The best of all possible worlds
Just over three centuries ago, Leibniz, one of the most brilliant thinkers of his time, made three groundbreaking discoveries – the calculus, the binary system and the mechanical calculator.
Remarkably, all three were to become the mathematical foundation of modern computing.
Leibniz’s genius was fueled by a God-inspired belief in “the best of all possible worlds” as a convenient rationalization for the inevitability of good and evil in the face of humanity’s powerlessness and finite means to alter its destiny.
What his unabated optimism was hiding in plain sight was a warning not to tinker with God’s perfect creation.
Fast forward to today. Modern computing has opened doors to infinite technological possibilities. The scientific community has (mostly) relegated God to the dustbin of a superstitious past. On the other hand, tinkering with the randomness and frailties of our human condition is becoming not just an option.
It has become the unavoidable step humanity has to take to overcome the limitations of our biological evolutionary quirks.
This is the theme of The Tangled Wings, in which Melvin Konner explores the forces that drive human behavior. Crucially, Konner redefines these evolutionary quirks as “biological constraints on the human spirit”, implying our physical reality cannot be divorced from the mind it inhabits.
From the tree of life to the forest of life
In an interview about his new book titled On the Future of Species, molecular biologist Adrian Woolfson takes the debate one step further.
He proposes a revolutionary transition from documentation to intervention, from “observing DNA sequences” to “genome editing”.
“Modern biology, in this phase transition, not only in the history of humankind but in the history of life on earth, is about this new convergence of the ability to design life using artificial intelligence.”
He goes on explaining how evolution can be understood as a series of decisions nature makes through adaptive mutations that, over time, can have unexpected consequences. For who are we as a species but “this kind of anachronistic structure which has just been cobbled together over time. And there’s a huge amount of historical contingency built in as well.
“So, the end result is really pretty random and suboptimal.”
Woolfson continues:
“Every decision you make opens doors and closes doors. And evolution has been doing that for 4 billion years. So it has cut off huge swathes of possibility through every decision that it has made.
“Now, imagine that rather than having to build upon the tree of life, you could actually dissociate from history, from all the designs that have come before, and suddenly enter what I call the forest of life.
“And these are all the possible trees of life which time forgot.”
Human disease, Woolfson argues, is caused by those anachronisms that may have served their purpose a long time ago but have no relevance today and instead interfere with our biology. He then proposes reverse engineering our “grammar of life” will bring us closer to curing most diseases, underscoring the urgent need to “use these technologies safely, wisely, responsibly, equitably, and in a manner that benefits all of society.”
It has to be noted that even if these genetic solutions were fully realized, they may be capable of erasing most diseases and illnesses of the physical body while leaving untouched the deeper pathology that underlies the human condition.
Whatever their origins might be, those diseases that afflict us do not reside solely in the body, no more than their cure is conceivable without addressing the deeply rooted disease that is in our psyche.
As Osho explains:
“Medicine tries to free man from diseases superficially, at the level of the body. But remember, even when he is free from all his diseases, man does not become free from the basic disease that comes with being man: the desire for the impossible. Man’s disease means not being satisfied with anything; man’s disease makes all that he achieves futile, and attaches significance to whatever he does not have.
“The cure for the man is meditation.
“Physicians have the cure, medicine has the cure, for all other diseases, but for this particular disease of being man, only meditation has the cure. Medical science will be complete the day we understand the inner side of man and start working with that too, because according to my understanding, the dis-eased person who is sitting within us creates a thousand and one illnesses at the outer level, the body.”1
Looking at the state of our planet, one cannot help but wonder if human intelligence and the trajectory it has taken, having reached levels of unparalleled sophistication, has not been hijacked by the most primitive of our acquired instincts.
What is rendering our very existence on this planet perilously precarious is no longer our powerlessness but our tendency to use our inventiveness and adaptability toward self-destruction.
People blame it on “cognitive dissonance” or short-sightedness or plan stupidity, but the reality is that self-destructive behavior is anything but “natural.”
By definition, nature loves nature, just as love loves love: this “disease of being man” is acquired, learned, the manifestation of conditioned values indoctrinated into us since our conception.
One of the most powerful beliefs we are persuaded to accept is irresponsibility. So, these self-destructive activities are driven by a survival mechanism that defers the responsibility of our existence to a father figure, be it God or our politicians, with devastating consequences. As a result, our modern world, more interconnected than ever, is caught in a vicious circle of reckless war-mongering by domination-obsessed nations, run by these same politicians.
The potential repercussions are now felt on a global scale.
These nations are responsible for the technologically solvable climate crisis and the unchecked environmental destruction of our planet and the unsustainable rise of the world’s population. They casually normalize the obscene concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the top 0.1%, turn a blind eye to chronic extreme poverty, and show complete disregard for the dignity of human life, a growing mental health crisis, the next pandemic…. The list goes on.
The human species at a crossroads
Osho, recognizing the challenges humanity faces, offers practical solutions that even today are controversial enough to be dismissed as utopian fantasies. Imagine the reception when that advice was first given, fifty years ago! Solutions that were absolutely rejected as too radical to pass the morality thresholds imposed by the religious establishment bent upon keeping the masses in servitude with promises of paradise in the afterlife.
Osho:
“We have tried religion and it failed. We have tried politics and it has failed. Now we have to try science. Give it a chance, because in three hundred years it has made more progress than man has made in his whole history of millions of years.
“We have to prepare a new kind of man.
“Out of that new kind of man – meditative, silent, loving – will be coming scientists.
“And I am not a pessimist; nor am I an optimist. I am very much a realist. As I conceive it, all these things are possible. In fact, without them life will become impossible. The choice is yours. Give science a chance, and prepare the ground.”2
What Osho proposes is a new a path forward for the emergence of this new man, using genetic engineering as a tool to advance an ageless, disease-free humanity:
“We are capable now of engineering the human child in thousands of ways. We can give him a lifelong healthy body, from the very beginning prepared to resist all kinds of sicknesses. We can arrange how long we would like him to live, how long we would like him to be young; he can be young to the very last breath.
“There is no need for old age. Old age simply can be wiped out, just as sickness can be wiped out.
“Man can grow up to youth, and then he can remain young for a hundred years, two hundred years; three hundred years is very easily possible. Right now it can be done, but it is not being done, because nobody is interested in life. All governments are interested in death.
“All governments are putting seventy-five percent of their budget into arms. Even the poor countries are in the same competition: seventy-five percent of the budget of their country. People are dying, they don’t have enough to eat – and they are creating nuclear bombs and atomic bombs.
“Nobody is interested in life; otherwise all facts and research are available to show that man can at least live three hundred years. In fact scientists say, ‘We don’t see any reason why man should have to die, because if he can manage for seventy years on an automatic renewal system, all that is needed is that his genes be reprogrammed.’ That is genetic engineering.”3
We now live in a post Darwinian world.
Darwin has recontextualized us as direct descendants of the same family as the chimps and bonobos, explaining perhaps the conflicting forces that inhabit us as a species. What has changed is, for the first time in human history, we have the ability to alter the natural course of our biological evolution.
In doing so, we are opening a Pandora’s box.
What is truly at stake lies beyond our biology.
Genetics may be able to address its defects but a human being cannot be reduced to flesh and bones.
We can no longer point to our “biological quirks” to explain away the basis for our dysfunction.
Our task is to reexamine and challenge the arbitrary and deceptively elusive concept of what is “human nature”, of what is to be truly human.
Osho:
“Being human is a state of transition, a bridge over which the animal passes to be transformed into godhood….”4
The root of our dysfunctions that keep us in a destructive spiral is precisely the misguided belief that our inherited traits are manifestations of our true nature.
Maintaining this path is a betrayal of our evolutionary potential.
Osho:
“Violence is a disease which man has inherited from animals, and it is obstructing the evolution of his consciousness. It can be said that he who does not want to wipe out his past is denying his evolution.”4
And:
“We have come to a point of departure from the society in which we have lived, a moment of tremendous departure for consciousness. The way man has felt up to now has not been healthy. The way societies have structured themselves has been very sick. The whole civilization is almost non-existential.
“When H.G. Wells was asked, he said that civilization is a good idea, but somebody has to do it – it has not happened yet. We are still living in the shadows of barbarianism.”5
This wiping out of our barbaric past is indeed our responsibility. Hidden under the rubble of its ruins is the flower of man’s genius.
Osho continues:
“What is the need for so many idiots, the crowd, Adolf Hitler and Ronald Reagan…? These are all God-created; these are not natural. What is natural? And when man creates something, why do you call it unnatural?
“Man is nothing but an extension of life energy. If you say a flower is natural, then the invention of a man is the flower of his genius.
“There is no question of being unnatural about genetics. The fear I can understand. But every new thing creates fear, and once you become accustomed, you completely forget that there was a day when it was a new thing.”6
This is the revolutionary point that is crucial to understand: the invention of genetic engineering is the result of our natural genius, and is therefore also “natural.” Our boundless creativity is the greatest gift from nature itself that opens the door for a potential renewal in consciousness.
Beyond the body-mind – A renaissance in consciousness
Getting back to our “best of all possible worlds” analogy, Woolfson concludes the conversation by looking beyond the “reverse engineering the grammar of life” as a means to rid ourselves of disease.
Turning his focus on our global predicament, he sends a clear warning for humanity to change its ways:
“The world’s population is going through the roof. And the sad thing is, in order to sustain that, in the absence of a second green revolution, we’re going to destroy all the wilderness that remains in the world. We’re going to chop down all the trees like they did on Easter Island.”
Technology as such is neutral. The danger of individuals or nation-states using genetic engineering for nefarious ends that Woolfson talks about is only half of the challenge.
One cannot decontextualize our illnesses from the environment and the systems that generate them.
More often than not, those responsible for their perpetuation benefit from our pathologies.
Whereas genetic engineering has the ability to deal with disease and longevity, its focus remains rooted on the physical body.
Meditation addresses the sickness of the mind.
Both are deeply intertwined. One cannot rely on another technological miracle, be it genetics or a green revolution alone to undo the unconscious mess we have created. Our approach needs to undergo a radical change.
Osho takes us one step beyond the confines of the body-mind and into what he calls a revolution in consciousness as the only solution that can make a real difference:
“With man, the natural, automatic process of evolution ends.
Man is the last product of unconscious evolution.
“With man, conscious evolution begins….
“Unconscious evolution is mechanical and natural. It happens by itself. Through this type of evolution, consciousness evolves. But the moment consciousness comes into being, unconscious evolution stops because its purpose has been fulfilled. Unconscious evolution is needed only up to the point where the conscious comes into being.
“Man has become conscious. In a way, he has transcended nature.
“Now nature cannot do anything; the last product that was possible through natural evolution has come into being.
“Now man becomes free to decide whether to evolve or not to evolve.”7
The responsibility is ours.
END
1- Osho, Into the Void, Talk #1 – Meditation and Medicine: The Two Poles of One Science
2- Osho, From the False to the Truth, Talk #31 – No Religions, No Nations, No Governments
3- Osho, From Misery to Enlightenment, Talk #10 – Drop God, Drop Guilt – Become Religious
4- Osho, The Art of Living, Talk #6 – Transcending the Animal Heritage
5- Osho, The Buddha: The Emptiness of the Heart, Talk #3 – This Knowing Is a Transformation
6- Osho, Om Shantih Shantih Shantih – The Soundless Sound: Peace Peace Peace, Talk #8 – Forward to Supernature
7- Osho, The Psychology of the Esoteric, Talk #1 – Inward Revolution
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