Life works

Foreword

We are evolving to a different cognitive system.

We may question whether this learning system is a more intelligent system. We, advanced human beings, as we call ourselves, have entered the 21st Century armed with tools that out forefathers could have hardly dreamed of. The availability of data storage systems, diffusion sytems instantly available to the entire planet, the building of a world wide economic entity, the possibility of manipulation of data in a huge scale, the immediate sharing of events, overwhelm us as observers, let alone participants. How can we, as responsible world citizens prepare ourselves to take in this flow of data and absorb it? How can we make sense of it, learn form it? We already receive this information unphased, as if it always had existed. Yet history assures us that what is new is not the always changing data but its magnitude, its size, its unrelenting-ness. Will these tools affect the way our intelligence evolves? If we see intelligence as an evolutionay process that increases in quantum leaps under the influence of outside stimuli, for sure. If we only see intelligence as reasoning, understanding and drawing conclusions, then we are still no different than the wolf, another predator with a highly structured group behavior. An alpha wolf spares his opponent in a fight for leadership, and thereby responds to an invisible basic "wolf rule". We, similarly, as a group, have created through millennia, a basic set of principles that we all follow and assume that this learning is passed on through genetics and through environmental influences. Whether the fundamental rules of being human will survive the onslaught of the flood of data to which we are subjected to at every moment, is really the crux of the matter. If these fundamental principles are innate to being human, then it would behooves us to take them and frame them in a way that would actually put them at the forefront of all subsequent inquiries of the condition called "being human". Are there fundamental laws that have survived the millenia? If they do exist, what are those fundamental Natural Laws that are so basic as to be inescapable? And if they are constant, immutable, unchanging, should we not use those principles like filters through which to examine the unrelenting data stream that we are subjected to? Isn't the cynicism and complacency so prevalent today, a resultant of the "disconnect" which appear in people not having the tools necessary to analyse this never- ending input? There is in all of us a longing for simpler times. But this earlier time has never existed. There were never "simpler" times. It is an illusion that we have constructed, looking from our point of view. I would be justified to argue that, beside quantitative measurements, for previous participants, the experience was no different than our experience.
If these laws are immuable, is it not possible that this specific flow of data is but a way in which we are trying to affect/change/mutate those laws? For example: That "one should not kill another" particularly for food, is a primal law. We can immediately feel a reaction to the word: "cannibal" a sort of taboo, so ancient that we'd rather starve than eat other human beings. Some could argue that it is always easier to attack a sub-species as similar species have developed similar defensive systems thereby making them way more difficult to conquer. And through trial and error we have adapted these fundamental parameters to suit our quest for temporal stability and survival. But at the same time, we do commiserate with those who, through dire circumstances had to resort to breaking that rule. In an other instance we may have to confront today's reality of terrorism and war, or may be, just pondering the passive acceptance of human laws regarding the death penalty. How are we to accept the dichitomy of these three situations and hold true to the principles of evolution? How are we to live as active participants in our current society without the consequenses that naturally occur as a result of our choices?
Or consider the ethical tenet, agreed to around the world, that "the group survival is more important than the individual's". Putting aside the question of what constitute a group for a moment, could the universality of its existence be indicative that parts of the system responds to a different basic operating system than that which governs all beyond individuals choices or genetics?
Did this basic operation system evolve into moral and ethical principles, fundamental rules which enable groups to be formed, then tribes, finally society as we know it? Are they really instinctively valid? Did they occur in a succession of trial and errors?
I do not know. Our inquiry at this point, before being able to study their evolution require us to isolate the fundamental ones in a set which would be valid for all human beings. There is, we notice, a value system besides ethics and mores that, for all intend and purposes, has tried to answer those questions. We call it "religion". Where did the universal acceptance of a force greater than us, and described as a higher power, gods, deities, a ruler come from? Intuition or learned value system? Fear? Explaining the unexplainable? No matter which sytem you study around this earth, there exist a concept, used by all, to describe phenomena that are beyond the physical realm. Consider the aborigines, a tribal set, whose roots are traced to be around 65000 years old. They live consistent with a pantheon of gods and semi gods. And they are not alone. Gods exist, pole to pole, from the Polynesian islands, through the most remote regions of the South American jungle. And what is most amazing is that the stories, the legends remembered by all have similar images, like the symbolic one described as "the flood". Is it not possible that after seeing the ravages of war and strife, we understand the full value of what we mean by the condition we call "living"? Is it possible that after having chased each other in futile struggles for survival, we realize that survival is all but guaranteed if we do not fight? And is it not possible that after we fulfill the basic necessity of life, breathing, eating, sleeping, then completing the required survivalist procreative functions of the species, we had time left to ponder the very conditions required for existence? And in doing so noticed our basic state of relationships with each other and the whole? And furthermore noticing that none of us lives independently of the rest, we all deduced a certain kind of oneness of the entire system. And that is really what we were meant to learn in the first place! Observe the similarity between old soldiers' experiences whether during WWII or Vietnam: when soldiers meet after having endeavored to anihilate each others, they share the realization that they are the same, had the same experiences, the same sufferings and the old enemies suddenly become related, become brothers….
In that moment, they realize that life is so much more important than any differences, any color, any creed, any religion. They aspire to Peace and never want to fight each other again.
Reirterating the statement that if "the group survival is more important than the individual", then why are we seeing other human beings are not part of the human being group? Why would we fight each other?

(c)2006 Pascal Diebold

In Principles of Psychology (1890), William James, one of the founding writers of experimental psychology, talked of "instincts". This term referred to a set of specialized neural circuits that are common to every member of a species and he postulated that those were the product of that species' evolution. Scientists and scholars alike think that animals are ruled by "instinct" while humans somehow have lost their instincts and are ruled by "reason". This, they conclude, is why we are more "intelligent" than other animals…
Early philosophers and scientists viewed the human brain as a blank slate, virtually free of content until written on by the hand of experience. David Hume's (1711-1776) view was typical: "...there appear to be only three principles of connection among ideas, namely Resemblance, Contiguity in time or place, and Cause or Effect." All of the content of the human mind originates "outside".
Contemporary evolutionary psychologists postulate that the normal human brain through time, develops a set of reasoning and regulatory circuits that are specialized according to their function and are specific to their domain of activity. They organize the way we interpret our experiences, observe concepts and motivations into our mental life, and provide a common system of meaning that allow us to be appropriate to the actions and intentions of others. The evolutionary psychologists conclude that all humans share certain views and conclusions about the nature of the world and human action by virtue of these circuits. They also postulate that the brain is a physical system whose operation is governed entirely by the laws of chemistry and physics. We are basically an organic computer, made of carbon compounds rather than silicon wafers. The brain is mostly comprised of neurons and their connection networks. Neurons are cells that are specialized in the transmission of information and create circuitry similar to computers. These circuits determine how the brain processes information. Neural circuits in the brain are connected to sets of neurons that run throughout the body. Sensory receptors are connected to neurons that transmit information about the physical world to the brain. Some receptors are motor receptors thereby creating movement. They are calling those movements: behavior. They want to prove their theory by saying that an organism that does not move does not need a brain. Most circuits of the brain are designed to generate motion in response to information from the environment. The function of your brain is to generate "behavior" that will make one survive in specific environmental circumstances. Environment in itself does not specify what is an "appropriate" behavior. Therefore, if their system was designed as a computer, a circuit could be designed to link any given stimulus to any kind of behavior. Which behavior a stimulus gives rise to, is a function of the neural circuitry of the particular organism. This means that if you were a designer of people, you could engineer the human brain to respond in any way you wanted, link any environmental input to any behavior. But what did the actual designer of the human brain do, and why? How did we get the circuits that we have, rather than those that the crocodile has? If we were talking about a laptop, the answer to this question is simple: The machine's circuitry is laid out by a designer, and this designer chooses them so they solve problems that the designer wanted solved. Your neural circuits were also designed to solve particular problems. They conclude that the brain/mind was not created by an engineer but by a process of learning. Their designer is the "evolutionary process" itself. They tell us that natural selection is the only evolutionary force that is capable of creating complex organized machines that are designed to solve adaptive problems. There are two kinds of adaptive problems: the ones that are repetitious and the problems whose solution are directly linked to the reproduction processes. Reproduction (and not survival) is the force that drives natural selection. Generally adaptive problems have to do with how an organism lives: food, survival, sex, games, speech, etc. But "natural selection" can only designs circuits that made for solving adaptive queries

(c)2006 Pascal Diebold

Even if the psychologists are right, most of us, I think, want to assign our lives a higher purpose. If we reduce ourselves to just a self-surviving organism, why follow any rule? Survive at all costs, follow your basal instinct, kill whoever is in the way of having what you want, particularly in the area of procreation. This is a very primal attitude that would have and has had catastrophic results in tribal lives of the past. Even today, we could assign blame to this mode of operation for many of the conflicts around the world.
Or are we to assume that we have mutated so as to minimize the self- destructive process required for the balance of the bio-chain's welfare, and are so missing the process of killing ourselves that was intended by evolution? And again we end up similar to those viruses that, left unchecked by the blood system's protective cells, proliferate and destroy the human body? Are we to equate our desire to relate to the need to reproduce? I doubt that most people who are over middle age, have relationships that are based solely on our desire for sexual prowess. Would that mean that we are obsolete after a period of active procreation? If this is so, then why did evolution not shortened the number of years spent in this environment no matter what our efforts would be to stay longer, and maximize reproductive chances by having mostly young "alpha males"survive rather than having the male be rather fragile at birth?
And where would we place "plastic Arts", "music" or "mathematics"? Would they be just degenerative neural systems with little value in the two areas for which we are slated to operate? For after all, they need not exist for reproductive endeavors.

From time immemorial we are looking for the "Cause", wanting to be able to reproduce its "effect", the original act of creation. For in the world as we know it, cause/effect is a basic operating principle. We are taught its first law in an instant, at birth, during the separation from the womb, valid for the rest of our life: To live, one must breathe. Then follows years of learning, some evolutionary, some instinctive, some environmental and then we die.
We are temporal. Because of the limitation of our time/space envelope, we never can nor will be able to grasp the whole picture. So according to our civilization, depending on where we experienced this short stint in the physical world, we leave ourselves clues, writings, edicts, laws, symbols, to support the next generations and further their research of the absolute "Cause". Those clues are directly related to our cultural background, absolutely constructed with the iconography particular to our environment. Yet all the common symbols speak of a single system of invisible forces that are not describable no matter who or where or when the writer attempts to delineate it from. This force/ those forces exist outside the boundaries of time and space, are valid on any continent, at any time. Just as we know to sleep and eat and smile, we know that something bigger than us is out there. Who is to say that this knowledge is only impated through evolution? Even in the first description of the primal man, Adam, the fear of God, is already present. What would Adam know about God? Why would Adam fear God? Where would the fear originate from? Who was Adam threatened by? If Adam was the evolutionary progression of some form of previous living set of cells, would it not be possible that his "creation" is really the symbol of the realization and the acknowledgement that a higher force actually existed by our species?
Is it not possible that instead of having learned these principles by trial and error or through our relatively short years of cognitive evolution we, as a group, may be connected to a higher intelligence, a higher source that impart knowledge through a different modal system, an invisible system of inter-connectivity? What if we were but gluons, photons or mesons, immutably acting and participating in a grand unification theory, all the while, because of our size, imagining our independence from the whole? Could we be responding to absolutes, to conditions that were set at a scale that is beyond our comprehension by an invisible force, often referred to as a "designer"? And the only way to know the existence of the "designer" is to study its rules if there are such rules?

(c)2006 Pascal Diebold

Reading the Bible, Mandelbrot, the Qu'ran, Steven Hawkins, the Bahava Ghita, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Tao Te Ching, Gilgamesh, Diderot, the Cave Paintings of Lascaux, Thoreau, the Book of the Dead, Freud, the Code of Hammurabi, Buckminster Fuller and all the books and thoughts ever set forth by all the prior generations, ends up being challenging. The time necessary for this project is way greater than the millisecond of time that is reserved for any of us. Yet, this Century, for the first time, brings a new possibility. Digital machinery allows us to read, compile, analyze, date and calculate the feasibility of existence of objects and concepts much larger than us, the existence of which is not observable with just the physicality of the human senses. My hope is to sketch a field of study, without limiting it, but with an acceptable set of probabilities. It sometimes feels to me a bit like wanting to predict weather patterns with only 150 years of recorded history but I will endeavor to explore different possibilities and probabilities. Being human, I have a very short period of time at my disposal regarding the mining of the data necessary for the analysis of these "Fundamentals". Moreover, we, as a civilization are also extremely limited in the time/space continuum. None has survived more than say 6000 years. So it is with some apprehension that I embark on this journey, knowing that the data collected will only, at best, be an incomplete drawing of a magnificent design and may be, just may be, as all the previous researchers through the years, I will have a tiny glimpse of the designer of it all.

12.30.2005
Pascal Diebold
Rock Cave Farm

Hypothesis:
There exist a set of principles that govern our existence for the duration of/while on this physical plane in this personal form. Those are principles that, although not demonstrable nor visible, are commonly accepted in the human experience. Those rules appear throughout our world's known recorded historical data, independently of time, location, religious beliefs or culture.
Because of the vastness and the complexity in the interpretation of the data already existing on the subject, and being aware of its sensitive nature, I, a western hemisphere writer of the twenty first century, have chosen to start this conversation with an already known statement about God. I chose it because it is my parent's culture and beliefs. Therefore I had to study these texts as part of my environment conditioning, when I was a child. Had I been born elsewhere in the world, I would have started elsewhere.

Purpose:
The Purpose of this essay is to state clearly these fundamental principles as I understand them in the context of the present time and for the present time. It is my personal view that I cannot write for anyone but myself. I am open to the possibility that others may use this text as a starting point for their search and after making it theirs, move it to the next level.

After reading the entirety of the code of Hammurabi (ca 1750BCE), I I had to choose the Ten Commandments. Hammurabi addresses daily practical questions, like stealing, divorce, posessions and slavery but the verdict was left to the chance of whether one knew how to swim and the punishment was always death…

(c)2006 Pascal Diebold

The Ten Statements

The Decalogue.
(The Ten Commandments)
(Aseret ha-Dvarîm)
Exodus, Chapter 20

I've include the Hebrew, Catholic (& Orthodox), Protestant texts and their equivalent in the Qu'ran.
Eastern point of view differs slightly inasmuch as it looks at the possibility of bringing the individual to a "god-like" state. It believes that by practice and purificative processes, one can attain a state of higher consciousness, and creative powers allowing for events that are beyond the limits of the natural laws. Thus, their first tenet addresses the physical condition, followed by the spiritual. At which point, it creates the possibility of Gods and a higher realm of existence.

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1.H.- I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
1.C- I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.
1.P-Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
1.Q- 47:19: Know therefore that there is no god but God.

1/Whether you know, acknowledge or live conscious of it or not, IaM.
Everything/everywhere/at all time even in what you don't know you don't know.

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2.H- Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; Thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; And showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments.
2. C- Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
2. P- Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
2.Q-There is nothing that equals (like) Him. (42:11) No visions can encompass Him, but He encompasses all visions. He is the Compassionate, the Cognizant.[6:103] "My Lord, make this a peaceful land, and protect me and my children from worshiping idols. (14:35)

2/ Do not make the mistake of replacing "IaM" in your limited physical plane with anything else. If you do, you would only be able to create a limited entity. The consequences of that invention will be that your whole life will shift in a direction that absolutely will affect you and all the many future generations that could come from you.

The consequence of not focusing on IaM is a shift of the direction/vector your life is, and that shift will affect every and any other element attached to it for many generations.

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3.H- Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
3.C- Remember thou keep the Sabbath Day.
3.P- Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
3Q- 2:224: Do not use God's name in your oaths as an excuse to prevent you from dealing justly.

3/Do not blame God for your choices. IaM has no position/preferences on what you consciously or not choose to be your next experience. IaM is always a yes!

Do not blame God for your choices. "IaM" is giving you always what you consciously or not, require for the next life-lesson.
Do not blame God for your choices. IaM has the space for you to have what you consciously or not require for the next lesson.

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4.H- Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath in honour of the Lord thy God; on it thou shalt not do any work, neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
4.C- Honor thy Father and thy Mother.
4.P- Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
4.Q-O you who believe, when the Congregational Prayer (Salat Al-Jumu`ah) is announced on Friday, you shall hasten to the commemoration of GOD, and drop all business. . (62:9)

4/ Reserve time to find out who I/ you are. I always do.
To live consistent with IaM, time your life to study the you/I connection to it.

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5. H-Honour thy father and thy mother; in order that thy days may be prolonged upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
5. C- Thou shalt not kill.
5. P- Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
5Q- 17:23-24: You shall be kind to your parents. If one or both of them live to their old age in your lifetime, you shall not say to them any word of contempt nor repel them, and you shall address them in kind words. You shall lower to them the wing of humility and pray: "O Lord! Bestow on them Your blessings just as they cherished me when I was a little child."

5/ Honor and respect your father and mother. It is through them that you and I chose to come in this physical form and learn your present life lessons. The more you study this relationship, the longer you will survive. The way you are today has been formed by who they are/were and depending on how awakened/level of integrity they were, it will get in the way of discovering how things work.
As you are a continuum of the people who brought you in this time/space, take time to investigate their vector/ relationship. Do this with respect, without judgments as they too came from some previous relationship. It is a study of who you are.

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6.H- . Thou shalt not kill.
6.C- Thou shalt not commit adultery.
6.P- Thou shalt not kill.
6Q- 17:33: And do not take any human being's life - that God willed to be sacred - other than in [the pursuit of] justice."

6/ Do not murder/kill others of your kind.
Do not murder or press others to murder/kill others of your kind in any way, for any reason at any time, in any dimensions. Ever. For it is murdering you.

7
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7.H- Thou shalt not commit adultery.
7. C- Thou shalt not steal.
7. P- Thou shalt not commit adultery.
7Q-17:32: You shall not commit adultery. Surely it is a shameful deed and an evil way.

7/ Be responsible for your commitments
You are responsible for your word you gave to yourself, God and every person.

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8.H- Thou shalt not steal.
8.C- Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
8. P- Thou shalt not steal.
8Q- 5:38 & 39: The thief, male or female, you shall mark their hands as a punishment for their crime, and to serve as an example from GOD. GOD is Almighty, Most Wise.

8/ Keep the integrity of your relationships intact with everybody and every thing.
What you have not created cannot be yours.
Nothing is yours, it all belongs to IaM. What you add to it is a manipulation.

9
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9.H- Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
9. C- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife.
9.P- Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
9Q-25:72: And (know that the true servants of God are) those who do not bear witness to falsehood.

9/ Do not lie to yourself and others.
You are responsible for the word you give to yourself

10
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10.H- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
10.C- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods.
10. P- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.
10Q-4:32: Do not covet the bounties that God has bestowed more abundantly on some of you than on others.

(c)2006 Pascal Diebold
10/ Beware of what you want, (and of all your intentions) for you do not know what it/they will cost you or the lessons you might teach yourself/derive from the experience.

The consequences of having what you want may be something you do not want