Channel Surfers on the Hunt

Channel Surfers on the Hunt
My Proposed Explanation for Why Men Channel Surf More Than Women

The human being has always been an explorer, eager to find out what lies beyond distant plains and far-away mountains. A human’s finest trait is their curiosity and it was what encouraged them, many millennia ago, to spread across the globe. The descendants of these first explorers have carried on their legacy; the world has been charted, and the universe is now greater than a starry sky. Each day new discoveries are made and the future holds countless more.

Before man settled down and allowed his perfectionist nature to flourish through the construction of square buildings and never-ending stretches of tarmac, he roamed the vast expanses of a now lost world, as his nature was—and still is—evolved to do. Back during the dawn of the age of man those men with a hunter’s instincts were those most successful and who went on to father the most children. As our forefathers, their innate nature is also ours.

Though most modern men are not hunters, their bodies and psyches have nevertheless evolved to perfectly carry out a hunter’s tasks. To many it is at first glance an alien concept, but contrary to what many women wish to believe, a man with a remote control in his hand is only true to his hunter past.

One question which remains for evolutionary psychologists to answer is the one which asks why men “hog the remote control and typically channel surf more than women”, to quote Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa’s book Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters. It is an intriguing observation that men and remote controls have such a faithful relationship, and I wish to propose a possible explanation of why this is so.

There is no denying that early men were hunters, and this coupled with man’s curious nature, makes him predisposed to explore. In the ancestral environment—the one in which man evolved—there was no such thing as televisions, or even remote controls. As suggested by the Savannah Principle a man’s (or woman’s) brain can thus not understand that watching TV does not equal exploring, their minds simply cannot grasp that the scenes before their eyes are nothing more but the projections of a back-lit screen. Because a real landscape and one depicted by a TV are the same, as far as a human’s “stone-age” brain can understand, a man derives the same satisfaction from a real adventure as one he saw on TV.

Throughout history man has been an explorer. Though he hardly can be attributed the honour of being the first discoverer of the Americas, Christopher Columbus was no woman. In the human being’s evolutionary past women were the gatherers, the ones who stayed close to home. The most precious of tasks was instead theirs to carry out, that of raising the young, the little creatures that are the point of all human life. Any woman disregarding from the wellbeing of her children, any woman who preferred to roam distant lands in search for prey, was unlikely to leave any genetic legacy behind. The women who cared for their children—and allowed the men to hunt—were those whose genes were the most successful. We are all descended from the men who explored and the women who stayed at home.

I have claimed that men are explorers and women are not, but is that really so? Studies have shown that young men are xenophobic and unlikely to travel abroad, much unlike their female counterparts who desire little else. This was a point raised by a friend, and a point which also appears in Miller and Kanazawa’s book.  What must be kept in mind, when this concern is considered, is that it is not the young single men who slouch in front of a TV. Indeed, those who most commonly are blamed of channel surfing in excess are the men whose fingers are the home of a wedding band.

Young men are believed to be xenophobic because their status, their appeal to women, is closely associated with the culture into which they have been born. Young women, on the other hand, have been gifted with a universal appeal; their beauty and youth will be recognised wherever they go. In traditional societies it is the young women who leave their home for another and the men who remain in the group. This is the most efficient way of avoiding inbreeding and a strategy which has evolved to serve that cause. What is interesting, however, is that once a man has married he is more likely to travel abroad. This explains why the remote control becomes one of his associates and why channel surfing gains such appeal. As young women desire to travel abroad, and find a match with genes vastly different from her own, I believe she derives greater satisfaction from watching TV than does her young male counterpart. Once a woman is married, and has children to care for, channel surfing loses its appeal. The goal of her life has been attained, and nothing is more important than honing that.

Even if the status of a man’s symbols—cars, suits, money etc.—depends upon the cultures of his society, this changes once he marries as a woman’s reassurance of his quality as a mate very well may attract the attention of other women. So, once a man has married he is free to seek mates of a different set of genes in locations far away from where he was born. This, in addition to his hunter past, makes it no surprise that a married man and his TV are good friends. Perhaps they even are best friends as the electronic device allows him to meet more women through the blink of an eye than any other contact in his social network will ever be able to do. For, remember, there were no TVs back in ages past, and any woman a man beholds must thus be real and an opportunity for him to further secure his reproductive success.

Though it brings no relief to the woman whose husband’s mistress is the TV, the men cannot be blamed as it is all part of their hunter past and their genes’ desire to live on for one generation more. As with many aspects of modern life, exploring once filled an important purpose, one which now has become a liability as no difference is made by men (or women) between a real plain and one lit from behind. But as the human brain and its mind evolved in an environment where televisions were scarce, no-one can hardly be blamed for succumbing to the sweet allure of a screen with countless adventures playing before its one eye. In the end, what it all comes down to is the survival of the successful and selfish genes.

However, for this hypothesis of mine—of men’s hunter past and the desire of their genes being the reason for why the TV at times is their best friend—to be true, a man’s nature must also be predisposed to derive satisfaction from other, related tasks. This was a valid point raised by someone who knows their area well, and until it can be shown that men are more curios than women, with a greater desire to explore and experience a change of scenery, as well as a wife being a universal symbol of status, my layman explanation is little more sophisticated than what is the above.

Is There More To Why Siblings Differ?

It is a fact well-known that siblings – despite being closely related – are not copies of one another, neither in appearance nor personality. The reason for this has been the subject of debate and reasonable explainations have been offered. Although the question may be considered answered, I cannot help but supplement such an answer with a theory of my own.

If one is presented to a group of strangers and is told that two of them are siblings, one can rather easily pick them out because they are more similar to each other than they are to the unrelated strangers. Despite their likeness, however, siblings differ; they may share the shape of their nose but not the colour of their eyes – or the other way around.

The reason for why siblings are alike in appearance is because they share 100 % of their genetic heritage – as they have the same parents – but they differ from one because they share only 50 % of their genome. The 50 % unique to each sibling is what accounts or their differences.

Personalities are however not the same as appearances, and if one is presented to the ideas of a group of strangers, it is very hard to decide which two ideas have been developed by a pair of siblings.

The question of why this is so – why the personalities of siblings differ – has been answered by several people, though two may be mentioned in particular for having offered satisfactory solutions to the problem.

One of the two people, whom I am referring to, is Frank J. Sulloway. He argues that differences between siblings are to accredited to their birth order, which offers them different familial niches to occupy: the firstborns face a world of limited competition and thus grow up to relate to authority figures such as their parents, while younger siblings become rebels because their benefits do not come as easily.

As the eldest in a sibling group of five, I see the potential of Sulloway’s theory as many of the traits assigned to firstborns (conscientousness, social dominance and limited agreeableness) also are present in my own personality (though I myself would like to claim that the latter is not the case ;D). However, for the same reason – being one of many – I also realise that his theory is not perfect as not all of my younger siblings are rebels.

So, what about the other explaination offered?

The psychologist Judith Rich Harris advocates a theory presented in her book The Nurture Assumption, claiming that the parental influence matters little when a child’s personality is formed; that the similarities that exist between parents and their children instead are to be attributed to their shared genes. Further, she argues against the influence of birth order, and instead claims that it is a child’s peer group which influences their personality; that children modify their behaviour to fit into the group, something which ultimately has an effect on their character.

As with Sulloway’s theory, I realise that there is truth also to Harris’s, as the environment which is shared between siblings (the family) may be disregarded from as accounting for differences because it is the same for all and thus cannot influence individual differences. Further, I personally am somewhat of a “cultural chameleon”, easily modifying my behaviour to what my current group expects of me.

Because I know myself, I also realise that Harris’s theory is flawed, as I believe little of my own personality has been influenced by what my peer group(s) expect of me. This may of course be attributed to the fact that I am most headstrong and usually disregard from what other people expect of me – though I act according to their expectations I disregard from them in all other ways. Also, as most children’s peer groups change over the course of their lives, it may be interpreted as that their personalities change accordingly. However, this is not the case, as a child’s way of being changes little past their 7th to 10th birthday, depending on the child.

As there is truth to both the theories presented above, they can not be considered as wrong or faulty, but they are indeed flawed, having failed to fully explain the reason to why siblings differ. Thus, I theorise that there is more to the answer of the question, and that the missing aspects are present in the genes.

The ultimate goal of all life is reproduction and such a fact must also be present in the reason for why siblings differ; the differences must in some way increase the survival of the associated genes. I believe this indeed is the case; that siblings differ because their differences ensure the survival of their shared genes.

Allow me to elaborate:

If differences in personality are determined to the majority by genes and to the minority by external influences, then this fact also accounts for why there also are similarities between the characters of siblings, as they share 50 % of their genes.

Differences in personality mean that the siblings will prefer different items and aspects. Not only does this increase the availiable amount of resources – as one child may love beets and the other corn – but it also ensures increased genetic variation because different genes determining a person’s character prefer to mix with different sets of genes present in a mate; crudely, one sibling may prefer mates with brown hair while the other sibling prefers red hair.

The result of this is that the genes shared between siblings may mix with many different sets of genes, increasing the variation. If one person reproduces with many mates, its offspring’s genes will be variated; one version per child. However, imagine if a couple of people with a great number of shared genes – like siblings – reproduce with many mates which differ greatly between one another – because of the different siblings’ differing preferences, – then the resulting offspring will be more variated than a single person’s (or similar sibling-preferences’) ever could be.

As genetic variation is the key to evolutionary success, the genes which make the personalities of siblings different will be more successful in the population than the genes which give siblings similar personalities, and such genes thus spread to eventually become universal.

To conclude and summarise my reasoning:

The personalities of siblings differ because their resulting preferences then will also will differ; allowing the siblings’ shared genes to attain greater variation within the resulting offspring, as each sibling will consider different sets of genes the most attractive. Thus, genetic variation is increased, rendering some of the offspring more resilient than the rest; giving the shared genes a chance of success otherwise impossible had the offspring’s genes been too similar. Subsequently, the genes influencing personality differences between siblings will become more successful and eventually spread over the whole population, as they never are to encounter an evolutionary dead-end.

Answering the Unanswered Once More

My previous theory to answer evolutionary psychology’s unanswered question No. 8 has now been supplemented with a new aspect.

During the earliest hours of today I suffered from the usual insomnia, which I have learnt to attribute to perhaps a dozen reasons, ranging from the never-ending spawning of new ideas to the anxienty over approaching events. Neither the warm milk nor the bananas nor the chamomille- nor the lavendar tea seemed to be able to silence my thoughts to a sufficient extent. To relieve myself of the boredom bound to follow a failure of falling asleep, I picked up Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters and finished its last three chapters – which I really should have finished earlier but always found myself as being too busy to actually do. I figured it was best to finish reading my only aviliable source of evolutionary psychology before I jump to conclusions, flawed because I have not accumulated enough information.

In the last chapter of the book I learnt that my theory of why parents in industrialised societies have few children was flawed – it is not because of a lack of resources. I still believe there is some truth to my theory, but it did not explain everything. It was not my most successful meme, in other words. However, as I lay in bed, still unable to fall asleep, I contemplated the matter as I find questions without answers to be highly frustrating. Eventually, I came up with a new, supplementary, theory. (It is truly remarkable how clear one’s mind may be when the hours past midnight are spent in the pursuit of activities more productive than sleep!)

My new theory is as follows:

Although parents have to make sure that their offspring is more qualitative than quantitative, because the resources – money and time – are limited, it does not fully explain why industrialised parents have fewer children than their less industrialised counterparts.  This is because there is another aspect of the equation to take into consideration: the fact that industrialised societies are the most sophisticated, meaning that the life expectancy – and subsequent potential reproductive success – of a child born into one is greater than that of children in less industrialised societies.

Parents of less sophisticated societies need to have more children because the medical resources, for example, are limited and scarce; meaning they are more likely to lose a few children to accidents, diseases and starvation/dehydration. In industrialised societies this is not the case, or at least, children are less at risk as they are more likely to be saved because of the availiable technological advances.

Thus, parents in socities of greater sophistication need not waste their availiable economical resources on producing many children because their reproductive success is sufficiently secured with only two children – or perhaps even one. Subsequently, they can spend their availiable resources more wisely, raising highly qualitative instead of quantitative children.

And that is why parents of industrial socities have few children. – At least according to my latest theory.

Offended Genes and Truthful Memes

Science is nothing but a neverending quest for the ultimate truth. Science’s holy grail is the theory which is universally applicable to a subject area and which persistently endures and answers even the most challenging of questions. The theory which remains after all others have been eliminated can be seen as speaking with the most truthful of voices. However, while the world awaits the emergence of such a theory, there are many which compete in the battle of the memes of which has the greatest potential to survive for a “theoretical” generation longer.

Many of these theories are obvious, as often is the case in science where the simple explains the most complex. Finding great joy in reading all kinds of theories I come across several which I do not like because they seem ignorant, and yet more which I do like because their content is obvious when spoken of. What all such theories have in common is that they offer explainations for phenomenon which otherwise would be too abstract to visualise. They are the candles of science which illuminate the darkness of the world’s countless mysteries.

I often find myself nodding in agreement to the theories I read, I consider those memes valuable and as having the potential to succeed and eventually inspire the ultimate theory. Though I also come across theories whose memes I consider near stillborn, I never react in the way I have noticed some people do. Though I disagree, I try to understand, and though they at times conflict with my own beliefs, I trust that such theories and memes will be obliterated from the intellectual stage by the natural selection of truth and potential that all successful theories have to endure.

Many a wise scientist knows that the truth at times hurts and offends. I believe this to be a sign of health, as far as theories are concerned, for it proves that they consider nothing but the science and the facts; that they are objective. Objectivity means that the theories are unclouded by belief and personal conviction, and that they thus possess the potential to be applied to any related matter (and in many cases even unrelated ones as well!).

Not everyone understands that the truth is objective, however. It is hard to remain calm when insulted, of course, but if there is truth to the critique, then I am of the belief that one should consider its contents and incorporate the valid points into one’s own person and allow oneself to grow. Although I consider this belief a healthy one, is not everyone’s and some take the truth as attacks on their own person, reacting with rage when questioned instead of relying upon their objectivity to guide them.

When nodding in agreement to one particular theory I soon came to realise that I was nea alone when browsing the comments of the relevant blog post. Instead of being encouraging, intrigued and questioning as the comments of any potentially successful theory should be, the comments were aggressive and coloured by resent. This made me wonder, what is it that makes some people so easily offended? What is it that makes them defend themselves when they clearly are not personally attacked?

I have contemplated the question for a few hours now, and I have come to the conclusion that the reacions of such people is to be attributed to their genes. Though it may be the person that considers themself insulted, it is in reality the genes that fear for their future.

Genes are most fascinating collections of molecules. They may appear insignificant, but their influence is the greatest in the biological realm as they despite their size and to-humans-abstract nature they are the puppeteers which pull the strings that animate everything from behaviours to emotions and to actions.

The genes are selfish – I see Dawkins’s theory as an excellent meme as it yet has to be disproven by the over 30 years of challenges it has endured with great strength – and their ultimate goal is the attainment of the elusive but immensely appealing concept of eternal life. This is because the promise of the prospect is the final reassurement of their potential, as the ones who have travelled the farthest upon the paths of such a quest also are those which are the most valuable and prone to succeed in the future.

As people are biological beings created by selfish genes, their evolutionary goal is reproductive success. It may seem narrow-minded, but it is indeed true. People are little more than temporary vehicles in a race for the attainment of eternal life. It is only the best genes which survive the passing of the generations and they are constantly culled as their surroundings change, rendering each evolutionary generation more fit than the last.

So, what does all this have to do with people fearing and being offended by the truth?

The answer to this is – according to my own theory – that the truth may appear uncomfortable because it questions the value of the selfish genes. As some people find themselves critiqued (though indirectly) by the words of the theories, their genes’ potential for attaining their ultimate goal is questioned in turn, and for all who have come across truly self-centered people it is easy to see why this also offends the genes.

As the genes influence the human being’s way of behaving and reasoning – as the brain is the result of the best genes having come this far in the attainment of their quest – it is this effect which I have observed. The genes do not like to described as unfit and withut potential, and spoiled as they are because of their own achievements, they do not respond well to critique, believing themselves superior.

So, when a theory, for example, advocates that beautiful people are the most attractive because beauty is the visible effect of a healthy genome, there are those who can not remain objective and nod in agreement, because they become offended and claim that the truth is distasteful at best.

Their resentful reactions are the result of their genes having been insulted, the genes have been accused of having failed to build the ultimate vehicle contructed this far, that their creation’s potential reproductive success and the genes’ prospect of ever attaining eternal life is slim. Of course the genes are proud over their achievements, and as the person is the greatest advocate for their own genes, they will not allow anyone to question them, especially not as selfishness and the denial of critique is what has taken them this far.

The theories are therefore critiqued in an attempt for the offended person to protect their genes as they will not accept that a simple meme proclaims them inferior and questions their future success; the reactions are to be seen as an attempt to reinstitute lost value, a statement claiming that the person and their genes indeed are the very best.

In conclusion it may be theorised that genes easily offended by memes are impeding the progress of the memes which hold the key to explaining the nature of the reasons which motivate the genes.

Attempting to Answer a Yet Unanswered Question

According to evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa in both one of his books–Why Beautiful people Have More Daughters–and in a recent entry in his blog The Scientific Fundamentalist, there are still unanswered questions left for the theories of evolutionary psychology to answer, elaborate and explain. It should come as no surprise as the realm of science has been gifted with a never-ending supply of enigmas in need of exploration.

The evolutionary psychology’s unanswered question No. 8–by Kanazawa’s count–is the following:

Why do parents in advanced industrial nations have so few children?

As my mind is too easily intrigued and inspired by unanswered questions within fields I one day would like to be seen as knowledgeable in,–and because I have problems minding my own business,– I of course came up with a small theory, or perhaps more of a statement, to the question (which I of course should have elaborated further before posting on the blog at 2AM this morning):

Though the ultimate goal of a parent is to raise as many children as ever possible, as it is the purpose of the parent’s life and the greatest desire of their genes, there is a limit, for there are few cases to my knowledge where parents have produced children in large quantities without any sense of control.

This “limit” is abstract as there was no such thing as contraception in the ancestral environment. Though the genes desire nothing but reproduction, they can not be allowed to dictate all rules of human reproduction as it would not be very evolutionary sound. Thus, there are genes ensuring that the human (and all other animals, mammals in particular) mindsets see to the quality instead of the quantity.

This concern is the reason for the use of contraception. Though it is a modern invention, it is less tiresome than the act of carrying a child only to abandon it later because of the limited resources all have to keep in mind. Contraception is an effective way of maintaining the quality of the offspring as fewer resources are required by the bearing of a child that can not be raised without its siblings suffering.

In the industrial world there is a cost to everything, and thus it is very expensive to raise even one child. (Figures near $100.000 are often mentioned.) Without near-unlimited economical resources–or in the ancestral environment resources in particular–it is close to impossible to raise a great number of children and the reason for why few do.

For, as the genes desire nothing more than to live on for yet another generation, and the human being only is the means to an end in this matter, it is more evolutionary sound and successful to raise a few children instead of the maximum number one may produce; quality over quantity.

Are few children raised when resources are scarce, then their chances of reaching adulthood and to successfully reproduce are greater than if many children were raised with the limited resources and none of them recieved enough to reach a reproductive age.

To conclude this reasoning I would like to point out once more that the number of children parents in industrialised societies have is closely related to the parents’ financial status.

This can easily be observed if focus is placed upon the lower-, middle- and upper-classes: parents of limited resources are more likely to raise only one child while parents of somewhat greater resources may raise one or two more. However, among the wealthiest it is very common for parents to raise more than three children–it is more a rule than an exception–and in some cases the number of children may be as great at 10.

Notice: I supplemented this theory with considerations unthought of in th post above in a more recent blog entry.

Name Me President (And I’ll Save The World)

I have had a revelation. I have realised that I am not depressed because I know the world is in severe need of my talents (no matter wha part of the world; the movie industry, the local museums, the hospitals, the governments… Do I need to continue?). I am not depressed because of above mentioned reason, I am depressed because the world does not want my talents.

I went to the museum today to see the exhibition “The Human Journey” depicting the evolution of the human form. Let’s just say that it bugged me. For, I wonder, why on earth are early humans supposed to be fair-skinned? As far as I know our closest relatives the chimpanzees and gorillas have heavily pigmented skin to protect them from the sun’s radiation. Why not the early humans? I get so mad at educational museums which have such inaccurate itemson display in their exhibitions. Teaching young children false facts. Shame on you Naturhistoriska Riksmuséet!

I mean, if I were in charge of the exhibitions, I would not let such an obvious error slide through my fingers or past my eyes. Not that I have a degree in paleoanthropology or anything, but to the extent of my knowledge, I, with my limited education, know more than people with Ph.D’s. It is the little things which freak me out.

Further, had I been part of the 10′000 B.C. crew, I could have saved the film’s reputation. I would have allowed it some artistic freedom, because let’s face it, who would watch the film if it was nothing but a historical document? Artistic freedom in all its glory however, but some things are not to be tampered with. And another let’s-face-it-fact, the world is already starving for knowledge. No one knows anything. It is a sad, but horribly true fact. Blockbuster movies have a responsibility toward the people. Small, but still very important. If big-scale productions can educate the masses, the world has gained a lot.

The world needs me and we all know it. Name me the next President of -Insert Country/World Here- and I will save the world!

It is too bad I never will be offered the chance to prove to everyone that my words are the most true of all. Ah well, in another life. Or, this life. It takes too long for this other life to arrive. ;D

Theory Regarding Aliens And Auto-Immunity

I had another theory ambush me earlier today, having pondered some very different questions. Though, you should be aware that my theories are all based upon exerpts of scientific articles, so I may at times falter. Considering that I am the only visitor and reader of this blog, I can not see the harm in that, at least not to this day.

It is often so that one finds inspiration to ponder questions far different from those one has been assigned to contemplate. At least, this is the case when I am involved. I am the possessor of a care-free spirit. I will never be at ease with one single occupation in life, which is part of why I am going through such a difficult period in my life for the time being.

In the Scientific American article I mentioned in an earlier post (the one regarding alien cells in native tissue) it was also, by the author, mentioned that alien cells can be introduced to a child’s body through their mother’s breast milk.

This, I figured, in other word means that alien cells can be introduced to a body through consumption.

I have also read, though I do not recall where exactly, that prions have been declared innocent of causing Creutzfeld-Jacob’s-disease. (I would love to find out more about this.)

If we assume that the statement is true, at least for the moment, I can carry on with the theory.

I theorize that consumption of any cellular material, which is similar enough to our own, results in our body not immediately attacking said cells. Instead, they are alien cells which can be found throughout our bodies. These cells can, for example, be disguised using chemical markers, making them impossible for the body to recognize as harmful. As the chemical markers then wear off, the alien cells’ disgise is recognized. As they by that time have become part of the bodys own tissues, an auto-immune reaction has been initiated, leading to degaradation of brain and nervous tissue. It may also be so that cells from other species are similar enough to be introduced into native tissue, but different enough to start auto-immune reactions.

This theory can also be explored further, and I think that through enough extensive study, most auto-immune conditions (such as MS and rheumatoid arthritis among others) will turn out to be cased by alien cells which have been introduced to the body either through consumption of cellular material or during our time in the womb and the time during which we were nursed.

Most of the time our immune system discovers these aliens before they do any harm, or their actions are held in place. At times, our immune system may however falter, something which leads to the body developing auto-immune conditions.

Microchimerism And Theories

The February issue of Scientific American was awaiting me as I arrived home today. Its major theme was the next generation of physics, which I found to be interesting. Even more intriguing, however, I found the article concerning microchimerism “Your Cells Are My Cells“ to be.

What originally caught my interest was the term “microchimerism“ as I had encountered the similar term “chimera” before. Admittedly, it was in an episode of CSI (4:23), but I found the concept of merged fraternal twins to be highly fascinating (and equally question-rendering). I, for one, could not truly get my head around the term, for of all the knowledge I possess, the possibility of two different sets of cells coexisting, was lacking. I yet to this day have to find an explaination of the phenomenom which comforts my wondering mind.

Regarding the Scientific American article, written by a J. Lee Nelson, it rendered some of my confusion obsolete, but in turn, it awoke new questions. The article presented the subject of microchimerism and that most (if not all) people are microchimeric. The reson for this being so has not yet fully been explained, but of what is known this far, mother and child exchanges cellular material during pregnancy. This astonishing fact was unearthed due to the discovery of cells containing Y-chromosomes in women who have been pregnant with sons, the time elapsed since being unsignificant.

The microchimerism may be both harmful and protective to the tissues. Foreign immune cells may harm the host tissue and create reumatism-like symtoms. The host’s immune cells may also, in turn, attack transferred cells in tissue. The effects of microchimerism are however not all harmful, in fact, the transferred cells may become an incorporated part of the host tissue and quite possibly aid the tissue in its regeneration process.

That the transferred cells may help the host tissue to regenerate, coupled with the fact that women with arthritis often experience improvements of their condition while pregnant, makes my mind wander off among possible theories.

Of course, me lacking further education in all concerned areas of study, may be negative in the context, that I construct theories regarding things I know nothing about. Of course, there are a selected few out in the world who have come up with excellent theories regarding things, all because they did not know a lot about all the problems associated with their new theories. In the end, however, these uninformed theories have proven vital to the evolution of future hypothesises.

I think that microchimerism has evolved because of its positive qualities. That it at times is harmful may be an effect that evolution this far has been unable to correct. A mutation that leads to a deformed haemoglobin molecule has proven to render its carrier immune to malaria. Two versions of this mutation does however affect the individual in a harmful way, they develop sickle-cell anemia. I believe that something similar to this perk of life, is true for microchimerism.

Because people are individuals with individual sets of DNA, they are as a result better adapted to face different challenges. Even mothers and their children are different, all because of the random mutations which happen every once in a while and the re-sequencing of the DNA base-pairs. A mother may because of this be immune toward a certain illness or condition, while her child is not. That they during her pregnancy exchange cells, may impede the effect of their individual differences to some degree. So, by exchanging cells with her child, a mother may protect her offspring. In the same way, she may be protected by new mutations which may have arisen in her child’s genetic material. In my opinion, microchimerism exists because of its possible beneficial qualities, that two generations may benefit from benign mutations that have arisen in one generation.

The article further argues, that a child may pass some of its cells along to its mother and that the mother in turn may pass some of those cells along to her next child, means that a beneficial mutation may come to assist a new generation as a whole. This may also have sped up the rate of evolution, which generally is a slow process. By enabling a mutation that has originated in one individual to be transferred to several others, though in a lesser quantity, decreases the chances of a beneficial mutation being lost. Evolution is painstakenly slow – a mutation may happen only once in a million years and in one individual. If this individual later would perish because of external forces, without passing its mutation on to the next generation, the million years that rendered the mutation would have been for nothing. If the mutation however had been assigned a safe haven in the genetic material of a sibling (or mother) it can survive and benefit the further evolution of a species.

Let me illustrate this through an example. Say that a mouse population is affected by a disease which degrades tissue, leading to death before reproduction. One of the mice is pregnant and one of its fetuses has developed a mutation that will render it immune toward the disease. The mutated fetus and its mother exchanges cells, as do the other fetuses, making the mutation spread to the mother and siblings. After birth, the mouse with the mutation is caught by a cat and killed, meaning that it never will reproduce. Its mother and siblings do however carry some of its cells. A later pregnancy of the mother’s may incorporate the mutation into the new litter, as will the siblings as they reproduce. The siblings will be able to reproduce because some of their cells are those of their deceased sibling. If they become infected, the mutated cells may protect the tisssues around them, because of their immunity, enabling the mice carrying the mutated cells to reproduce to a further extent when compared to the mice which do not carry similar mutated cells. All it takes is for one of the descendants of the cell-carrying mice to have fused with one of the mutated cells at a very early stage in its fetal development, creating a true chimera. This chimeric mouse is immune to the disease, as well as possibly being able to pass the mutated cells along as one of its own. Its offspring will thrive and not be affected by the diesease, eventually rendering the disease extinct. This concludes that the mutation and the microchimerism assist each other in helping a species evolve.

As above mentioned, pregnant women experience a dampening of arthritis symtoms when compared to those experienced before and after the pregnancy. As it is during pregnancy that cells are exchanged between the mother and child, the child’s cells seem to have traits that ease the mother’s symtoms. This is however just a side-effect, I theorize. The cell’s main trait must be that they excrete a substance which will enable them to fuse with the mother’s tissue. The substance excreted is what affects the mother’s auto-immune condition. As foreign cells usually are attacked by the body’s immune system, it must be “tamed” beforehand. This is what the substance does.

The author of the Scientific American-article has explored this topic already, even if the results are not yet crystal-clear. I do however believe that further study of the subject will provide new possibilities for mankind. The extraction of the immune system-taming substance, for example, will provide new hope for those in need of tissue or organ transplants, as well as those suffering from auto-immune conditions.

Has the Essence of Being Human Evolved Over Time?

As of late I have found myself considering philosophical questions to the extent that they no longer are philosophical in nature, but rather essential, all in order for me to remain sane. In a time of doubt – of one’s expections on life, on one’s choices of paths to follow – these questions are more important than ever before.

It is often it occurs that a question or a thought is caught in a loop in the brain’s complicated biochemical circutery. The same phrase is repeated over and over again, presented for one’s cognitive and study-essential abilities time after another. Sometimes one is able to free oneself from the sticky grip of the question which at first seemed rather harmless. But then there are the times where this thought’s adhesive is more persistent than ever before and the only way of escaping its grip is to confront it.

Has the essence of being human evolved over time? This question has been crawling around inside my head. It has scrathed my frontal lobe, it has conquered the gap between my hemispheres, it has snuck between my cortex’s grey matter and the underlying white. The question has parasited on, me has given me no time to rest. For, every time I have closed my eyes, tried to escape the demands I face, it has been there.
What does it mean to be human? Has the essence of it evolved over time?

It does not take one long to realize that a choice one has made never was the right one. Of this, I have become painfully aware, all as my college studies have advanced. When the joy of waking up in the morning is no more, when every breath seems worthless to take, that is when one knows that a choice has been made and altered life in a way it was never supposed to.

The feeling of despair is ancient. For ages it has told man that he is in danger, that something has to be done about it. The feeling of anxiety is a body’s own alarm. It tells us when something is wrong. Depair and anxiety are feelings one would be better off without, and that is why they motivate us to rid ourselves of what it i that troubles us.

In past times the feeling of anxiety must of course have been present – if not, it would logically not exist. Every element of the human body – from the largest structure to the smallest feeling – has been crafted my millions of years worth of evolution to ensure that the human race would be sturdy in any battle it would ever encounter.

It is possible that the anxiety of ancient times was simple in its nature, I am however no expert in the field. An unpleasant, but hard to define, feeling of worry is located just below the rim of the ribcage, accentuated when the little creature which is the source of anxiety moves – triggered by bodily, emotional and external stimuli. It is a little creature in my eyes, Anxiety, thought I know better. But a feeling which is so alive as anxiety has to be more than just neurotransmitters between two neurons in the abdomen. When it comes to the human body I am sure that it is more than just the sum of its parts.

By definition anxiety is “distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune.” Of course this feeling must have been present during ancient times. There were many dangers which surrounded the mere act of being alive and breathing:

“Will the sickness the other tribes have suffered reach ours?”
“Will the resources of the upcoming summer be sufficent to sustain us yet another winter?”
“Will the children grow old enough to give rise to a new generation?”

Anxiety is however not a constructive feeling per se. During short periods of time it may be constructive in its effects of being a motivational force. The human body is however fragile (not to external injury) but to what it is capable of doing to itself. Prolonged expoure to anxiety hurts the body, being deconstructive to the structures which make up the organism. If anxiety was designed to fulfil such a purpose, then I personally doubt it would ever have been incorporated into human nuture throught the course of evolution. For, the skills humanity have aquired are all supposed to help and motivate her, push her forward to face new frontiers. These skills were not designed to be the shovel with which she slowly undermines herself.

In the modern society, among all the sparkling inventions and shining symbols of luxury and abundance, anxiety is a dirty host which grins and sneers when it has dug its teeth far into its next victim. Why Anxiety glee? Because it knows it will not let go of the human sould easily. For years it will tains it, paint it black with its promises of misfortune. All in the name of destruction, which irt so well represents.

Of this I have been aware for some time now. Ever since I made a terrible choice a few months ago which has come to affect my every day ever since. In April (which seems to be so far away now) I chose not to pursue my life’s dream, but to settle for something easier and more simple – something which would help me aquire the point of my whole existance earlier. It was a decision which was not wholly flawed, but close to being so. This choice of mine has haunted me since the late days of August.

Since then, I have been pondering the essential questions of life.

“What is the point of being alive?”
“What am I supposed to do with my life?”
“Who am I?”

For years, my whole life to be exact, I have been sure of who I am, who I was supposed to become. I still know what I would like to become the most, who I am deep inside. It is just that there are some obstacles which have to be conquered before then, some problems which have to be solved. I have based my whole life upon something I am not sure of, nor the reason for me being so convinced.

Had I only stopped and asked myself who I truly were, perhaps then the true me would have answered – truthfully. One question I already have answered. The answer I keep close to my heart. I yhope for that the answer will give me energy to move on, that the reassurance of having one of life’s questions answered would help me subdue the hungry beast of anxiety. That this is true, I already know. It is the only star upon the pitch black heavens of my life.

The other questions are what nurture Anxiety. Every time I release the cognitive firewalls my body has created to presrve my sanity for a later day I nurture the beast which is curled up just below my ribcage. I imagine it being similar in appearance to a porcupine, raising its spikes in delight from having been nurtured yet again. It grows larger and larger, more and more fierce. It rolls around inside me, it tastes what my insides are like in flavour. (I imagine my taste is as dull as my spirits, something whoch brings me some joy, knowing that Anxiety will not be dining on delicacies.)

The questions which Anxiety draw their energy from are the ones to which I have no answers.
“What am I supposed to do with my life – should I do what brings me joy or what brings me the aids of fulfilling my goals?”
“Should I continue walking the path I have chosen to follow, even if half a year upon it has brought me nothing but despair?”

The most sentient question I should ask myself in this context is why I even ask myself all these questions. I already know the answer to them. And by definition, knowing the answer to something is the opposite of having an unanswered question.

So, what is it which makes me suffer from anxiety? What is it inside me which nurtures the little beast inside me, whom I have come to know as Anxiety?

To these questions I already have the answers. It is the fear of losing control of my life which brings me all this sorrow. I know what I have but I do not know what I may recieve later on. The wise part of me, the part which has survived the great darkness of Anxiety, tells me that I should gamble for once ion my life. For, the one who never bets will never win. The reasonable part of me, which is less subdues by Anxiety, then counters with telling me that gambling is a situation aimed in only one dierction – loss and eventually depair (which is another name of Anxiety’s). In gambling the gambler never wlaks off with the pot of gold. An outcome like that was never the point of gambling, thus it is also knows as hazard games.

So, here I am, stuck inbetween two absolutes. The reasonable and the wise one. I can not side with either one for they are both equally large parts of me. Without either of them, I ould simply not be me.

Can questions give rise to answers? Can one question give rise to more than one answer? Has the initial question I asked myself been answered yet? Are there questions which never will be answered?

No question will ever be answered fully, something will always be left unsaid, unthought of, unanswered. Questions give rise to answers, that is their nature, their sole point of existance. The inital question will never be fully answered, but part of it has been illuminated.

Has the essence of being human evolved over time?
My current state of mind says that it has. As well as that it has not.

Not, in a sense of that anxiety is part of the human creation. The “distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune” in part of human nature. As a part of it, it can never be removed. Thus, the essence of being human has not changed over the millions of years it has been exposed to change, all because the human being is more than the sum of its parts – which is the essence.

Then again, what is the point of being alive? Is it not to give rise to a new generation of people who eventually will come to ponder the point of being alive? In my eyes it is. In the world mankind has found itself in today so many essentials of life have been impeded by constructions which will serve no purpose the day we are gone. Because of such insights, the only sentient conclusion is that life is too short to not enjoy. For, in a hundred years, no one will care whether or not I came to terms with myself. In a hundred years, it will not matter. For, by that time, I will have given rise to people who ponder the same question I struggle with for the time being.

Already knowing the answer to my problems, though I do not wish to admit it to myself, one may wonder what I am doing with my life. For a person who is not me, I must appear to be self-desructive – insisting upon doing things I could not care less about and which bring me grief.

In a perfect world, there would be no such thing as anxiety. In a perfect world I would follow the directions my heart has written down for me. If I only chose to disregard ffrom the torn parts of myself. If only I chose to see what plan my heart has laid out for me to follow.

For really, it does not matter whether or not the essence of being human has changed over time. What matters is what is for the moment and the best way to treasure it.

(If advice from others is easier to listen to than one’s own, then listen to someone who offers advice. Following one’s heart is the wisest point of action. To do things which bring one no joy is pointless. By the time one’s life has come to end, one will only regret what one never did. Like following one’s heart and not having lead the perfect life, but the life which made one happy. For, all human beings, all people, are wonderful creations who deserve to die with a smile of success upon their lips as the graduate from life.)