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RE: Extreme Altruism and the Psychopathic Brain.
Our body is made up of 37.2 trillion individual cells. As all lower life forms evolve to more complex organisms, they join together and reduce entropy.
When the body is injured, the liver cells do not revolt because more resources are now going to a lowly broken pinky toe.
I would suggest taking a cue from nature. When all the cells work in harmony the larger organism thrives. When cells become greedy and work to funnel all resources to themselves, that becomes cancer, killing it's self and the whole organism in the process.
Expand this out into the world and you will see where humanity is going. It's inevitable. The immune system of humanity is consciousness. Medical intervention will not be needed.
I totally believe that beneath the notion of "red of tooth and claw" and "the law of the jungle" that Nature is entirely cooperative, at least withing the boundaries of individual organisms. There is a delicate balance between self-interest and holism.
For instance, certain cells exist only to die for the organism. Mucus is produced by goblet cells that rupture to release that substance. On the other hand, the immune system vigorously fights to protect individual cells from invasion by potentially damaging pathogens. Some cells must not be damaged for the good of the whole.
Fainting goats exist within the herd so that when a predator attacks, one member is sacrificed for the good of the rest. I doubt that this is altruism on the part of the fainting goat, simply a genetic attribute that expresses itself given the right stimuli.
Humans live their lives inside their heads. We therefore have choice. From a biological standpoint we can choose to be parasites of the biosphere or symbionts. If we don't make the right choice soon, natural selection will probably kick us out of the gene pool.
Consciousness is not in the head, or brain, or anywhere else in this virtual reality. Consciousness is elsewhere.
It is consciousness that is lowering it's entropy, doing so to evolve. This is not a material system, it is an information system. This reality is computed. This is a "consciousness Trainer." The goal is to grow up and loose fear. To loose fear based belief systems, becoming cooperative toward a common goal.
More decisions can be made by two of something, rather than one, increasing it's complexity. One large consciousness, sectioning itself off into seven billion units, makes for a GREAT DEAL OF COMPLEX CHOICE AND INFORMATION. :)
Just as you play in a virtual reality game, you are not inside your avatar. YOU are elsewhere, on a computer outside that avatars, "reality." You are engaging with player vs player, yet realize that there are times when you are engaging with player vs environment.
The larger consciousness system can program anything it likes into the game. Many times it will give us fear tests. You may notice that you are having scary dreams to start. The dream state is just another virtual reality, with a different rule set.
You can do things in dreams that will not result in harm to the avatar, where as in this reality, the rule set says we can't not fall off a one hundred foot cliff, without damaging the avatar.
Later, you may be given a fear test in this reality, which could result in damage to the avatar. Like saving the life of a woman, who has just swerved to miss a dog on a highway.
Which by the way, is not criminal. Not acting to save a life, that can be saved, is.
I appreciate that you've given much thought to consciousness and the human condition. That is the best path to be on, the only path that leads to reality.
I note that you assign a "purpose" to consciousness. I don't believe there is one. Consciousness simply is: the a-priory to existence. In assigning a purpose to consciousness you deify it, make it egoic. It isn't. Consciousness simply is. The world exists because it cannot not exist. Unity must become duality before the world can unfold. Emptiness begets everything.
You liken life to a game and indeed it is. It plays out to the end and then it's "game over." Then we start again. If we win, we move on to another game. We certainly aren't the avatar, but most of humanity believes that it is. Realizing we aren't is a gigantic step.
But we aren't some extra dimensional being playing avatar either. That is the echo in the head of humanity, the ego echoing out into space in an attempt to prove that it's more than the illusion it is.
I'm sure you are referring to human life. Part of our failing as an integrated part of the biosphere is this belief that humans are more important than everything else. This is understandable because we manifest as humans and have the wiring of a human animal with all of the circuitry this whole post talks about and because other humans that are close to us are more important to us emotionally than that spider weaving its web in the corner of your window or that trial of ants cleaning up that mess you made in the kitchen. Those lives are also important, not to you, but to consciousness. In fact, unless humanity gives up this idea that the Earth is theirs to exploit because of belief that humans are the most important species, we will eventually destroy some important ecological niche that supports our existence and life and consciousness will move on without us.
This goes way beyond what I was trying to point out in the article, that too much altruism is as dysfunctional as too much psycopathy, but I'm glad we had a chance to discuss it.
Thank you.
Consciousness would teach us that thinking of fame and gratitude for saving the life of the woman is not the goal. If the man's motive is this, the test is a failure.
We are never finished learning, growing, becoming more complex, lowering entropy. Nirvana is not the end goal. Silence, nothingness, the void, is where we start.
If the test is mindfulness of lesser creatures, and one spends his existence sweeping ants from his path, so as not to step on them, while passing the child dying of hunger on the street, leaving her in a cloud of dust, the test has been a failure.
Information has been gained from all these actions. Nothing is wasted, Just as in nature.
Psychopaths and extreme altruistic acts ARE just as diseased, If the altruistic deeds are for self satisfaction, acclaim, political gain, brownie points. Doing good without thought of self, is the definition of selflessness.
It's ironic, we come into this reality as individuals, to learn that we are one.
Never fear, the hard drive was backed up long ago and the reset button has been pushed many times. We have no worries about passing our SAT's while still taking naps and having snack time.
You talk of being tested. Who is the tester?
Rewards and punishments are part of the living realm. Consciousness presupposes life.
Saying that altruism is good and psychopathy is bad is judgemental, which is ego.
Extremes are usually unsavory. A little bit of salt on your potato improves the flavor. A cupful of salt makes it inedible.
No sane person would choose ants over a child, but an ant would.
I'm a traveler, not a tourist. I once fed a couple of starving children in Ecuador. It was frightening to watch them eat. They were far too hungry to be grateful, they ate like starving dogs. Likewise, I didn't get any sense of self-satisfaction from the experience. I did it because it seemed the right thing to do. In many ways it was terrifying, perhaps a glimpse of the future.
The guy who owned the restaurant I was in severely admonished me for feeding street urchins. Later in downtown Lima, Peru I got a feeling for what he meant. I gave a coin to a beggar boy. Within seconds I was buried in children with their hands out. I gave up all the coins I had. That only made things worse. Older boys soon joined the group. They started tugging on my clothes and eventually I had to catch a taxi because there were now enough of them to take from me whatever they wanted. It wasn't friendly. It was desperate.
There aren't enough Mother Theresas in the world. If you truly believe what you say about serving mankind, I urge you to dedicate your life to doing just that. The need is certainly bottomless and whoever you refer to as the judge would surely be pleased.
There is no judge, it's all just data.