also at its hottest and all of us were sweating profusely. We had been assured that drinking water wouldn’t be a problem as there were many streams running across the path. We were delighted by the sight of little huts nestled on the hillside, with huge mountains in the backdrop. A few cows and goats were grazing here and there, as well.

The track again veered towards the river on the left. We soon reached a fenced area on the left side, but there was no sign of the river. By this time, the track was barely visible, and it was clear from the vegetation that not many people had been there lately. Soon we entered the forest. It happened all too fast. Suddenly the green path gave way to think foliage. We were rather surprised, and initially had some difficulty in finding the path. Then we got used to it and forced ourselves forward, pushing away the plants that stood in our way. Again it was clear that not many had been there lately.

We could hear the river gushing down the slopes on the left side, but it seemed nearly impossible to find a way to it. By this time, all of us had leeches on our feet. We carried on, pushing our wills that extra bit, but we soon wound up at a dead end, a little rocky clearing with a stream. We sat there wondering what to do next, and helped ourselves to some biscuits in the meantime. It was well past noon, and I was not too eager to stay in the forest in the afternoon. When we had rested for a while, we decided to go back, and look more carefully for any paths to the right that would take us to the river. (We remembered the auto driver’s directions to keep to the river)

We had better luck at the second attempt, and Nineesh found a path a few feet from the dead end. On the way up, it didn’t even occur to us that there had been a path there. It was going in the right direction as the sound of the river became nearer. After a few minutes of struggling through the dense vegetation, we reached the river. Water, at last! It looked like a waterfall, but this did not look like the photos of Olichuchattam I had seen on Sandeep Unnimadhavan’s blog. Besides, we had been only about 20 mins into the forest, and I had read that it took more than that.

We climbed a few more feet to get a better view of the fall. By this time, it was past one and I really felt we should get going. Though I wasn’t sure that this was Olichuchattam, I was not confident about going further into the forest as it was, and we decided to return after spending some time on the rocks by the river. The return journey was uneventful, and our eyes feasted on the beautiful landscape. Once we were out of the forest, we stopped for de-leeching. Actually we had to go about twenty more minutes up the river to get to Olichuchattam.

Soon we hit the jeep track and around 2.30 we reached the road. We missed a turn somewhere and ended up about two bus stops away from Muthappanpuzha which meant that we had to drop the plans of visiting the village and the river bank. We decided to relax and wait at the bus stop for the 3′o clock bus back. We were all pleasantly tired and dozed off as soon as we boarded the bus. I stole a last look in the direction of Muthappanpuzha and told myself that I’d like to be back there sometime. It was slightly disappointing that we didn’t get to Olichuchattam (at that time, we were trying to convince ourselves that that itself was Olichuchattam!!), but it was a fantastic day out and we really enjoyed the trek.

See Photos of the trek.

 

Ubuntu and Code names

I happened to learn just now that the next release of Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution will be called Lucid Lynx. For those who are not familiar with it, Ubuntu is famous for the funny code names of its releases. It’s always in the form- “Adjective Animal”, for example Breezy Badger, Hardy Heron etc. Besides they go along in the alphabetical order. If the current release is J, the next will be K.

This brought to my mind the memory of a discussion with a few of my friends  about this very topic, when a friend, Arjun, suggested a code name when all the letters will be exhausted and they’d have to start again at “A”. Guess what?

“Andipoya Annaan“!!!!!!!

 

Rendezvous with Roy

Today I went on a little trip to Wayanad, to meet a man called Roy Jacob. I first read about him many months back, in an issue of the magazine Swapathgami.Roy, 34 years old now, grew up in the US, and worked there as an IT consultant for many years. Being an admirer of Gandhi’s principles and philosophy, he was sort of discontent with corporate life in the US, both outwardly and inwardly. And when the US went on war in Iraq, he decided he couldn’t take it any longer. He walked out of his career and embarked on an inspiring journey that continues today.

I left college early in the morning- 6.30 am, to be precise. I boarded a Mananthavady bus from Kunnamangalam at 7. Roy’s farm was in Cheengode, near Nadavayal, a few kms south east of Panamaram. I enjoyed the fresh morning air striking against my face. It became distinctly colder as the bus climbed the Thamarassery pass. I reached Panamaram at a quarter past nine. I had planned to have my breakfast at Panamaram, but the town seemed not to have woken up yet. So I continued my journey and caught the Panamaram-Bathery bus which would take me to Cheengode.

Roy came to the bus stop to receive me. I could easily recognize him from the photo in the article. We greeted each other and started walking towards his house. On the way, I enquired about many things like how he came to live in Wayanad, how long he had been there and such things. It didn’t cease to amaze me that the person walking beside me had lived a very different life until just five years ago. One of urban affluence, rush and business. Besides, he spoke really good authentic Malayalam, though with a slight accent.

In a few minutes, we reached a small house which, Roy told me, belonged to a friend who was out of station. We went inside, and there I met Nirali, a Gujrati friend of his who was on a visit. We sat on the mud floor and talked for a while. Then we had a breakfast of uppumavu and steamed bananas. We talked a lot- I wanted to know about his life, his farm and his farming. He owns 20 cents of paddy field, and carries out his farming (organic, of course) experiments there.

They asked me how I came to be interested in alternative living. I replied how, back in Twelfth standard, when I was preparing for the entrance exams, I began to feel that life was becoming artificial and unnecessarily complicated, and how I wished to make it simple. Also having grown up in a town, how I had had almost no direct contact or relation with nature, and how badly I longed for it. For a change, it was really pleasant to see someone nod their head understandingly, rather than exclaim that I was being idealistic and dreaming.

After a while, Roy took me to see his paddy field. He had planted different varieties in his piece of land. Not only that, he is trying different methods on each, drawing from some of the ideas of Fukuoka as well as experimenting on his own. His field is right on the banks of Narasipuzha, a tributary of the river Kabini. Beyond the river, are dense evergreen forests. The paddy fields, with little hills on the other side, form a breathtaking scenery.

Next to his field, Roy has built a beautiful little hut, with his own hands, out of bamboo. He proudly showed it to me, and told me how building it awakened the creative spirit within him. And that it was indeed an inspiring and enriching experience to live in a house built with one’s own hands. He had the same glow about him when he talked about his paddy farming. Think of eating the food you harvested yourself from your own field. How nice is that?

After visiting the field, we had lunch. Roy cooked rice from his previous harvest, complete with bran. The rice was a delightful pink coulour. Also drank its nourishing pink gruel. He talked about how nutritious the bran was (which is no secret, really), and how we are actually throwing away the best part when we use polished rice. Talked for a while more, talked about inspiring books and authors- Fukuoka, Daniel Quinn, E.F.Schumacher… Then it was time for me to leave.

Both Roy and Nirali accompanied me to the bus stop, and saw me off. The return journey was not as comfortable, since I had to wait for a long time at the Kalpetta bus stand, but luckily I got a seat. I was soon lost in my thoughts about a special day in my life. Yes, it was a special journey. Perhaps the very first in my life which was not endorsed by anyone else. And I got to meet some special people.

Many may brand these people as run-aways from the realities of life, dreamers, whatever. The truth is that they are the ones who are truly “alive”, heeding life’s call each and every moment of their lives. There’s a lot I learnt from my visit. Not all are explicable, but one thing about them that stood out, was contentment. And the sense of wonder, trust and liveliness that arises from contentment. Fear is not one of their attributes. They are able to be fearless because they have surrendered to a power which they absolutely trust. Trust in people. Trust in nature, its bounty and abundance, and its power to renew and rejuvenate. Yes, they are the ones who are truly alive.

Let me sign off with a quote from Thoreau… “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived.”

P.S. My only regret is that I didn’t take my camera along, as I could have substantiated this post with a few snaps, especially of Roy’s farm and farmhut.

 

A Thing of Joy

Her little feet trod the dusty road
Eager to explore the neighbourhood
And she led me down the street,
Her gentle fingers clasped in mine.

Everything she found fascinating
The cows that dined from the garbage cans
The homeless dogs that ran hither and tither
The crows that flew in from nowhere and sat
On the electric poles, making the ugliest noises.

Instantly she took to the hawker
Who was selling bangles of glass,
Her attention captured by their jingle.
She kneeled down to take
A closer look at a black beetle
That stood out in the dirt.

I was getting rather bored
And my mind started wandering
Away from the dull grey buildings
Which made the city a concrete jungle.

Then it was my mind sprouted wings
And flew away to my distant home
Where squirrels chattered merrily on mango trees
Butterflies flitted among the flower laden shrubs
Grasshoppers jumped from one blade to the next
And lilies weaved a stocking for the goosberry tree.

She would have all these friends for herself
As in a fairy tale she would roam forever
Picking up flowers at will.
She would listen to the nightingale’s song
Her eyes wide with wonder.
She’d have the time of her life
Baking little round cakes of mud.

What was she even doing here,
Walking down this road bustling with traffic,
And flanked by stinking drains?
Her soft feet deserve a carpet of roses
And not an unforgiving layer of urban dirt.

I had lost myself in thoughts such as these,
When I felt a tug on my fingers.
And I saw her point up through the twilight
To the luminous silver disc hanging in the sky
And exclaimed to me with glittering eyes,
“The Moon! Look at the Moon!”

I looked at the moon,
But again back at her face,
That was filled with joy and wonder.
And I couldn’t help but feel
Haunted by a strange irony-

Here was something which was the same
Whether she was walking down a dirt road
Or a meadow in full bloom.
Once again I looked at her,
Her face glued towards the moon.
Then took her hand and started walking back.

 

Choices, Careers and Livelihoods

My seventh semester is underway, and I feel this is a good time to write about this, as companies have just started visiting the campus for recruitment and most of my friends are eagerly writing the tests and facing the interviews amid fears that campus placements could be seriously down this year, due to the recession.

The fact that I’m not putting myself up as well, with a “FOR HIRE” board,  seems astonishing and hard to digest, for most. It has invoked countless enquiries as to what my future plans are. When I tell them that I have no real concrete plans, though I may do a post grad, they are perplexed and exclaim that I could have at least appeared for the placements just to be “secure”. Secure from what? The vacuum created by the loss of an address that defined your life for the past four years perhaps, as a job would give you a new one? And what kind of security? The promise that some company will buy your time and skills and give you lots of money in exchange?

I’ve been often reminded of the fact that I would need money to live (strangely, something which most people feel that I’m oblivious to). But there is a difference between making money to live, and living to make money. I have never been attracted by the prospect of making a lot of money. As Henry David Thoreau said, “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to leave alone”. On the other hand, I think I know why people generally are obsessed with making money to such an extent that it is the central concern in their lives (of course, a small fraction of the people are lucky and get to work on things which they are really passionate about, but this is a minority).

The urge to earn more and more money, is ultimately down to a deep insecurity regarding one’s own survival (and other comforts to a lesser extent). Obviously, in today’s society and economy with specialized divisions of labour, none of us have any survival value. (That we take pride in this condition and consider it to be a sign of progress seems incredible to me, but that is the topic for another post). For example, a software engineer knows only how to code, and if his company goes bust, he doesn’t have the skills or resources to earn a living off the land. So his obvious concern would be to earn as much money as possible, so that he is “safe”. The more specialized the division of labour, the deeper is this insecurity.

Like Christopher McCandless says in Into the Wild, “Careers are twentieth century inventions”. For the most of us, doing this work or that doesn’t make much difference if we get the money we need to support our families and lead a good life. Indeed, this makes a lot of sense. In fact, what people want is a livelihood and not a career. It is unfortunate that in our times, you invariably need to take up a career offered by an institution to earn a livelihood, and the difference between them has become almost imperceptible. I can’t imagine the Kalahari bushmen leading careers in picking berries. It’s just something they do for their livelihood.

Now I’ll tell you why I don’t like modern “careers”. It is a rat race out there to earn as much money as possible to “secure” oneself. In fact, people struggle too much just to stay alive. Some of the things you put into your work in exchange for wages, are simply invaluable and irreplacable. Each one of us might be aware that every decision and choice we make, is a tradeoff. When we choose something, we inevitably have to forego something else. And for me, taking up a career is a huge tradeoff, one that is almost unacceptable.

First, the amount of Time, Energy and Health that one has to put into a career. Any anthropologist would tell you that ours is the most laborious lifestyle ever developed on this planet. No other creature has to work so much just to stay alive. Nor did humans for a few million years, nor do the few tribal people who have survived. I accept that I cannot just jump off our culture at will, but what I can do is to reassess my actual needs, (as opposed to imagined needs and fear of future needs) and work only so much as to fulfil them, instead of sacrificing myself for earning money and then wondering what to do with it.

Another thing that is compromised, I feel, is Freedom. It is a word that is often used in misleading ways. For example, you often hear that when you get a job, you get economic freedom and independence. What the speaker probably means is that you no longer have to depend on your parents for your livelihood. But as I see it, a job just transfers your dependence(at least in modern economies with specialized division of labour) from your parents to the company and the wider economic structure without which your job wouldn’t exist. So that’s why I feel that taking up a career means compromising one’s freedom to a large extent. Again I realize that I can perhaps never be completely independent of the global economy, but I can experiment with alternative ways of living that would minimize the dependence.

To quote Thoreau once again, “The price of anything is the amount of what I call life, that you exchange for it”. So taking up a career is indeed a costly affair. If I reject a particular career, it is because I roughly realize the terms of the trade off and find them unacceptable. It is actually because I feel there is something to be gained by searching for alternative ways of living, and not down to frustration or indifference or prejudice. Of course, this is another trade off, where I’m compromising social “security” for other things which, obviously, I personally consider dearer.

It is one thing to know all this, and quite another to actually experiment with one’s life. That’s why I admire people like Gandhiji and Thoreau so much. I don’t really know what I’ll end up doing, but I am damn sure that what I’d like to do is to find my own path, however dense and unforgiving the undergrowth seems, and not to follow the beaten road, “secure” and “promising”. It doesn’t really matter how long the path runs or where it leads, as ultimately it is the journey itself that is important and fulfilling.

 

Interesting Times

“May you live in interesting times”- an ancient Chinese curse.

Undoubtedly, we are living in interesting times. Of course, you may say. After all, we live in an age in which we can communicate with a person on the other side of the globe at the speed of light, travel around the world in a day, we have machines to do all the “dirty” work for us, tourists are venturing into space, we carry gadgets around in our pockets, that people a century ago would have considered magic, we are splitting atoms to produce the energy equivalent to burning thousands of tons of coal- in short- an age in which anything is possible.

Sorry to disappoint you, but that is not the sense in which I said “interesting times”. Perhaps, half a decade ago, I would have revelled in such thoughts- when I still hadn’t begun to see through the general belief that the only relevant world view is that held by the mainstream society. Yes, there was a time when I used to be excited by technology(As a student of technology currently, I’m definitely interested in it, but excited is perhaps far too intense a word). When I used to eagerly observe new models of cars on the roads, when I was fascinated by the things you could do with a computer, when I used to read about astronauts while holding my breath and wonder whether one day I would like to travel into outer space as well.

This popular fascination with technology is not because people truly appreciate technology-in fact, very few people understand it- but is a testimony to the ways in which technical gadgets and increased means of mass production which technology made possible, have supposedly “improved” our lives and rescued us from the alleged misery and filth which our predecessors endured in centuries past.

To come back to my original point, that is not the sense in which I said “interesting times”. I’m referring to the fact that exhaust fumes from our vehicles are heating up the earth and disturbing the climate system, the fact that more than a hundred species are becoming extinct everyday- more than any other time since the dinosaurs, the fact that we are six billion today and our population is still exploding, the fact that a significant portion of us go to bed hungry, the fact that water is becoming undrinkable and air unbreathable. I’m referring to the ecological, cultural and social crisis that we are facing today.

What is there about it that is so “interesting”? Fair question. After all, the crisis I mentioned is not something new to us. In fact, some of these problems have been with us for centuries. Only it has almost never been perceived as a crisis. There has always been an explanation for why these problems persisted in our society. It is the price of civilization and technological advancement. True, we face serious problems, but we have come so far, haven’t we? Surely, we are smart enough to conjure solutions to all of them, sooner rather than later. Surely, technology will help us solve our problems. We can clean up the atmosphere of excess greenhouse gases, and that will be the end of global warming, using genetic engineering and biotechnology we can grow a ton of wheat in a square foot, we can desalinate sea water and use it for drinking… the list is virtually endless.

In fact, this cheerful and blind optimism has brought us to the edge of peril, almost to a point of no return. The biosphere is a web interconnected in unimaginably myriad and complex ways, and not a pyramid with humans at the very top. We have been alienated from the natural world ever since the beginning of large scale agriculture. But driven by the unprecedented power and control which the industrial revolution made possible, we have been meddling with and tweaking the delicate web of life, tuning it to our advantage, in a massive scale that was previously impossible. And we have been unbelievably successful for a while. But the biosphere is not designed for domination by a single species. It thrives on diversity and competition, the very things we are wiping out so successfully, undermining its very ability to support life. No wonder it is starting to show signs of distress, threatening our existence, and that of other higher plants and animals. Hence the use of the word, “crisis”.

“But you still haven’t answered my question!”, I can almost hear you grumbling.”Why is it interesting? All you have succeeded is to paint a picture of gloom and doom in my mind.”

True. I still haven’t come to the interesting part. I’m taking you through the journey that I reluctantly set out on as a sixteen year old, when I first began to feel that there was something wrong with the world. Doom and gloom were the feelings that came to my mind when I used to think about the state of the world and where it was heading. Throw in helplessness, when I realized that this was the world which I was about to step into, and you have the complete set!

Now I come to the interesting part- it doesn’t have to be this way. I mean, there is nothing about human nature which dictates that we live this way, that we alienate ourselves from the natural world. We are brought up to believe that agriculture, civilization, division of labour and advanced technology are inevitable expressions of the human urge to evolve, and represent progress. There is very little evidence to support this claim. On the contrary, advances in anthropology and paleontology in the last few decades positively refute this claim. Science has played an important role in changing the way we think about the world. This, I think, is the true significance of science, and not the utilitarian pseudo-blessing as it is usually perceived.

Human beings have been roaming the earth for a few million years now. According to our beliefs, it was a long, dark, uneventful and stagnant chapter in human history. We were “just another animal”, until we had the brainwave to take matters into our own hands. It was a “difficult”, “savage”, “brutal” life. Having been brought up with this myth, I’m not surprised that until half a century ago, it was unthinkable that technology was anything but beneficial.

But now we know that most of what we generally believe about the lives of our ancient predecessors is nothing more than a myth, we have to embark on the difficult and seemingly impossible task of educating and convincing as many people as we can. For people who are thoughtful, free and flexible enough to accept and acknowledge such a radical change in perspective, are a tiny minority, though encouragingly a growing one(that an ordinary boy like me, brought up in reasonable comfort and good care, can perceive that something is wrong and mostly work it out for himself gives me hope!). A vast majority are blindfolded and trapped in the exploitative global economy of today, dependent on it for their livelihood. Its seeming infallibility is reason for despair, but we know that “seemingly infallible” need not mean infallible(look at communist Russia).

What we are doing today, continuing with buisiness as usual, doesn’t offer much room for hope. But a collapse of this mega-structure in the near future, is definitely a possibility, given its stark dependence on non-renewable resources like fossil fuels. In fact, there is enough reason to believe that we are approaching, and maybe even past, peak oil. Who knows, the current global financial crisis could be something more than just another recession. Such a collapse would be painful, yes- there will be increase in mortality. But it would be just a transition to a better and more sustainable future. I don’t believe even for a second that our planet can sustain billions of us indefinitely. The number has to decrease drastically, it’s got to happen and it will happen when we’ve reached the tipping point. But it’s not for us to decide what would be the ideal number. Natural processes will see to that. Perhaps it need not be a mass die-off as in a calamity. Perhaps it would happen through a lower life expectancy, and we might hardly notice it. We don’t know, really.

Meanwhile, we need to find out as much as we can about how our lives were, before agriculture, before the Great Forgetting, so that we can intelligently choose a sustainable way of living and begin the transition instead of waiting with folded hands for catastrophe to strike. Some people say that there is no “going back to nature” for us. We can’t go “back to being a hunter-gatherer”. This is probably true. We know a lot, and we have developed wonderful disciplines like literature, art, science which have probably become an important part of who we are, but how much of it survives the millenia will be probably decided by how much of it is sustainable and in accord with the laws of the biosphere.

Probably, there is no “going back to nature”. But I firmly believe that we will go “forward to nature”, because that is where we came from, and where we ultimately belong. We will find another way of living, unimaginably more beautiful, and in harmony with nature. This dream is what drives me on, and dispels my despair. This is why I feel that we live in “interesting times”. There is no going back to the drudgery of the inhuman machinery that is the global economy. I have to find my path in the undergrowth. A path that leads me back to the glorious road which our ancient ancestors followed for millions of years, until we lost our way and ended up at a dead end- on the edge of a cliff.

 

The Remarkable Story of the Evolution of Intelligence

“…the difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree, and not of kind.” –Charles Darwin, in The Descent of Man

I just finished reading Carl Sagan’s The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence. It’s a great book, though nowhere near as good as his masterpiece, Cosmos. It’s very intriguing to ponder about the origin of intelligence. The complexity of the brain and ratio of brain mass to body mass seems to be a reasonable measure of intelligence. But what is intelligence, as manifested by behaviour? Is it unique to humans? How and when, did we become “humanly” intelligent? What could be the possible direction of future evolution of intelligence? These are issues that are touched upon by Sagan. Besides, when we refer to violent, rash or cruel behaviour as beastly, we are probably referring to reptilian character, which is probably a part of us, due to our inheritance of significant portions of the reptilian brain. Emotions like love, and generally sensitive behaviour, are characteristic of most mammals.

Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of the book is the one which deals with out ancestors. We all know that we are descended from monkeys, but how closely related are we, to them? Particularly enlightening is the report of a study of chimpanzees, in which they demonstrated amazing aptitude for mastering sign language, complete with syntax and semantics. Aren’t we perhaps too chauvinistic in holding our almost universal conviction that human beings are somehow fundamentally superior to the rest of the living world, and that the world is ours to rule?

Perhaps human chauvinism is not particularly recent. We had a variety of different primate species of ancestors, who were probably contemporaries with at least a few others, which means that their reigns may have overlapped. But where are they today? Why did they become extinct? It’s still a mystery. Perhaps it was just natural selection at work, and the smarter primates survived while the others were wiped out. There is evidence of fractured fossil skulls that belonged to one species of our ancestors who didn’t use tools, who were contemporary to another who did. Could it suggest that the smarter(and shrewder) of the two just killed off the other unsuspecting and defenseless group? Could the line of human beings, that led to us, have exterminated all other relatives they thought intelligent and perceived as  a threat? That could explain why today there are no primates other than us displaying obviously comparable levels of intelligence, but there are species like chimpanzees, who at first sight, is “just a monkey” but upon greater scrutiny, show signs of intelligence very similar to our own.

When I read about this theory, I just couldn’t help imagining how the world would have been, had a few of our ancestors survived. The vision of the world that sprang to my mind was eerily like that in the Lord of the Rings- with a variety of human like creatures co-existing. Little and gentle Hobbits who lived in hilliside burrows, the big Men of Gondor who were known for their skill at machines and warfare, the mysterious elves who were legendarily philosophical.

On the whole it is a great book, though certain portions lack the rigor and flow that is so characteristic of the works of Carl Sagan. For example, there is a chapter called “Future Evolution of the Brain”, which actually talks mostly about the human invention of storing knowledge outside our bodies, computers and machine intelligence, and gives a hint of human chauvinism. It’s a very educative work, and is perfect for the layman wishing to know more about intelligence.