Colin Randles

Journal Entry #7

I found Susan Blackmore’s idea of the evolution of humans very interesting, and much different than I have been taught my entire life as biology major. Now that I have taken many upper level biology classes along with lower level and high school ones, many of the broad biological themes come clear to me. Given a system, I could predict what would happen, or give an educated guess at an explanation of a biological process that I did not know. This is satisfying to me, as a certain way of thinking has been drilled into my mind, and I can use that knowledge to make predictions about the world.

The TED talk gave me an entirely different view on humans and our evolution. Blackmore’s theory was that we evolved as a result of the propagation of memes (information being copied). We developed larger brains because we needed the ability to store more information, and the women that could breed babies with larger heads without dying at childbirth were the ones with the most reproductive fitness, therefore moving the population along its evolutionary path. The fact that she described the information as parasites was mind-blowing, in the fact that I never thought nonliving things could act as one. I especially did not like the fact that the smartest species on Earth has been “used” for hundreds of thousands of years as a way to propagate knowledge, and was at the mercy of these memes.

We are now heading into the “third replicator” stage, as she describes, where we are creating technology that is more advanced than we are. She described two scenarios that could happen, where humans adapt to live with the technology we are creating, or it overtakes us as a species.   These transitional periods do not happen that often, and are very dangerous to break through. Maybe one of the reasons we have not gotten contact from other advanced life forms is that most of the species that have been as advanced as we are have killed themselves during a transitional period. We are on the brink of merging with machines, and this will create a whole new level of replication of memes, with unlimited memory capacity, and much more advanced technology. The first replicator was the gene, which is the basis of biological evolution. The second replicator was memes, which is the basis of cultural evolution. What will this next replicator bring? This is digital information that is stored, selected for, and copied by machines. We are the stepping-stones between an unbelievably more efficient way of processing information. Our brain is the second replicator, but we have created things possibly more powerful. These memes are everything that make up human culture, and are easily imitated.

The Black Mirror episode we watched in class was based off of two broad points, memory and ethics. Memory is simply the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information. Facts, knowledge, and experiences all fall under the concept of memory. On the other hand, ethics is defined as moral principles which govern or person’s behavior. Privacy, security, and surveillance all fall under ethics. In the Black Mirror Episode, we saw how technological advancements disrupted people’s memory and privacy. Technological advancements gave the main character the power to see his wife cheating on him with another man. Cleary, the woman’s privacy was disrupted by the technological advancement of surveillance. In class we discussed how the human brain makes us forget things we wish not to remember deliberately in order to keep us from going insane. However, with the aid of a chip behind the character’s ear, he was able to recall everything which happened in his life from his memory. This could be seen as a helpful device yet also a device of destruction. The chip helped the man figure out the truth about his wife yet also caused the destruction of his marriage.

The worlds created by author Samuel R. Delaney in the novel, Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand, are very odd compared to the world we know today. In the world of planets Rhyonon and Velm, gender is constructed differently than how we know it. “She” is the standard pronoun for anything while “woman” is used to refer to any person. “He” is a pronoun used to describe someone you desire. “Man” is simply a poetic word. Delaney explains a process of cultural fugue which takes place in the novel. He defines cultural fugue as a process when a whole plant destroys itself by means of apocalyptic conflagration. In this case, Rhyonon was the planet which destroyed itself. Delaney goes on to describe two main paths of civilization. The first is called the family. The family is centered on the belief of humanity’s origin on a planet called Earth. The family is constructed on structured choice and predetermined objects. The family is singular and stays consistent. The other path of civilization is known as the Sygn. The Sygn believe in free choice and elusive objects. The Sygn lack definite understanding and are diverse. Furthermore, it becomes clear that Delaney is focusing on two poles in the novel. The first being cultural fugue where there is always total panic. The second being Radical Anxiety Termination where panic is impossible because anxiety is removed from every individual. Delaney sees the blocking of information as the ultimate sin.

In class we discussed the topic of ethics and different theories which relate to its meaning. One concept mentioned was rationalism. Rationalism is a belief that opinions and actions should be based on reason and knowledge rather than on religious beliefs. Evidence, costs, and benefits are all examples of rationalism. Another concept we discussed was subjectivism. Subjectivism states that knowledge is simply subjective and there is no objective truth. Subjectivism simply implies that knowledge is based on personal feelings and opinions and not fact. Subjectivism can be related to the Radical Anxiety Termination in Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand. The RAT Institute created slaves by limiting their anxiety. By removing anxiety from slaves, the process allows them to do anything for their masters and only believe that their own opinions are correct. The last theory we discussed which can also relate to Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is relativism. Relativism is a doctrine which states that knowledge exists in relation to culture and society. Sexuality in the novel is practiced in different ways on different planets. For example the understanding of sex is different between the cultures of Rhyonon and Velm. On Rhyonon, individuals of the same size are allowed to have sex. Anything which deviates from this practice is unacceptable. On Velm, sex between humans and evelm, six-legged creatures, is permitted.

French psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan, developed four fundamental types of discourses. He created four discourses which he named, Master, University, Hysteric and Analyst and believed they all relate to one another. According to Lacan, a discourse refers to a point where speech and language intersect. The four discourses portray the four possible combinations of a network which social bonds could take. These bonds can be represented by four different positions:the agent, the other, the product, and the truth. One discourse he developed was titled Discourse of the Master. This concept analyzed the struggle for mastery, domination, and penetration dealing with a master and his slaves. In this discourse, the master is expressed as S1, the master signifier. The master confronts the slave which is expressed as S2. The slave is what the discourse is addressed to. In the lower right stands desire. Desire is what the discourse has created. Masters desire obedience, duty, and sexual obedience from their slaves. Finally, the product of the discourse is placed in the lower left. The product is what the discourse attempted to express. In this case, the discourse was meant to express a gathering of money. The slaves work for the master. Whatever products the slaves make are sold on the market. The master gains profit from products sold on the market.