|
Episode
088 |
|
|
“In the end, I find I can’t separate brain
from body. Consciousness isn’t just in
the head. Nor is it a question of mind
over body. If one takes into account
the DNA directing the dance of the peptides, [the] body is the outward
manifestation of the mind.” Dr. Candice Pert “In order for us to begin, we’re
going to have to start with some history, some biology, and some psychology,”
Alan began as he stood in front of the television in his hotel room. Dante and Ryoko sat on the bed to his right,
while Matt sat on the edge of the bed to his left, Eliot lounging along the
pillows behind him. Alan paused as the four knights
watched him, choosing his words carefully.
“Long ago,” he said with some hesitation. “And I mean long ago. Millions of years. Well maybe not millions and millions, but
thousands and thousands of years ago.
Well into prehistory, as humanity was just beginning to distinguish
itself from other apes, the fundamental root of civilization took hold: the
distribution of tasks. The people good
at hunting would hunt for the tribe.
The people good at fishing would fish.
The people good at fighting,” he paused, “would fight.” “Humanity is fundamentally warlike
in nature. For as long as there have
been humans, there’s been war,” Alan asserted. “And so long as there’s been war, there’s
been a need for warriors. Now,
warriors were revered because they were, more or less, what kept the tribe
from being destroyed. Hunger would
take weeks to end the tribe. But an
attack from another tribe would end the tribe in an afternoon. And so, warriors developed.” “And by developed,” he continued,
beginning to pace in the quiet room, “I mean quite literally. The best warrior men mated with the best
warrior women. And they gave birth to warrior
babies. Those babies, predisposed by
both birth and by conditioning to being warriors, would elevate the next
generation to an even greater level of warrior capacity.” “Now, this happened in every
aspect of society, as it existed in pre-history,” Alan explained. “Medicine men, hide curers, name it. The job you worked was summarily your
identity. If you were good at fishing,
odds are, it’s because your father and mother were good at fishing and your
children would be good at fishing too.” “Now, this is where the biology
comes in,” he said. “The genes within
these groups…” He stopped, working to
choose his words. “The genes associated
with these jobs solidified. Became
more pronounced. The hunters developed
keen eyesight and as generation after generation progressed, the genetic
traits for keen eyesight compounded onto one another, giving the hunters ten
generations down far superior eyesight.” “So you have a certain genetic
template towards certain capabilities,” Alan said. “You develop almost a set of genetic traits
that are unique, or at least emphasized, within these occupations; hunter,
warrior, whatever. Now this is
important to understand. The warrior
genetic template can be divided into two types; the warriors without ethics
and the warriors with ethics. The
warriors without ethics would evolve into soldiers as civilization
appeared. The warriors with ethics
would evolve into knights.” Alan
paused; watching as the four perked up, intrigued but still not
following. “There is what you could
call, the Knight Genome. It is a
genetic predisposition towards knighthood.” “What?” Matt said, astonished and
somewhat disturbed. “I’m getting ahead of myself,”
Alan said. “There’s…so much
information.” He sighed, trying to
center his thoughts. He looked at his
team as they waited with worried patience.
“We have a genetic predisposition towards being knights. It’s not all that different from us being
right-handed. Or, in Matt’s case,
left-handed. It’s not that different
from our hair or eye color. The thing
is, there is an array of genetic traits that are common in all knights. A disposition towards vision that is sharp
and clear, but emphasizes movement rather than color-identification. This is why knights can follow moving
objects, but we usually have a hard time appreciating the difference between
dark red and crimson. Our eyes just
aren’t made to notice that kind of subtly.
But we can spot the slightest movement from a hundred yards in
lowlight. Other predispositions
include a strong moral compass, an enjoyment to the point of addiction to
physical activity, an assertive/aggressive nature, a natural confidence, all
of it. These are traits that are
common to all knights.” “Now, try to imagine the genetic
make-up of people like a chemistry mixture,” he said. “A lot of people have a strong moral
compass. That alone doesn’t make a
knight. But a strong moral compass,
mixed with the love of the physical, mixed with the assertive attitude, mixed
with…I don’t know, a love of edges weapons and disdain for guns, and you’re
starting to see the very beginnings of the formula for making a knight.” “Let me see if I can connect your
two very different trains of thought,” Dante spoke up with a comically
condescending tone. “You’re saying that
the warriors with ethics from back in the Stone Age developed a genetic
template that would get passed down through the ages and is the basis for us
knights?” “Yes,” Alan nodded. “O…kay,” Dante said with some
trouble. “The thing is, there isn’t one ‘Knight
Genome’ that we all have,” he explained.
“There’s this huge mixture of genetic traits. We all have some variety of them. Some of them, aren’t evident. I mean, when you consider the enormity of
the genetic domain, figuring out exactly what causes a knight to be a knight
is almost unfathomable. And these
genetic traits are not an absolute guarantee of being a knight. They’re just a disposition towards a lot of
the things we associate with being a knight.
But a strong ethical belief is at the heart of it and searching out
Chivalry seems to be what clinches the deal.” The group stared at him,
lost. Alan thought for a moment, then
smiled. “Batman. You know, the original one with Michael
Keaton and Jack Nicholson?” Nods all
around. “Okay, remember when Batman’s
describing the Joker’s plan with the chemicals and he says ‘hairspray alone
won’t do it, but hairspray mixed with deodorant and stuff’?” They nodded. “It’s like that.” “Now, we need to step back for a
minute,” he adjusted. “Now, if you’ve
got the eyesight gene that knights have, in theory have, then if you see a
circle, you’re kind of predisposed to react to it this way,” he said with a
gesture of his hands. “Barring any
other genetic or conditioning input, you’ll have blank reaction to seeing a
circle. If you hear a certain musical
pitch, in isolation, again not taking into account any other inputs or
biases, you’ll have blank reaction.” “Now,” he said with a smile, “this
is where it gets good. If you have the
eyesight gene and if you have the love of physical activity gene, then when
you see a circle, you’ll have a slightly different reaction. And if you have all the traits associated
with being a knight, you’ll have a very specific reaction to the circle. Or the musical pitch. Whatever it is. Now, if you see a circle and a line and a
dot, your mind…” He stopped. “Your mind…” Matt prompted. “I’m getting ahead of myself
again,” Alan said with an embarrassed chuckle. “Humans have a tendency to try and fill in
the gaps. If we see a series of dots,
we’ll naturally try to see that series as an actual line. We have a lot of visual and auditory traits
like this. If we hear random sounds,
we’ll try to make sense out of them.
For example,” he said, stepping by the television and pointing to the
wall socket, “how many of you see a face?” Dante and Eliot raised their
hands. “How many of you see a face, but
are too embarrassed to admit it?” Alan specified. Ryoko and Matt’s hands went up. “Even something as unassuming as a
wall socket comes across as a human face,” he said. “Now, back to the circle, the line, and the
dot, if we, knights, see a pattern, we’ll have a genetic disposition to
interpret it in a certain way. We see
a circle, we think the sun, or whatever, you know. We see the line, we think the ground. We see a dot, and we think of…a
sentence. Sun, ground, sentence. And our unconscious mind interprets that
as…I don’t know…” He stalled,
thinking. “Educational talking. Sun and ground – crops – prosperity;
sentence – education. So if we see
that pattern, circle, line, dot, we’ll be inclined to think, on a
subconscious level, that whatever the circle, line, and dot are associated
with, we’ll be smarter for experiencing or doing or whatever.” “Okay, I think I’m with you so
far,” Matt said. “But, like, what does
it mean?” “It means, that people with…say,
the left-hand gene will interpret this sound,” he said with a gesture, “as
advice they should take. So if you
combine signals, you can make a series of sounds, utterly meaningless, that
the person subconsciously interprets.
It’s like telling somebody to do something while they’re
hypnotized. Only, they don’t have to
be hypnotized. “Okay,” Dante said. “So all we have to do is know the exact
genetic make-up of an individual and we can tailor a very specific message
just for that person.” He nodded his
head, unconvinced. “Well, that sounds
useful.” “It is and it isn’t that
complicated,” Alan said. “Because of
the way the human mind works and the way human genetics works, all you have
to know is a particular gene. There
are a lot of genes that ninety percent of the people in this world have. If we correlate the gene to how the signal
will be interpreted, it’s just a matter of probability. See, part of what makes this so effective
is that we can make signals very much like computer code. We can make a signal that starts with a
sound or a visual cue that tells the person to take this one part to heart,
and that will amplify the effect. So
we can say ‘all blue-eyed people listen to this part of the message’ and then
say ‘all green-eyed people listen to this part’. We’ll hit all the probabilities.” “We hit all the probabilities to
do what?” Eliot asked. “And is that
what you’ve been doing all this time?
Matching up visuals and sounds to genetic traits?” “No, I’ve been decoding it all,”
Alan said. “Believe me, it could have
gone a lot faster if we had some better materials.” “So if you’ve just figured this
all out, what’ve we been using to control the club?” Matt asked. Alan laughed uncomfortably. “One thing at a time.” |
|