A Change of perspective

 It is a conceit commonly expressed that “The brain is the most complex organ in the universe”. This statement plays to our vanity and self importance, and makes us feel good about ourselves. But as we have only explored one little planet in a vast cosmos,  it’s based on very little evidence. And surely our brains telling our brains how great they are, will be  open to bias, rendering the statement of little value. After all, didn’t the gut evolve before the brain and is therefore just a tool used by the gut to fill itself with food?

Thinking of our daily lives this makes sense to me. Eating at least three times a day food dominates our routines, drinking even more. Try stop eating for more than a day or two, and you will become hungry and thoughts of food start to take over until they become obsession. Tales of staving people eating their boots means you don‘t have to experiment on yourself, but they prove the point. When empty, the gut will send controlling messages to the brain, shouting “fill me“ and the brain caves in to its demands, as you head for the kitchen or order that pizza,  

Our brains are also subservient to our gonads. When we reach maturity the sex drive kicks in and our interactions with the opposite sex dominate our lives. When you think about it, are not our lives dominated by food and the need to reproduce, just the same as any other animal on the planet?

“You need to work hard at school, so you can get a good job and then a good wife” my mum used to drum into me as a kid. How right she was. As a male, status and wealth are all important in the mating game and with out a good qualifications that would enable me to provide a stable home to bring up kids, there would be less women interested in me, especially with my average looks and other means to high status.

So our brains may be complex, but they are just an accident of evolution, tools of the gut and the gonads, that work to sustain ourselves and our species, If food just flowed into our guts, as it does with sea creatures we wouldn’t need a brain. 

With our complex brains comes our so called intelligence. This intelligence enabled us to compete successfully with other species and adapt to new environments and changing climates and meant we could spread across the globe. We have used our intelligence to develop technologies and societies that have filled our guts and satisfied our gonads with lots of babies that survive.

But where is this leading? Biology predicts a population crash, as ever increasing numbers eventually lead to food sources being exhausted or demise in our own pollution, but our intelligent brains give us options over and above our pre-programmed selfishness. But only if we care to take them. The question of our age is “As we face rising populations, man made climate change and the capacity to destroy the world with nuclear weapons, will our intelligence hold off our extinction, the fate of nearly all  other species that ever existed? After all the universe doesn’t care what happens to us, the entropy will forever increase, even if we do have the most complex organ in the universe. 

No one can predict the future, and even if someone could, the prediction would alter that future as it became known. But I believe that in this world of ever increasingly rapid, constant change, the future looks good for humans and the planet. We are aware of and are tackling man made climate change, War and violence towards each other is reducing, and modern farming methods produce more than enough food for all, if it is distributed fairly. 

We just need to do better. So think about what you and your Governments are doing and how you are behaving and voting and strive to make the world a better place, for the now and the future. Our brains mean we can embrace our biology, enjoy our food and sex, but not be a enslaved by them. If we use our intelligence for the good of all, not just ourselves, the future is looking great.