A Chip of the Old Block

The Alchemistry Hobbyist

There are times when I feel like the old alchemist … pondering on the possibilities of nature … working on a bunch of experiments … and learning to make toast … over a Bunsen burner. And I think about the men of vision … who have gone before … men like Jules Verne … and H.G.Wells … and it puts me in a strange place … of relating to such folks. In that strangeness … I allow myself some levity … about life's expectations.

The Indics wrote the Puranas … a virtual compendium of life's purpose … and it cultivated an attitude … in the generations that followed. It was an attitude … that viewed man as being capable of anything. So when I encountered the suggestion recently … that nature … seeks to partner with man … for the cultivation of the next specie … I should have jumped at the suggestion … instead I found myself … running away in disbelief.

Recent research into the human genome … AI … cloning … and stem cells … made a convincing argument that … man is indeed … prepped for something … in the way of a new specie. And then there's the unprecedented opening of the mind of the individual … as regards the workings of the male and female experience … including our propensities for fertility … forms of man … and the reproduction process.

There's no doubt that it has caught many by surprise. But the gradual and persistent revelations … I have encountered over a 40 year period … is simply impossible for me to deny. I was fearful for my reputation as an academician … while I was working … but now … I figure I need to speak of it … share it with others … and find a consensus of views regarding the matter. What I might do with that … I don't know … but it seems like the place to start.

The fertilization process in a woman … and the germination of the baby into fetus … is a phenomenon … that engages the mind of the woman … as much as the blueprint contained in the gamete. In a strange way … it leaves an imprint on the mind of the woman … and in a man … it reproduces her experience … for the man to gain an insight into the process. No doubt … a large part of the process … is entirely unconscious.

And what would anyone say … if I remarked that … I have been introduced … in a conscious manner … to facets of the process … as if all men have been doing it all the time … over the ages? Why does it do that? It seeks to advance … from one generation to the next … and it seeks to borrow from the man … his perceptions of his self … his views of the world … and how he has learnt to adapt to the changing conditions in society.

It seeks to have the man understand … and to transfer that understanding to future generations. It may not rely on just one man … but every individual in every part of the world … who may contribute in some way … to the development of the blueprint for survival. It's from the life force in us … and its created an incredible transformation in my thinking process … particularly my concerns for society … and persuaded me that … it's undertaken from within … by the birth of new lives.

Life … I discovered … comes from enthusiasm … a special joy that it experiences to play … have fun … understand itself … and to experience the greatest height … that it can evolve to. I now have an idea what causes mad-cow disease … why whales beach themselves … avian flu … autism … HIV … ebola … and certainly … why men are attracted to other men. I dunno if I can help anyone … prepare a pill to remedy such ills. They occur because of the design of creation … and the need to collate our experiences … into a coherent whole.

I saw this TV show one time … where a little old lady … was trying to inform the desk sergeant … at the police station … that the world is being invaded by armies from Mars. I told myself … I'll hate to find myself … in that position. She got it mixed up with her … first sexual experience … and is now experiencing her postponed fears and projecting them … as a Mars invasion.

I am however … entirely grateful for coming to understand myself better … in the context of the times. Its helped me to understand the way my parents portrayed themselves … my brothers … sisters … the ex-wife and daughter. And I've grown to understand my neighbors … the dynamics of my community … and the rudiments of the world's society. Its put me at peace with what the world is … and brought to rest my reformist attitude … as a young man. It ...is ... a fair world.

But aside from the titbits … its wonderful to wake up in the morning … and marvel at the way … the world manages itself. I read recently … in a science journal … that physicists are making the call to view … the properties of physical matter … as engaged in a play … in its creative potency. There's no doubt … that if man crosses the great barrier to knowledge … he'll be doing the same. Simply a matter of … a chip of the old block.