Audit of Humankind: The Explanation, #3

1. The Singularity of Humankind

Human Nature

Space Time Management

Creativity

Imagination

Learning

Choices

Growth Mindset

Challenges

Ruling Life

Human Nature, Consciousness, and Mind Reveal Humanity

Human nature, consciousness, and mind. Maybe the 3 biggest enigmas of our time. Certainly stumping science, philosophy and religion. Here's what they are.

Human nature, consciousness, and mind, together, represent the major singularity of humankind. Human nature defines humans and consciousness as well as mind are the overriding elements of humanity. Of these two, the human mind represents the scientific focal point, particularly in the mind-body dilemma.

Let's start identifying the meaning of some basic concepts.

Human Nature

Human nature has two parts. First, human, denotes a man or woman of the homo sapiens race. In 2021, visiting a zoo, anywhere in the world, we visitors can easily distinguish humans from animals. I'm referring to contemporary human beings because as soon as we get into any other homo genus we're into the prehistoric and there, things get blurry. We will clarify this controversial issue later in Origin of Humankind. Human in human nature refers to the essence of humankind.

Second, nature, in human nature, pinpoints our fundamental characteristics—beyond standing upright, possessing a large brain and communicating via language, it includes our ways of thinking and feeling; that humans possess naturally. When you see a horse, dog or cat, you recognize it instantly because of its nature, its natural defining features. When we talk about a woman with feline characteristics, it refers to her grace of movement. We're applying a natural trait of a cat to a human.

King Richard earned the nickname LionHeart because his major accomplishment of being a great military leader characterized him. Frank Sinatra was the Crooner from his singing style. You have Ivan the Terrible and William the Conqueror named for what they did innately. They had those skills and inclinations both naturally and with additional development. It is human nature to be intellectual and emotional. Nature in human nature refers to the characteristic accomplishments of humans.

Sam's Reflections

At a given point in time, I might decide to add the following comment to The Explanation Youtube channel:

Because of the nature of social media, and reactions to this type of controversial subject matter, comments are closed on this Youtube channel. Your comments are welcome. Contact The Explanation using the contact page at the website.

Referring to the nature of social media immediately calls to your mind an image of what goes on there. You can associate with this announcement and have no doubt about the nature of that media. Just how devastating wrongly oriented comments can be. It's a well-known characteristic. The idea is not to eliminate contact, but to have a say in what appears where.

Like the nature of social media, the term human nature refers to the defining characteristics of what humans do. Now let's break it down and see specifically what those traits are.

Consciousness - Qualities that humans exhibit

The Cambridge Dictionary defines consciousness as the state of understanding and realizing something. The Oxford Living Dictionary defines consciousness as The state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings. A person's awareness or perception of something. And The fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world.

The key concept to consciousness is awareness. At this beginning point in our explanation retain the last definition above, a person's awareness of themselves and the world. Put in other terms, a human becomes aware of their own humanness and their surrounding environment.

With awareness of humanness, we are going to show the parallel between the human in human nature and this consciousness of being human. The first step to being human is this consciousness of the existence of self in a world with elements and other people around us and beyond.

Every human ever born has this quality of awareness which grows as a human being ages and matures. In Inventory of the Universe, I compared animal and human intelligence. Animals do have a limited awareness, but human sensibility of themselves, and especially the cosmos around, far outstrips anything to do with the animal kingdom. This is due to the presence of consciousness in humans.

In this chapter, we are turning over the pieces of the puzzle. What it is to be human. The key piece is human nature. The contours of that piece include consciousness and next, mind. In the book Origin of Humankind, The Explanation shows exactly what this piece is, where it comes from, where it resides and why humans alone possess it.

Mind

The mind is the last, but far from the least, of our trio of humankind's key characteristics. Once we realize awareness characterizes humans, we see that there's an immediate consequence. Being aware of ourselves activates our human capabilities. Being alive and awake tells us about our being and doing.

Here's a short-list of your traits you become aware of: cognitive aspects such as imagination, perception, thinking, intelligence, judgement, language and memory, as well as noncognitive aspects such as emotion and instinct. You realize you can mobilize each of these faculties and many others to impact your own self and your neighboring environment.

The activation of these human qualities to impact oneself, others, and the material world around us is only possible because humans possess a mind. Mind alone empowers our inspiration and aptitudes, giving this third human constituent the prime spot of describing the nature of what it is to be human.

In the term human nature, the mind animates humans and thus describes their very nature. The mind is the nature in human nature.

The goal of this chapter is to give a concise overview. Human nature is to have consciousness, the possession of awareness of self and the world. But there is much more. Mind confers on each human the capacity to act on their awareness and impact themselves, others and the world at large. This is what makes humans human and is unique to humans.

These three elements are intricately interwoven

For definition and descriptive purposes we discussed each one of the trio individually, but they are an inseparable threesome. The composition of the human nature is consciousness and mind. Consciousness characterizes humans and is not possible without mind. Mind is the motor of consciousness and together they give rise to human nature.

In this chapter, we're revealing these characteristics and witnessing how they identify humankind as a unique species. They set the tone for the rest of the book. We will not resort to science, philosophy, or religion to answer the question what is the nature of humans? There are too many contradictory theories and the intention of The Explanation is not to be the arbitrator. Our role is to turn over the pieces of the puzzle, set them right-side up, show the contours and how they assemble together. We don't start with the conjecture of other sources; we begin by establishing the pieces of the puzzle.

This book, Audit of Humankind, will whet your appetite with down-to-earth reality of what it is to be human. There is enough evidence to define humanity. Since you've read these lines, you're human, and I'm sure you know it. With all your foibles, weaknesses, strengths, health and even mental issues, you're still human. We'll see many identifying signs.

The goal of The Explanation is to present a coherently assembled puzzle of what it is to be human. In Inventory of the Universe, we started by laying out, and turning right side up, the pieces, the components of the Universe. In Audit of the Universe we saw the human impact on those pieces, including our physical bodies and cognitive minds. In this book, we're turning over the key pieces of the puzzle concerning humankind. Exactly what it is to be human and our accomplishments as evidence of our humanity.

The mind plays the central role in all our thinking and activities. This is what we're going to discuss. In the book Origin of Humankind, The Explanation explains why humans alone possess these attributes. What the role of the mind is and its origin. Subsequently, The Explanation reveals where to find the proper rules permitting us to manage our minds conveniently. Human nature, consciousness and mind are the three key pieces in our puzzle. We cannot assemble the final picture puzzle, composed of millions of pieces, unless we determine the proper contours of these vital subjects.

Lumps of Clay

To help us grasp the role of our trio of stars, we're going to use an analogy, a lump of clay. Yes, at first sight, there's no comparison, but bear with me.

Did you know no two lumps of clay, even from the same batch, are identical? The composition of clay is minerals, water, and the remains of all species of plants and animals. The two main minerals are aluminum and silicon but can include iron, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and calcium. Together with the plant and animal residues, all of them in various degrees, they present lumps looking similar but with slight differences.

Other properties are color; whites, grays, browns and reds. Texture from smooth to rough, and porosity, the varying capacity to absorb water. No two lumps of clay are identical.

Once you've formed your clay into a vessel, you fire it anywhere between 650 to 1100 degrees Celsius (1200 to 2000° F). We use clay to manufacture cheap flower pots to luxury porcelain, simple bricks to magnificent finely sculptured statues. The sheer amounts of raw clays is immense, and the products manufactured are multitudinous.

Plasticity is the key property of clay. The ability to mold it into a million shapes depends on the rigidity of the minerals and the amount of water present. It's the malleability of clay that makes it such a widespread and precious commodity.

What has this got to do with human nature, consciousness and mind? After all, I hope we'd all agree; clay is a non-living substance.

Clay and Humans

Like clay, the human body is composed of minerals. We discussed their make-up in Inventory of the Universe, Section 8, Bodies Alive. Suffice to say, no two human bodies are identical.

All clay, no matter the varieties, is clay.

All human bodies, no matter the varieties, are human bodies.

Obviously only humans can work with clay to create a myriad of items. But to do so, they must be aware of the qualities of the clay they choose, depending on the article they want to fabricate.

Please allow me to imagine and ramble a bit here. Suppose, just suppose, the water in the clay were alive. Yes, it's ridiculous, but we're imagining. The first thing the water would know is its surroundings. Then the properties of softness, rigidity, colors, even the mineral composition of clay. Keep imagining, if the water could see it would visualize other pieces of clay in various stages of molding and even some pottery, plates and statues.

Here's the point, if the water were alive it would possess the quality of awareness regarding its surroundings.

We talk about awareness for human beings who are alive. This is consciousness.

Together, all the organic and non-organic elements of clay and the awareness of the water (imagine) permit the clay to realize I'm a lump of clay with certain properties and qualities.

Similarly with humans. Their awareness, because they're alive, allows them to see themselves, their body and limbs, then their properties by experiencing interaction with objects (wood blocks, paper books...), their own bodies (thumb in the mouth, hand on face...) and the bodies of others (cuddling, bathed by parent's hands...).

This awareness is human consciousness in action. Consciousness that grows and becomes more aware of itself, society, the world and the interrelationships.

Water and Mind

Imagine again that living water in the clay. It's now aware of itself, I'm clay, it's conscious of its viscosity, its composition, it's seen the potential via other processed clay or finished vases and figurines. Now, the water is thinking, I don't want to be just a lump of clay, I want to make something of myself.

This starts a thinking process involving its particular qualities, potential future possibilities. This is what I can become; a pitcher fit for a queen, maybe for her favorite wine, then I could adorn her table every day. What a future that would be.

The water would then have to acquire all the know-how and apprenticeship expertise to mold itself, the lump of clay into that exquisite chef d'oeuvre to receive the Queen's approval.

Similar with humans. Once they're aware of their surroundings and their own potential, they have to decide how they are going to fit their talents and skills to the society in which they will thrive.

With humans it is the mind, counterpart of the water, performing the analysis, the choices, the planning, the guiding of the members of the body, mouth, hands to accomplish the goals it sets.

The mind reasons about the nature of the physical body and mental cognitive capacities. It devises a life, professional, social, recreational plan to capitalize on the strengths and make something out of life.

Humans can base their life project on their nature to help, to play football, be an adventurer, etc. We can think of all sorts of people who have exercised their consciousness and mind to become professional nurses and firefighters helping others, athletic stars, or pioneers in medicine and space travel.

This is the pathway of being aware (consciousness) of one's talents, and reasoning (mind), setting personal goals, based on one's nature which only humans can do.

Human nature is awareness (human) coupled with mind (nature).

Consciousness, awareness changes over time, often beyond our control. A baby, toddler, teenager, adult and senior have various levels of awareness. Health (schizophrenia, drugs, mood shifts), accidents, and life experiences cause humans to have mild, harsh, even fluctuating shifts of awareness.

Mind and its capacity to govern our being and activity is also subject to all the vicissitudes of life. Stress, natural disasters, loss of a companion can upset one's thinking ability, one's reasoning mind.

The notion of plasticity covers all the minute-by-minute, day-by-day, year-by-year fluctuations and adjustments of awareness and reasoning, consciousness and mind, the nature of humans each of us possesses. It's this ever-changing plasticity that makes us unique individuals. Also, unpredictable, mysterious and fascinating individuals of uncertainty and potentiality.

This book, Audit of Humankind, covers the life-drama that each human being, regardless of race, language, nationality, or gender plays out. This is the story of what it is to be human.

Human nature and book summary

The clay water analogy is not haphazard. When The Explanation reveals where human nature originates and why each human possesses it, this picture will be more evident. For now, we want to remain objective with explanations that are clear and straight-forward. Unfortunately, few people point us in the right direction regarding explaining the nature of humans.

Let's see how the subject matter of this book relates to human nature.

First consciousness. Awareness is only one factor of being human. It is the primary key because it opens up recognition of the rest of the components of the whole human. This first Section of the book is the Singularities of Humankind. Each singularity pertains to a quality that only humans enjoy.

Space time managers of their environment.

Creators of services and products.

Imaginators of all types of stories.

Learners and Acquirers of knowledge.

Choosers and deciders of their future.

Growers of their abilities and skills.

Rulers of life and accomplishers of projects.

These are unique qualities characterizing each and every man and woman who walks the face of this Earth. We all know, to one extent or another, we possess these traits. It's the awareness of our consciousness that permits this comprehension. When we begin to understand our physical and cognitive capacities, then we are AWARE. It's a good exercise to write down your attributes, even discuss it with those close to you. Being aware of your particular strengths helps you prepare for your life pathway. You are human.

Second, mind. Once you're aware of your strengths, its time to act on them. Your mind proceeds to planning and accomplishing mode.

Sections two through five of this book explain more singularities humans should be aware of. But especially, your actions, what you are to accomplish with those characteristics that make you human. The achievements you will reach by activating and perfecting your qualities are only possible because, as a human, you possess mind. You will be known by what you accomplish. As a human, this will be your nature. Human nature.

Here are the four Sections related to the human mind.

The keys to How Humans Function.

The common denominator of How Humans Socialize.

Humankind's incredible accomplishments. How Humans Rule.

The primary mental capacity of humanity. How Humans Reason.

Those four areas sum up the lifetime of every human being. Each person will be different in each of these fields. We'll be human and have our nature. The nature of humans.

We must see these pieces of the puzzle to understand the story of humankind that is playing out here on Earth. Hopefully, when it is presented in this light, it will be easier for you to grasp what human nature is and especially what your human nature is.

Space Time, a Human Singularity

Search Google for 'space time', and all the answers will only be about physics and mathematics. Big Mistake. Humankind's daily life and space time are inseparable. Everything you do every day is space time management.

Space time is not just an incomprehensible scientific theory for ordinary people, which bores the average person and most intellectuals. This phenomenon is a day-to-day, minute-by-minute real-life singularity affecting every human being. Here's what you've never learned about space time.

We're discussing space time as a part of what characterizes each human and nothing else. The Explanation is out to answer the question: How can we bring peace and prosperity to Humankind? Well, if you don't know what the essence of humankind is, how can you begin to answer that question. That's why The Explanation is establishing the basics, some you won't even find elsewhere.

What is a human being? Think about it, define it. Here's what the Oxford dictionary says:

A man, woman, or child of the species Homo sapiens, distinguished from other animals by superior mental development, power of articulate speech, and upright stance.

True, but it is as far from a full definition as Sirius, the brightest star in Earth's night sky, is from our planet: 8,611 light year.

In Inventory of the Universe, I elaborated on some differences between animals and humankind. You might think that's all there is. Well, it barely scratches the surface and was only to whet your appetite. This Section, and indeed, the entire book, Audit of Humankind, give you a much more complete answer.

We've spent the last two Chapters discussing one trait pinpointing the singularity of humankind: individually and collectively, humans are two-faced. As humans, we are inhabited by dual nature, which is capable of the best of good and the worst of bad. Each of us possesses various degrees of both these ingredients.

Dual nature is one of our innermost human characteristics, one which we discuss little, maybe because it's a bit embarrassing to admit we possess a faulty-dark-side.

Managing your own bit of space is a human singularity.

Let's zoom out, way out and look at another unique distinctive human propensity. Each of us—every single human being—rules and manages their own little environment. We have authority over our own small piece of space and time. When I use the term space and time, we immediately think in terms of astrophysics, cosmology, Einstein, and Hawking. Such meta-concepts are well beyond the vast majority of us—including myself. We don't bring the idea down to our everyday lives. Yet, it is so present.

Space

In the Chapter of Inventory of the Universe about Our Earth, I pointed out how everything humankind does is associated with the physical components of our planet. I stated our 24/7/365 activity is divided into four areas: work/eat/play/sleep. Let's adjust that to work/play/sleep—each 24 hour day we devote about eight hours to each of these endeavors. I defined play as all our non-work-non-sleep activities, including eating.

Except for a few hundred astronauts, all of us have lived our lives on Earth, in our shared space. Each of us has our work-space. It can be an office, factory, truck, airport, ship, wherever you spend your working hours, the time part of the space time equation. Space includes everything, every physical item within that area you use to do your work, including the invisibles like air you breathe, electricity to run tools, odors in the kitchen, or heat in the gymnasium. If you're a mechanic, it includes your workbench, tools, electronic equipment, and the car or locomotive you're building or whatever needs maintenance.

Time

Age and chronology are fundamental notions of time. History is how long ago (how much time) an event is dated. We talk about the chronological order of events leading to a crime, the timeframe for the accomplishment of a project, or the Gantt chart and flow-chart for plotting the construction stages of a building. We project (time) the opening of a new shopping mall and sometimes (time) have to postpone (time) it because of delays (time).

We clock-in (time) on arrival at work and time-stamp (time) important registered letters. We are punctual (time) for a departing train and sometimes late (time) with paying taxes. We procrastinate (time) when it comes to cleaning the house (I do!). Most count time by wearing a wrist-watch—that's how aware we are of this commodity.

Everything we do (space) involves the notion of time. Human beings cannot remove themselves from the space time equation. Time flies, and we have to make the best use of the space we manage.

Time magazine was the first weekly news (narrative of something in space at a specific time) magazine (the notion of space, the use of paper, ink, printing, delivery) in the United States. The idea was so the busy person could digest the essential news in an hour (time). Hence the name Time and the use of the slogan Take Time–It's Brief. That's the micro-investigation of space time. Of course, there are shorter periods of space time: Phenomena like Usain Bolt's 19.19 seconds (time) two-hundred meter (space) world record.

Brief History of Time From Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen Hawking is the history of the universe chronologically. It is a macro-investigation of space time for the layperson, which has become a best-seller. In the Hawking dimension, we know the universe is expanding (the notion of space) at a specific rate (the notion of time), which is faster (the notion of time) than the speed (time) of light (space).

All humans are continually juggling the space time equation.

Some have wondered about when (time) I started thinking about and writing The Explanation series? (space) What was the chronology (time) for deciding on and then getting the various domain names (my space address) like TheExplanation.com (which belonged to a rock group with this name), InventoryOfTheUniverse.com and AuditoftheUniverse.com were immediately available and finally OriginoftheUniverse.com, (which belonged to someone who had a theory on its origin)? It took about five years (time) before I gladly settled on those names. They had to be short, memorable, and entirely related to the subject.

It was also at a time when I ran into the writings (actually a TED Talk) (space) of Simon Sinek on What, How, and Why and realized these three titles fit that schema: Inventory = What; Audit = How; Origin = Why. That's the space time or brief history of how I used myspace and mytime concerning the weekly blog posts, which became the seven books in The Explanation Series.

Just like the six-armed lady in the image above, with a watch on one of her wrists, each one of us is continually figuring out how best to use our time: How long (time) will it take me to do my homework (space). Please buy me a bottle of water (space) when (time) you go to the store. When does the train (space) leave (time) for Birmingham?

Anytime you talk about timesaving, you're managing your time, using some type of space. Anytime you talk about saving resources, you're managing space over some time. There are shelves of books on space time management. Being more productive at work and play are best-seller subjects.

We are all managers and rulers of space time, individually and collectively.

Space Time and Dual Nature - and explosive mix

At the most basic level, these two characteristics, our dual nature, coupled with our space time management, are the reason we are having such difficulty attaining peace and prosperity. Our management or mismanagement of either space or time or both is occasionally drawn downward, occasionally upward by our dual nature. Individually and collectively, we are all at different stages in this equilibrium.

This infinite mixture of myspace-mytime-myway — our individual and collective combustibles — makes for the variegated and often opposing worldviews we contemplate today, and wonder how it will pan out tomorrow. It's at the origin of the tumultuous and volatile times in which we live, not to say, survive.

Let's say if the tendency is downward individually or collectively, the glass of peace and prosperity gets emptier, if the trend is upward it gets fuller.

Besides our dual nature and space time management, there are other singularities of humankind you need to take into consideration.

Creativity Sets Humankind Apart

Humans alone possess creativity. It identifies humankind. It emanates from and is a quality of the human mind. How did we get it?

Let's remember why we are discussing creativity: It's in the context of what makes humankind human. In the last Chapter, we said humanity manages space time. Creativity is one way we make something (space) over some time (time).

I was on the Smithsonian Institution website: humanorigins.si.edu and read this: 

Human Characteristics: What Does it Mean to be Human: Walking Upright, Tools & Food, Bodies, Brains, Social Life, Language & Symbols, Humans Change the World.

Many would argue most of those traits describe animals as well. Is that all there is to it, or are we missing something much more important? What about the last two characteristics?

In the last Chapter of the book Audit of the Universe, I stated the human mind is the key identifier of humankind, and all their cognitive abilities emanate solely from that entity. No mind, no creativity! Why don't the Smithsonian Institution and cognitive sciences designate creativity—and several other singular traits we'll discuss—as unique to humankind?

Each one of us remembers a personal creativity moment. The earliest memory I have of creating is when I was playing with my sister. We had two single beds separated by a little aisle. We pretended it was the interior of