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Abstract: Present a view on society that accurately represents the structure of society that is valid from all standpoints or society members.
Definition(s) :-
Motivation: Whilst driving in the "outback" of Australia, TFN sparked the conversation that brought out and materialized this theory into a concrete document.
Lets start with a common reference point from which society began. We might assume this period will be the year 10000BC.
There are no automobiles. There are no CD Players. There is no magnetic resonance imaging technology that can detect brain tumors. There are no computers.
A day in the life of "Ug". (ed:Played by Lee)
| Time | Diary |
|---|---|
| 0600 | The birds squawk noisily at first light of the Sun, our nearest star. |
| 0700 | The Sun has moved to just below the horizon as the Earth rotates to greet the new morning. |
| 0715 | "Ug" the caveman sweeps the valley below in search of food. "Ug" does not communicate with anyone else (because no-one else has yet to make non-reproductive contact with "Ug"). |
| 0730 | Wash time. "Ug" jumps into the stream in the valley bed in order to wake up fully. The previous night was cold and this has lowered "Ug"'s body core temperature to below 37.5 degrees, making his warm blooded physiology lethargic. The cool stream quickly gets "Ug"'s cardio-vascular system pumping with Iron Molecules, transporting Oxygen to "Ug's" tissues. |
| 0800 | "Ug" tries to snatch some fish from the stream, however these creatures are very slippery and defy any attempt at being grabbed from the flowing water. |
| 0810 | Hungry and awake, "Ug" stands in the warming sunlight, now the Sun has risen 10 degrees above the horizon. |
| 0820 | Birds of prey leave their nests from nearby mountains. They conduct a food sweep of the valley below. An image of worm shapes appears in the birds brain and triggers the "eat" reflex. This consists of an immediate dive manoeuvre targeted at the worm shapes below. Before impact, the birds large wings expand to an enormous wingspan, stalling the bird in descent. Sharp claws now scoop the worms from the ground. Now an instant ascent begins. "Ug" sees how the food gathered is taken back to a nest and shared amongst the bird family. |
| 0830 | "Ug" scrounges around the dirt for worms |
| 1000 | Hands dirty and weary "Ug" ingests some earth in disgust at not finding any nutrition from the would-be worms. |
| 1100 | "Ug's" stomach tract is full of dirt, undigested bones, a few rocks and last nights dinner consisting of some toxic leaves (unknown to "Ug" at this time) "Ug" Has a slight limp, resulting from a "third knee" from a broken femur that had set at 15 degrees off true. "Ug"'s leg was broken after falling from a tree, while trying to steal some worms from a birds nest. "Ug's" front incisors are ground flat after years of chewing leaves. "Ug" has perfectly strong and white teeth, free from excess sugars that rot the teeth. "Ug's" brain has a vocabulary of 0. It only senses shapes, colours, sounds and smell. It does not communicate. It has no need to. |
| 1101 | "Ug's" body begins to react violently to the toxic leaves. Thankfully this consists only of a involuntary defecation. "Ug" gets really annoyed as the deposit occurred right next to "Ug"s favourite sleeping site, right next to the burned log that was lit by a lightening strike. This was "Ug's" source of warmth, as the smouldering log has given off heat for several days. |
| 1130 | Still looking for food, the hungry "Ug" spied some lizards, poking around a clump of twigs. What luck ! A fallen nest has some eggs that might contain nutritional value. "Ug" picks up a half-eaten egg, cracked open by the nosey lizards. Sucking the eggs contents, "Ug" gets a satisfying feeling of Hunger relief. This does not last for long. |
| 1200 | "Ug" sits down under a palm tree for a bit of a break from the food search. |
| 1300 | "Ug" gets woken up by the feeling of a cold breeze sweeping over the valley that contains the first drops of rain. |
| 1305 | A heavy rain begins to fall and the sky is much blacker than the usual rain storms "Ug" can recall. "Ug" knows hunger increases during these periods of the wet from the sky. |
| 1500 | "Ug" is unmoved by the heavy downpour of rain. "Ug's" core body temperature drops a few degrees again. This gives "Ug" a chance of hypothermia and the cold temperature means a headache and possibly death should this prolonged low temperature be maintained. |
| 1530 | "Ug" crawls towards a large fallen log overhanging the stream. This keeps "Ug" out of the rain, however "Ug" is upto his knees in stream water. |
| 1600 | A sickly fish flounders in front of "Ug" in the stream. "Ug" snatches again and again at the slippery fish, however it cannot be caught. "Ug" gets aggressive and starts pounding the water with some large river rocks. These deadens the dying fish in the stream shallows. "Ug" crushes the fish between two heavy river rocks and feasts on the medium sized Trout. Half the fish is wasted as the pointy fish bones thwart "Ug's" attempt to ingest the fish as a whole. |
| 1700 | The Rains stops and the sky clears to 50% cloud cover. Dual concentric rainbows appear. "Ug" emerges from the stream, cold and hungry. Aggressive and irrational "Ug" clasps the largest river rock to be found and goes on the rampage. An elderly deer from a group of animals forages for lush greenery along the edge of the stream. |
| 1800 | "Ug", covered in blood, consumes heartily. Some berries from the intestines of the deer had remained undigested in the elderly stomach . These had slightly decomposed and produced ethanol from the sugars present. going straight to the brain of "Ug" the alcohol deadens the mind of "Ug". "Ug" knows preparation for nightfall must begin soon, but "Ug" doesn't give a shit. |
| 1815 | The sun fades, the day draws to a close. Locating "Ug's" favourite sleeping depression, the weary "Ug" lays down to rest ... |
[ed: This 'cave-person' day maps to a typical office workers day, ie. the time spent at work roughly approximates the time spent by "Ug" in order to survive]
The previous scenario is repeated ad-infinitum until the typical live expectancy for "Ug's" at the time, usually a maximum of about 26 years.
Imagine if you will, a variation on the previous goings-on :-
"Ug", consumed the deer meat. Not wise in the ways of food preservation technology, "Ug" discards the half mauled carcass. Satisfied, "Ug" rests by the stream. "Ug" sees another human, "Ng" . "Ng" is poking a sharpened stick into the stream water and miraculously retrieves a large fresh Trout on the end of the stick ! Another Human, "Bo" sits by the smouldering log, and pulls out some cooked worms. They smell delicious ! Yet another human, "Og" watches the scene below from beneath a thatched lean-to made from leaves, that forms an effective barrier against all but the most ferocious rain storm.
As independent entities the humans cannot provide leverage for each of their unique talents or technologies.
It happens.
They do it.
They get together.
"Bo" uses the remaining deer meat to place on the smouldering log. "Ng" Offers the fresh Trout to "Bo" to cook. "Bo" offers a steaming worm to "Ng" as a trade. "Og" moves camp to the smouldering log and protects the happy campers against the rain. "Ug" enjoys the dry environment and the warm and varied food.
Society is born. [Imagine if you will the "2001 : A Space Odyssey" theme music at this time]
The happy campers gather around the camp-site to discuss the rules of the evolving society.
First, lets list some of the jobs the our society must perform:
A society leader, elected by default, based on the loudest 'grunt' orders the small band into hierarchy based on job description.
No longer must each society member simply perform the day in day out routine of gathering food all day (See introduction). Our society offers specialisation for the good of all society. By becoming very specialised in a particular area of technology, our society member can become so proficient in the elected discipline that the member can have free time to become a greater being . Alternately the member can live a day of the same time as our "Ug" (see introduction) however the member can service a larger community and at the same time gain much more experience and thus more efficiency.
At the bottom of the technology tower, shit shovelling exists to maintain a clean and hygienic society living area. The shit shoveller does a days work much like "Ug" (See introduction) however all day and everyday the shit is left around waiting to be shovelled. Our shoveller puts up with the foul stench of the do and is often called to clean up a fresh defecation. Other society members sense the shoveller before sight, by the smell and often associate the shoveller with the waste so don't hold the shoveller in high reverence.
On the other hand the 'healer' of the group represents the pinnacle of our technology. The learned scholar of medicine has learned the practice based on thousands of years of trial and error. This berry killed a person, while that berry made that person get well. The years of experience are chronicled in journals that are kept and treasured as the collective intelligence of the society from the beginning upto the present day.
What is different between the shoveller of the shit and the healer of the ill ?
The Healer is highly literate, required in order to make reference to previous society mistakes and successes. The healer is held in high reverence, yet the shoveller is an important part in the fabric of this society as the diseases spread from unchecked human waste will surely cause problems that our society can do without.
Day 1 of the our society presents the dilemma of the technology tower :- Who gets to shovel shit, who gets to heal ?
This can be answered and resolved by several means, not all of them allow for the best possible resultant society.
In some cases inheritance will ensure the healers offspring will emerge as healers of the next generation.
In some cases circumstance will elect healers based on popular option. At the deathbeds of the elder shoveller and healer, two offspring are held high, one clean and of learned blood, the other dirty and of filthy parentage. An election may elect the cleaner as the new healer, and by default the filthy to perpetuate the shovellers.
Yet other circumstances based on merit may require young students to sit for tests to prove rights to particular society echelons in the technology tower. Who is to say a shoveller, based on sound experience of observing the life-styles of the clean living and the dirty living will not have the better judgement to become a new healer ?
So clearly we have a situation that suggests we should all strive to become so very highly specialised as representatives of a particular technology . Or should we ?
Consider the person who puts the round bits on the ends of shoe laces to make the laces easier to thread through the eyes of the holes. The hands of the person will develop a particular dexterity in the manufacture of those shoe lace end bits. After decades of the same work, making the shoe lace end bits, the mind of the maker will become stagnant so too the muscles of the shoe lacer that don't get used in the making of those bits.
During some natural disaster, the lacer may find a survival situation that while very natural and everyday to our "Ug" of the past, may present an unsurmountable challenge to the lacer and the lacer may perish, solely to the the lack of the basic food gathering skills.
Take a contemporary office worker as another example. This poor person works from 9 am to 5 pm. (somewhat similar to our primitive "Ug") The exercise the worker gets amounts to lifting some papers about the place and severely overworking the meta-carpal tunnels in the wrist used in the dexterous use of a board of push buttons. An artificial sky of florescent tubes oscillate at a high enough frequency to make the oscillations invisible to the eye, yet enough for the brain to detect and slowly work away the the mental edge the drains away to the day end. The stress involved of tough and unreasonable schedules and minute to minute emergencies attacks the very heart that keeps us alive. Our "Ug" of the past may have used the extra Adrenalin induced by stress in the "flight or fight" response that gives the human body the extra edge in those tough physical situations. The office worker on the other hand simply gets bombarded with that Adrenalin while the workers body sits limply in revolving chair. The screen that conveys information remains at a fixed distance to the eye of the office worker and slowly degrades the visual accuracy of the worker. One must sometimes laugh at the remedies offered by the new age healers to combat this eye reduction : glass circles in a metal frame sit upon the nose of the blurry eyed to compensate for the eyes degradation. Other remedies consist of plastic circles designed to sit upon the surface of the cornea. These distort the incoming light in proportion to the natural distortion of the human eye lens. These must be closely monitored, lest they become dry and irritate the living daylights out of the user.
For this increased specialisation and society benefits we get the problems posed above.
Is this evolution or devolution ?
Lets answer ...
Our advanced society offers tradable "Survival Units" or currency, dollars, pounds pesos, ringgits, rupiahs etc. For the sake of this argument assume that at the end of every day our society hands us our tradable survival units in exchange for our work done. We now go shopping and have the advantage of being able to select from a many and varied selection of foods. We can opt to stay at lodgings of high class. We can trade our survival units for transportation to exotic areas that have even more exotic and different foods and culture. We can purchase gym club membership and then not get enough time to go because of our busy lifestyles.
So the currency we collect must be used wisely to help us compensate for the problems the high degree of technological specialisation poses to us.
It may also be seen the more survival units gathered, the more we compensate our bodies and souls for the damage done by the specialisation. (Side question: Should we give up now, rest time to re-cooperate our bodies in exchange for continued work for more survival units ? Alternately put, should we give up our recovery time for paid overtime ? Will the payback of the more survival units cover our increased self damage done at work ?)
Do we need all this ? No. We can still elect to live outside of society, survival units, technology and live like "Ug". Some people do this, like remote loners in Alaska, volunteers in "Earth Capsules" designed by Texan Millionaires.
In summary, Should we strive for blatant high technology and accompanying high amounts of currency ? The shit shoveller might collect a measly wage for the sanitation of society, however the nousful shoveller will sell off the shit as valuable fertiliser for exotic plants used in upper class lodgings. With tonnes of shit to shovel, the shoveller's collection of survival units may even exceed the most highly paid doctor !
The intelligent application of technology for the benefit of society will reap the largest reward. Stockpiling shit or medical journals is of no value, should they not be used wisely.
Clearly a doctor who performs cosmetic surgery or highly sought services will be a rich doctor as society demands this service.
What line do we draw for the highest technology ? That which society can use. Consider the statement of John F Kennedy "By the end of this decade we shall land a man on the moon." Perhaps the biggest achievement of all person-kind ? Of what value to society ? Many : perhaps this is a yardstick of the resolve of society. This is what can be done by combining the individual members to a whole whose sum is a greater being. Could "Ug" have made it to the moon alone ? Of what value is a space probe to map out distant worlds of our solar system like, Venus and Jupiter. We can inspire nations , learn geological processes not found on our native planet, perhaps use this to predict our own future. After-all limiting use of carbo-flouro-carbons (CFC's) in refrigerants based on research of the planet may gain us all a few extra years ?
Without society the individual will clearly be reduced to the "Ug" life-style. Membership in modern society affords the member the benefits of currency or interchangeable 'survival units', specialisation, efficiency, economies of scale, shared knowledge or tradable technology etc etc.
We might define a person who gets ahead as one who gains the most 'survival units' (or a barterable equivalent). This may be obtained by the individual by appealing to the broadest section of society or targeting the richest parts of society. With sufficient demand for an individual's services to society, the individual can pick and choose services provided to society and further enhance the survival units gathered and the pleasure in the day to day gathering of those survival units.
Technology alone cannot dictate our rating in society. The leverage provided by intelligent use of technology can accelerate our rating.
The first descendants of "Ug" would have perhaps celebrated the society in which they lived in by perhaps doing some cave paintings consisting of spraying some ochre and water mixed in the mouth over the hand placed on the cave wall.
Perhaps all this art thing was a big accident, while "Ug" was trying out some charcoal as a possible food source, "Ug" Sneezed while "Ug's" hand was against the wall, spraying the black coating across the wall. The pattern left was pleasing so further experiments generated more 'patterns'
Analysis of this art would have seen primitive works that concentrated predominantly on perhaps topics of the time, ie food. pictures of animals etc.
Great musicians throughout history such as Mozart, Chopin, Brahms rejoiced in a new era of intelligence that was reflected in the works of art at the time. Elaborate and grand works inspire even today. Did you know the compact disk format (CD) was designed to contain precisely the entire Beethovens 9 symphony ?
Contemporary musicians such as the 'Greatful Dead', 'Black Sabbath', 'Quiet Riot', 'Uria Heap' churn out a reflection of the discord of society. How Ironic the latter name is named after a character from classical literature from centuries ago.
To many this topic is sacred, therefore if this topic is sacred to you, you must skip this section now.
Definition: Religion: A guideline by which a society exists.
Of what standing is religion in society. This is answered by the answer to the following question: What building is the most revered in any given town ? The Church.
Many different societies have created many different religions throughout the globe. Muslamic, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Meher Barber, Catholicism, Baptism, Jahovers Witness, KKK are all faiths in current practice. Not all are considered good in the case of the KKK and Muslim fundamentalists.
The most common guidebook of religion is probably the Christian Bible. What is the bible ? It is a chronicle of various scenarios together with resolutions, that if followed by society will result in a happy and together society. A society is truly advanced if it has developed these guidebooks for living for reference by all. The study of these guidebooks in organised gatherings will surely profit the society by the good citizenship of the members.
Now these religions did not just appear overnight thus the knowledge presented in the religious works must have been gleaned over the millennia and thus be a truly tested work of society.
Today, Do these religions impose limits on our lives that we can do without ? Perhaps. In the extreme can they damage the society in which they protect ? See Waco, Texas, USA.
Gather knowledge from the richness of all religions, for example :-
Buddhism : The path to the most tranquil serenity is through the rapids.
Johovers Witness : Push yourself vigorously in all aspects of life
This can never be [see 'Demolition Man' starring Sylvester Stallone] Individuals constantly evolve and change. A society that ceases to evolve will become extinct.
Extra UNIX ending[ed: A small side amusement for UNIX bigots. This may be omitted without affecting the main body] In the high mountains of the Himalayas, a monastery sits atop a spectacular peak. The monks have began a pilgrimage to the monastery four months ago from Katmandoo in the lower regions. Uttering not a single vocal sound, true to the monk code, they trek to the front entrance. They enter the monastery single file, their long gowns flowing in the breeze. The black hoods covering the heads of the monks disguise all identity of the brothers and sisters (progressive non-sexist monastery). They make the final climb to the upper spire via a dark and winding stair case consisting of 365 stone steps. Forming a tight circle around an obelisk in the centre of the room the high priestess drops her hood and consults the obelisk. This is no ordinary obelisk, no it as a ASCII terminal connected to a UNIX server ! She flicks on the ON switch. The green glow of the login prompt glistens in her wide eyes. Logging in as userid "Samantha" and password consisting of her boyfriends first name, she enters the UNIX system. Unperturbed by the login, the other monks await in silence. Now, Samantha, a mere mortal gains immortality by issuing at the UNIX prompt, "su". After putting in the sacred password, a new UNIX prompt appears. That of the UNIX Super User. "su". Survival Units. The monks all drop their hoods and bask in the excitement and joyousness. There long and arduous trek to the top of the world had found the highest point of consciousness and enlightenment. |
Created: Fri Feb 04 21:26:17 EST 1994
Revision: 5
Platform used to compose: UNIX
Author: Paul
Contributing Idealists: TFN & many others
