I have written two posts about the social and cultural damage done when science gets it wrong. The first was about the fable of the “Alpha” wolf1 and the second was about Darwin’s errors based on domesticated animals.2 This post is not about science being wrong. Science got it absolutely correct this time. It is just incomplete. It is as incomplete as a numbered outline painting, lacking the richness, complexity, and understanding of true art.
Einstein’s equation E = mc2 is one of those extraordinary statements that seem universal. There are no exceptions or caveats. It is elegant 3 and it is mind boggling. But is it truly universal? Does it cover or apply to the whole of the Universe?
Perhaps a start to getting an answer to that question can be found in a mom-made birthday cake. There are three questions to ask about such a cake. What? How? and Why?
I have friends who can tell me what that cake is right down to the isotopic ratios and trace bits that we wish were not in the cake. I have other friends who, if they wished to make the effort, could trace the process of how the cake came to be, starting with the germination of the requisite seeds.
The answers to the what and how questions are totally within the universe circumscribed by E=mc2. The two answers could describe the cake down to a single iota
Assuming that the mom-made cake is a product of love4, is that love is simply a result of some hormonal soup interacting with some neurological network or structure? If that is the case, then the answer to “why” would also be within the scope of the equation. The answer involves carts and horses. Is love the result or the cause of the hormonal soup?
Love is the cause not the result. Love becomes manifest in the hormonal soup. The roots of love are the interactions, connections, and reflections of the distributed self. If you live in isolation, you will not experience love of anything, including yourself. The proof case for humans would be any feral child, perhaps the most documented being Genie of Los Angeles5. Every mammal, and others such as fish, demonstrates some degree of distributed self.6,12
In any ongoing, voluntarily interacting, connecting, group of people, there will be multiple reflections of the distributed self, and at least one of C.S. Lewis’ four types7 of love. In 1957, MLK talked about three kinds of love; eros was the love of beauty, philia the love between two friends who do things together, and agape a kind of limitless generosity of spirit8.
However we wish to name it, there are three points can be made about love.
First, love seems almost universal. Is there any minimally functioning, non-feral, individual who at some point in their life, maybe only childhood, has not felt and experienced love in one form or another for some extended period of time?
Second, even though love is an almost universal experience, psychologists do not know what to call it. In recent decades, “love has been theorized as an art, a social practice, a mode of sustained attention, a habit, a drive, a syndrome, a disorder, a way of being in the world, a relationship, a narrative, a commitment, or an ethic”8. Really? Is it that hard to define? Yes, actually, it is easy to recognize and almost impossible to define.
Third, what aspect of humanity is not parallel to, or a development of, aspects found in other organisms? Evolution rarely, if ever, creates whole new, de novo characteristics. Therefore, there is no reason to think love is confined to humans.
The proof case being that Orcas have a far more developed emotion-processing limbic and paralimbic brain structure than humans do9.
“Some scientists believe that Orca have more than just a sense of self as an individual, but also as a social group. … When you look at how they communicate with one another, how they move amongst each other and how they respond when an individual becomes injured or stranded, they demonstrate a highly elaborate emotional depth unmatched in other mammals, including humans.”10
“[The Orca ] paralimbic lobe—a brain region humans don’t possess—processes emotional and social information with remarkable depth. Researchers have documented orcas exhibiting behaviors suggestive of grief, carrying dead calves for days or even weeks in what appears to be mourning. They form deep social bonds that can last a lifetime, with some populations maintaining multigenerational family groups where grandmothers play crucial roles in knowledge transmission and group survival. MRI studies have revealed that orcas possess an expanded insular cortex, associated with emotional awareness and empathy.”11,13
It has taken awhile to get here, but the point that is being made is that no matter how love might be defined or experienced, it is based on interactions, connections, and reflections of the distributed self. It is based on a network that seems to extend at least across the known biosphere. (Limiting it to our biosphere is simply a product of our limited knowledge of out-there.)
E=mc2 has nothing to say about this network. The network is invisible to the equation and that is a huge issue for our present national culture. We are focused almost entirely on the universe bounded by the equation.
We have entered a period of American, and global, history dependent on robust networks of interactions, connections, and reflections of the distributed self, crucial to survival. Yet the U.S., among others, is busy truncating, destroying, and blinding ourselves to the universal network that humanity absolutely depends on. In our blindness, we have a limited, impoverished vision of a numbered painting using shades of grey. Those in charge, here at home, and across the globe, only see black and white.
Survival, and love, demand the rich complexity, creativity and freedom of color. We, you, me, us, and them must save ourselves. Don’t settle for grey. You absolutely know how to do it. Go, interact, connect and see your reflected self in others. Listen to their stories. Recognize that they are you and you are they. Perhaps go into the woods and sing a song. Draw the picture that nobody will see and then show it to somebody. Go outside, sit down on the dirt and look at something three or four feet in front of you. Look at it for a while and see the details that suddenly leap out.14 Don’t ask how are you? Ask how are we? And listen to the answer. Say thank you to all those people, past and present, that make your day possible.
Thanks for being here.
1) https://dexterchapin.substack.com/p/dad-vs-the-alpha
2) https://dexterchapin.substack.com/p/darwins-error-and-america
3) Elegant is not always simple. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/equivME/
4) But even if that is not the case and mom wants to be an internet Julia or Betty, there is no possibility that the equation applies.
5) Use the search string, Genie feral child, as a start. It is a tragedy compounded by scientists. The real question is could she develop a sense of self.
6) Every mammal studied, from rats to elephants and orcas, demonstrate distributed-selves and “love”. The same effects seem to be found in some fish, https://marinesanctuary.org/blog/perfect-partners-love-in-the-sanctuaries/
7) Affection, friendship, romantic love, and charity or agape
8) https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-history-of-emotions/202308/is-love-an-emotion
9) https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ar.a.20075
10) https://www.victoriawhalewatching.com/insights-into-the-whale-brain/
11) https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/the-truth-about-orca-intelligence-might-surprise-you-2-335795/
12) I do not want to get too far out there but there is increasing evidence that using complex systems of chemicals, electrical impulses, and even subtle sounds, plants exchange vital information about threats, resources, and their environment. https://sciencesensei.com/25-plants-that-literally-talk-to-each-other-and-how-they-do-it/ and https://www.sciencenewstoday.org/how-plants-communicate-the-hidden-network-below-our-feet
13) Let’s not forget to talk about elephants. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_emotional_life_of_animals_and_what_it_means_for_us
14) I really challenge you to try this. Get comfortable and just spend time looking at a two-by-two bit of Nature for maybe 20 minutes. It is eye-opening.