Brain Report: 3 ½ views on the year 2012 issue
On December 21, 2012 the world as we know it will cease to exist.
There will still be a world, and planet earth is likely to be guided by the same laws of nature as before, but major changes are about to take place.
The prophecy of the Mayan culture, joined by many religious scholars and even scientists predicts a great catastrophe on a scale rarely seen so far. Some believe that as a result; collective awareness will shift - with or without the aid of a chosen messenger.
When contemplating this possibility, one can assess the consequences in many ways; I came up with the following three so far.
Something is going to happen
The world is marching towards an apocalypse on a scale not encountered for as long as, give or take 26,000 years. Reasons for the coming meltdown vary from coming near a Black hole - hiding somewhere in the Milky way Galaxy, to the many ways humanity has misbehaved in the last 5000 years, and of course the Galactic Alignment.
The wise are already cashing in; Movies, books, and CDs are flooding the (saturated) market. Needless to say, our everyday life do not deviate as a result, and we are not going through any strange metamorphosis. Mental notice is taken though, registering the future-knowing prophecy as a collective idea. A sort of an, ‘Irrational Exuberance,’ is taking place and we are bound to join the excited crowd.
The future is not ours to see
Listening to Doris Day singing the catchy song Que Sera Sera, you sing along with joy. How simple and true this song is. A sensible thought is finding its way to the front ranks: True, things do not seem to get any better with our collective consciousness, or with matters such as pollution, global warming, food shortage, and the systematic suffocation of mother earth – Gaia. Surges of violence, Wars, greed, and crime are considered as an unavoidable part of life.
The question remains:
Why should this process suddenly stop and follow another direction?
Change is on its way, but obviously enough it always is. Everything changes constantly - every moment. Our plastic brain changes its wiring and rewrites our ‘feelings’ on different matters. Change in the ability of the top layers of Gaia to sustain human life on this scale. The particles that make atoms and cells are mingling with each other, creating, and evolving. Live cells are receiving and sending information made of molecules that were created just after the Big Bang and every now and then a mutation takes place and is being adapted according to its ability to succeed in the ongoing struggle called evolution.
All things considered, a dramatic change of events is plausible. Having said that, neither the most advanced technology of the 21th century, nor the brain behind it, can predict the future accurately.
The reason for this lack of ability is that complicated, organized systems can behave in a chaotic way as demonstrated by The Chaos Theory. The use of information already collected is not always a strong enough tool to predict the future. The brain makes calculated assumptions from accumulated knowledge; hence operating from memory, which can not in essence, anticipate something completely new.
Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future – Niels Bohr
Whatever will be will be
The third view is a summery of the first two. Consider this, adapt the other, leave your options open, etc. Again, a mental note is taken; to follow the subject carefully in order to add or subtract ideas and to weaken or strengthen the argument in favor of view number one or view number two.
Half a view
Understanding at least on a shallow level that all 3 ½ views come from the same brain center or centers. The same thought manifesting in different ways, sustained by millions of neurons firing together over and over again as a reaction to the many stimulators and triggers one is bound to encounter on a daily basis.
The difference between the views can be explained as a cross-wiring of different brain areas, offering their unique interpretation based on data already collected.
The temporarily winning highway of nerve cells will be thicker and more frequent in action than the others; enabling it to lead the constant competition between thoughts.
What is one to do? To resist is to persist. The brain/mind never rests and keeps inventing itself indefinitely. This ongoing firing of neurons is ruling our subjective reality. Observing the situation has limited effect, as one might suspect from understanding the Quantum reality. Still, we can at least tag most floating thoughts as equally irrelevant.
New information that just came in tells me I got to go and do some shopping. Many different things are needed to be purchased; some to enhance pleasure, others to avoid unnecessary pain. And some, only god knows why I keep buying..
More nagging thoughts coming in a fast sequence: The car, laundry, neighbors, plants and pets. People I barely know appear and go away.
I am hungry now, which does not surprise me, got to dress warm as it is cold outside, and please do not forget to do all the little things before leaving the house.
The stream of thoughts will flow as long as the organism survives the many dangers facing it in the 21th century; The real and the imagined ones it created.
Copyright © 2009 Josef Firestone |
