The Andromedans arrive.
An Andromedan listening station
orbiting the star known to us a as Capella and 44 light years distant from
Earth had started picking up strong radio signals coming from a previously
uninhabited small yellow star towards the edge of the galactic rim. A routine
patrol was diverted and profiting from a sudden twist in the 10 -dimensional
hyperspace was able to materialize in orbit around the sun, which was seen to
possess 9 planets. It was immediately obvious that the source of all the
electro-magnetic radiation was the third planet orbiting at about 1.5 x1011m.
Measurement of the sun's power output at 4 x 1026 watts showed that the temperature range of
this planet would be suitable for a carbon-based life-form.
The Andromedans would then
orbit this planet and to their surprise would find themselves the target of
several powerful radars. They would hastily switch on their screen and change
to another orbit. After some preliminary measurements they would send down a
sample capsule to trap an unwary specimen of the life form.
A cursory examination of the unconscious specimen would reveal that, as expected, the
input sensors were mounted close to the brain and the brain built into a hard
steerable case mounted at one end of the body. The support system for the brain
occupied the rest of the body. Nourishment entered the top of the body close to
the sensors, where it could be closely monitored, passed through the body where
energy was extracted and the waste products ejected at the end furthest from
the sensors. Four appendages were fitted, two for locomotion and two for
manipulation. The specimen was symmetrical about its longer axis.
On the specimen recovering consciousness they would start to
run some tests. The results were surprising and alarming. They would find that
the human (for that is what they had captured) seemed to have two basic
personality traits and would switch from one to the other at unpredictable
intervals. One personality seemed to be very primitive and was seen in the
spasmodic movements and emission of high decibel sounds (especially at the
moment of capture) and alternated with a second personality which consisted of
long periods of silence and careful observation. But to quote:
The Andromedan Report on human 4P6
(extract)
"The first or primitive
animal-type reaction was easily guarded against, the only precautions
necessary being to restrain the human from hurting itself (it
seems insensible to pain during these periods.) Considerably
greater precautions have to be taken against the second
personality. At the end of one silence period the human suddenly rose,
picked up a piece of plastic from the floor of the cage and
thrust it into the main power generator (which we had thought was
safely out of reach.) This caused a complete power outage and
before the emergency power switched in, the door to the cage
and main airlock were released. With a not-yet-seen agility the
human leapt out of the cage and would have escaped completely were
it not for the fortunate coincidence that a crew member was
returning from an exploratory mission and was able to stun the
escaping captive. On recovering consciousness the captive was seen
to revert to the primitive type activity, so much so that it
had to be restrained.
Precautions were redoubled but this did not prevent the captive two days later from
distracting a crew member and seizing the stun weapon. This was
done by means of an ingenious system of fibres pulled from the
captive's clothes and fitted to the cage bars in the only place
our camera did not cover. Revealing an unexpected
familiarity with the weapon, the guard was immediately stunned and the
captive only prevented again from escaping by flooding the
entire space-craft with narcotic gas. Repeat of primitive activity
on recovering consciousness.
After this, extreme precautions were taken and the human seemed to reconcile itself to
captivity, even allowing itself to be instrumented and a number of
tests to be run".
Some super-race in the distant future will no doubt note
that one of the few common characteristics of all evolved life-forms is the
love of filling out forms and making reports. The Andromedans are no exception.
To continue:
"Once the captive had been
convinced that the fitting of the test transducers was harmless, the tests
started. The first tests were concerned with the human's sensors, and were the
usual tests for bandwidth, sensitivity, linearity. A full report is given in
Appendix 56. To be noted is that the sensors are appropriate for an
oxygen-breathing organism inhabiting a planet of mass 6 x 1024 kg, rotation period 23.93h and 1.5 x
1011 m from a type G2 star. The only slightly unusual factor is that
most of the sensors are differential
(are only sensitive to change) and are logarithmic in response.
In order to measure intelligence we devised a simple test
which would measure data-handling capacity (intelligence = data handling
capacity.)
Test set 1
This consisted in shooting small air-filled plastic balls
towards the human from a number of directions, and the human was required to
deflect these balls into a bucket on the floor, using a small hand-held bat. To
start with the captive performed surprisingly well (it was found later that this
test resembles a native game called "ping-pong"). Noise and flashing
lights were added and were initially disturbing but soon ignored. As the
frequency of ball presentation was increased the success rate fell, only to
rise again as the ball presentation pattern was learnt. Changing the ball
presentation pattern again caused a drop in the success rate and the recovery
time was proportional to the complexity of this pattern (length of the frame of
a pseudo-noise generator). Food capsules were used as an incentive but the
captive was not particularly interested in them as such. They were collected
and frequently counted and apparently regarded as a score.
The ship's computer was put to work analysing these data but while waiting results we
decided to examine in more detail the pattern recognition capability
displayed in the "ping-pong" test.
Test set 2
The human captive was shown a number of two dimensional representations of scenes on its
planet - country views, human faces, machinery etc, and then
shown these images digitally simplified and with random noise
added. The captive had a very impressive performance and was
able to recognise these images well down into the noise.
However, we occasionally presented an image which was completely random and the captive
only once said it could not be matched. Equivalent tests were
done using sounds and then written messages. Similar results
to the first visual tests were obtained.
During the above tests the newly developed Pleasure Detector
(PD) was used and gave measurements consistently above the Content level. The
human liked taking the tests. As soon as the tests were terminated the PD
reading dropped sharply and the human became nervous and irritable. Due to
pressure of other commitments we were unable to pay much attention to the
captive for about a month, other than monitoring the transducer readings. The
captive gradually calmed down and began to be concerned about its own
appearance, keeping the cage clean and developing an interest in painting,
using some of the materials from our tests. The PD reading gradually rose to
Content.
At this point we wanted to do some simple temperature
adaption tests and so we raised and lowered the cage temperature. As expected,
the PD reading rose a little as the temperature rose, but quickly dropped back
to Content. When the temperature dropped however, the PD reading also dropped
but a lot more than it initially rose, and also took longer to rise to Content
again. Thinking this was the response of the human's temperature control servo,
we devised some other tests which would determine the PD change with different
stimuli.
Test set 3
These tests confirmed and expanded the results of the cage
temperature test. See Fig. 7 of appendix 84. below –
Here PD is shown against time. Starting at an initial Content
level, a pleasurable stimulus was given at T1. Happiness rises rapidly but then
decreases exponentially, even though the pleasure stimulus continued. At T2 the
Happiness level is only slightly above the initial state. At T3 the pleasure
stimulus was removed. Notice how the PD coefficient drops immediately and far
further than the initial rise at T1, Notice also that the eventual rise to the
Content level at T4, again exponential, has a time constant far greater than
that of the initial rise. Typically the area under the Content level curve is
about 5 times that above it.
Stimuli used were the presence then absence of music,
increase/decrease in the tastiness of food, switching on then off a film,
raising/lowering temperature, raising/lowering illumination.
On Fig. 7 is shown, for comparison, the standard Andromedan
response.
Preliminary conclusions of tests
1-3 on human 4P6 (extracts)
A. The human 4P6 exhibited two
basic personality traits which we have named P1 and P2. P1 is that of a simple
animal (servo-mechanism of complexity 17); P2 is that of a high-level
intelligence (estimated level 4 on the Galactic Scale). The normal personality
is a mixture of P1 and P2. P1 seems to provide the motivation; P2 the means of
execution. P1 is dominant in times of stress; P2 in periods of calm.
B. Test 3 gives two an extremely
interesting results:
1. The human's normal condition is very close to Content. It
can be made temporarily happier by a positive or pleasure producing stimulus
and temporarily unhappier by a negative or displeasure producing stimulus, but
it ultimately returns to the Content status, even though the stimulus
continues.
2. The amplitude of response to a pleasure stimulus is much smaller and the return to the Content
base-line is much quicker than the response to a displeasure stimulus.
This non-linear relationship
between Happiness and Unhappiness and the time its effect lasts is
something we have not yet found in
other sentient beings. Following these strange results we re-examined
the PD readings taken during the "ping-pong" tests and have found
this odd non-linearity was also present. A run of successes produces a small
transient rise in Happiness whereas a run of misses causes a disproportionate
decrease in the PD reading (at one point the human was apparently talking to
itself).
We cannot understand why this relationship should have
evolved on this planet. This race has evolved rapidly: are we looking at a
brake Nature is putting on evolution? Because of the novelty of this data, it
has been transmitted back to base by ultra-wave.
C. The termination of the testing
procedures illustrates the effect of a negative step in the input data rate.
The human was quite unhappy for a while. The human brain apparently needs a
minimum of activity and if this is not supplied by incoming data it has the
choice of increasing sensor gain, physically manipulating the environment or
switching over to working on data stored in memory (or a combination of all
three). These changes can occur quite rapidly (of the order of 1 minute or
less). A tolerance to low input data rates can be built up but this takes a lot
longer (about 2 weeks with human 4P6)."
A human interprets the
Andromedan Report
Well, there is a lot of meat in
this report. So if all you Type 17 servos out there are ready, we'll go through
it in human terms.
P1 and P2
No disagreement here. Yes, we have
two personalities. All life needs a minimum of computing
ability in order to survive. About 6 million years ago humans (if you
could call them that then) had the computing ability of a
tree ape. Under pressure of changing environment, we decided
(unconsciously but wisely) not to add more biological weaponry in
the form of claws, teeth etc. but to go in the direction of
better controlling the hardware we already had. Amongst which was a
stereoscopic, forward looking, high-resolution vision, a large
brain and a thumb closing in the opposite direction to the rest of
our fingers which enabled us to grasp things. Once we started
picking up sticks and stones our destiny was decided. Think of
that hair-raising moment in the film "2001" where
the ape triumphantly throws the bone up
into the air and it changes into a
space-station! Fantastic! Tools enabled us to control our environment and this
sudden increase in possibilities called forth more computing ability to match.
In off-load periods the computer starts handling its own internal data from
memory, putting together unusual combinations (we have an
"associative" memory) and Computing changed to Thinking.
Now all this improvement to what we have in our heads has not been done to what was
originally there - the lower or feeling brain which gives rise to the P1
behaviour. It's still there, unaltered. There has not been a general raising-up
of the whole thinking ability but rather an adding-on of a lot of high-quality
"thinking" hardware.
The lower brain provides most of the drive in our lives and
gives us the greatest (gut-feeling) satisfaction when these drives are
satisfied. The upper brain can be used to amplify or damp down the activity of
the lower brain. Only in the highest forms of human activity does the upper
brain work almost alone.
This upper brain, if
undisturbed by the lower brain, gives rise to the P2 behaviour. But it is also
used to amplify/adorn/complicate the basic impulses from the lower brain. Hence
man the angel, man the devil. The family was expanded to the Tribe and then the
Nation State. Defence of territory has been amplified to defence with nuclear
weapons. Eating has become haute cuisine and reproduction eroticism.
For a bit of comic relief, let's consider the interaction
between the lower and upper brain of a player at a tennis match.
Commentator: "B returns the
ball rather short. A runs forward and sweeps the ball directly at B. B was on
the wrong foot there and returns into the net. 40-30." (scattered
applause).
Now let us tune into the dialogue between the lower brain
(LB) and the upper brain (UB) of player A.
UB: "Attention. Ball
approaching on trajectory 34322/33198 and is going to fall short. Recommended tactic at this juncture
is to advance thereby opening the return angle. Experience has shown that ..."
LB: "Yeah, OK, just gimme the
leg and racket info." (A series of sinister clicks as bayonets are fixed)
UB: (coldly). "Advance to
coordinates 4512,3387 using Leg Program 719. Draw racket back in preparation for a back-hand
return. You will notice I am
using 15% top-spin in this return in view of ..."
LB: "Here it comes! Stupid
bugger has dropped it short! Right,
I'm going to kill him! Full boost all engines. Attack!
Attack!" (sounds of screaming Stukas, pale sun glitters on rows of
bayonets. Through the roar of artillery can be
heard the skirl of bagpipes.)
UB: "Maximum bandwidth eye
data.
Check.
All other sensors on stand-by.
Check.
Backhand program loaded.
Check.
Patch back hand
program to eye correlator.
Check.
Wait."
LB: "Steady, men. Right,
Number 1, get ready on main turret. Not yet, not yet. Now! Shoot!! Shoot!! (crash of main armament)
Hit!! Hit!!".
UB: "Ah, yes. A nice
parabola. The topspin was particularly effective, shooting forward on the rebound and reducing his
available reaction time by at least 30%. Save backhand program."
LB: (Roar of applause)
"Fantastic! Did you see that?! Stupid prick was completely on the wrong foot. I slaughtered him!
Ha! Ha! Drop 'em short on me and I'll smash you every
time!"
(Crowd chanting "Sieg Heil!
Sieg Heil!")
Yes, well, a little
over-written, but you get the idea. And who did you identify with? Very
interesting!
Of course, B's LB
will be filled with rage, humiliation and frustration causing B, unless his UB
has an iron control, to bang his racket on the court and make obscene gestures
at the clapping spectators.
Andromedan Test set 1
The Andromedans choice of a combined physical and mental
agility test for intelligence was interesting as was also their calm assumption
that "Intelligence = Data handling capacity". The definition of
"Intelligence" has vexed us a lot, on Earth. But maybe they have
something. A good football player has to solve a lot of complex
space/velocity/time equations in his head very quickly. It should also be
possible for him to use it to solve the more "intellectual" problems.
Andromedan Test set 2
The Andromedans seem to have zeroed in quickly onto our ability to recognize patterns, and
even to notice that sometimes we recognize a non-existent
pattern.
But this subject is too important to be discussed here. It
requires an essay of its own. See "The Brain - Thinking",
Andromedan test set 3
Now here I must agree with the Andromedans that something very interesting has been
discovered. A quick test will demonstrate that there is something in it. Go
into a quiet room with a friend and a CD player. Wait until you have settled
down and then have your friend put on one of your favourite "quiet
mood" CDs. You will of course feel a rising of the spirits but after a
while you will get used to it - it slips into the background and you are
dreaming about the girl who gave it you when - suddenly - the friend switches
the player off. You return sharply to earth, you feel annoyed and look at him
in irritation. "Why the Hell ...!" you start, and then remember, you
had asked him to do it.
In my case the irritation was certainly greater than the
initial pleasure. But to further confirm the Effect, I have tried out the
following scenarios on friends:
Scenario 1
Imagine you are walking along a busy street, not thinking especially about anything, when
suddenly you see a $50 bill lying on the pavement. Naturally you immediately
put your foot on it and bend down to tie your shoe-lace which has unaccountably
come undone. The transfer to your pocket is done swiftly and you then look
round inconspicuously but apart from some guy on the other side of the road
excitedly waving for a taxi, the coast is clear.
How do you feel? "Well, a bit of luck is always nice.
But it doesn't make me rich; I have other similar notes in the bank. But yes,
good, OK." In a short time you will have forgotten about it.
Now imagine that two or three days later you open your
wallet on a windy street corner to buy a paper and the same $50 bill flies out,
propelled by the wind. You tear after it, almost knocking down an elderly lady.
It blows across the road and you rush to cross through the busy traffic and are
only deterred by the screaming brakes, horns and tapped heads of the irate
drivers. You curse with impotent rage as through the passing traffic you see a
young man bend down and pick up your $50 bill. With mounting blood pressure you
scream "It's mine! It's mine!," but he doesn't hear. Attracted by
your waving arms a taxi pulls up but you swear at it. The young man pockets
your bill and disappears down a subway entrance.
How do you feel? Do I need to ask? And how long will you remember it? A day? A week? A
year? ("Christ, even now I remember the way he just calmly picked up my
$50 bill like he saw them on the pavement every day - he didn't even look round
to see if anyone had dropped it. And don't tell me he didn't hear me! I was
screaming fit to bust a gut!"
Well, calm down and let's take:
Scenario 2
You are a salesman and one day you receive a request to
quote from RF Electronics. It's for a nice system, just the sort of thing your
company is good at. You visit the customer to make a demonstration of your new
Gee Whiz Mk. VI which works well with the
customer's existing equipment. You finally make a written proposal, pointing
out ease of expansion, ease of servicing, a few clever tricks you had thought
of yourself and a good price as the development costs for the Mk. VI had been
written off on the BG contract. The competition was Dudonics, represented by
old Fred Bloggs, and could never meet your price in a month of Sundays. In fact
you felt rather sorry for old Fred, who was something of a loser.
When the boss walks into your office with the order from RF
Electronics in his hand, you are all manly modesty. "Nervous?" you
chuckle tolerantly, "Good Heavens, no. We engineers are very realistic,
you know. And when you have the best equipment and the best price, you can't
really fail." "And the best sales engineer," adds the boss
admiringly.
Well, after a while all the congratulations subside and you
are back to Content - or perhaps a
little above, because after all, the RF job represents 15% of your projected
sales for that year.
Imagine however what happens if after repeated calls to RF
Electronics (your contact engineer is always out or in a meeting), you hear
from a junior technician that the job went to Dudonics. With ashen face the
phone drops from your nerveless fingers. "Yes" the little swine goes
on condescendingly "Your proposal
was quite good, but in the end we decided to stay with our old supplier."
"But the price!" you croak. "Oh, a little more expensive"
he prattles on "But you must always be prepared to pay more for
reliability." He then launches into a hymn of praise to Dudonics but you
are less than interested. You are covering yourself with sackcloth and throwing
ashes on your head. Your career in Sales is finished. "If we lost this
one, it had to be me, it's my lousy personality," you groan. "It's me
the customers can't stand. And God, I thought I did everything right. What a
smart-alec over-confident fool I've been!"
Cheer up, it was only a story. But if you are going to react
so emotionally, you had better not read the next scenario, because it's a
toughie.
Scenario 3
You met her at a party. Dark and petite. She is sitting out
alone on the balcony, looking at an old classical music concert program. You
make a casual remark about the program and she looks up as you questingly. She
has surprisingly big dark, almost black eyes. Something twists in you and you
know this is it. Before she answers she blushes and you know she knows it too.
You both talk about music, the concert she went to, the concerts you have
played at. She looks at your hands when you tell her you play the violin. You
talk together nervously, but you never remember later about what. She has the
most fascinatingly original views on music. Her name is Pauline. People come
out on the balcony occasionally but then laugh and go in back to the party.
After the party you take her home but don't try to kiss her. You walk home in a
daze thinking of a small elfin face with big luminous eyes. When you return
home you cannot sleep, you work for an hour on your new quartet.
Yes, it's love. You get complimentary tickets for her when
you are playing nearby and she waits for you at the stage door under the
envious eyes of your colleagues. The affaire develops until one night at her
apartment ... After this it is as though a dam had burst, you are always
together, you have never met a more understanding girl. She loves to curl up in
an armchair and watch you play for her and when she kisses your hands and looks
up at you with those luminous eyes you know ...
You look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself what
have you done to deserve such luck. The mirror replies that it's not really
surprising, after all you are quite a good-looker yourself, especially when
your hair falls forward as you play your violin. And of course, you're not
stupid - there were ten other students who wanted that music scholarship. It's
not really to be wondered that two good-looking intelligent people come
together.
And so the feverish ecstasy of the first weeks fade, to be
replaced by a deep Contentment. Even the thought of wedding bells fails to
produce its usual reaction. She is part of your life now. Of course there are
ups and downs. In spite of your explanations of the simple chord structure of
pop music, she still likes to listen to it but after all, your heart melts, she
is very young. More serious are the scenes when you have to go on tour and are
away for two or three weeks at a time.
It is after one of these absences that you are waiting for a
taxi outside the railway station. Some motor cyclists and their girl friends
are making a lot of noise but you are rather irritated with Pauline as she had
only written once, and that briefly, in reply to your four long letters,
written in lonely hotel rooms and when you see ... you look up and under the
street-lamp you see her, Pauline! She is talking to one of the leather-jacketed
riders. He is sitting confidently back on the saddle of his motor-bike, a can
of beer in one hand, the other familiarly around Pauline's slender waist.
Impulsively she stands on her toes and throws her arms around his neck. She
laughs and they kiss deeply.
You stand stunned. It can't be true. It's happening to
someone else. Oh, God! Oh, God! You bend over vomiting in the gutter and
stumble away. You walk home in the dark, you cannot bear the empty flat and
walk for hours in the rain, through the empty park where ...Why oh, why? You
keep hearing her last laugh, seeing her upturned face, so sweet, so friendly,
so...nice .., so false.
I think we'd better draw a sympathetic veil over this now.
The symptoms have been described in the specialized literature by better pens
than mine. You are actually quite sick and in some possible physical danger. It
is going to be a considerable time before you can be considered
"normal", as seen from the outside. But inside, something will have
changed. You will never "give yourself" completely again. In any
future love affaire there is going to be a small part of you that will be
fiercely defended and never yielded. It's called "growing up".
As I said, I have tried out these three scenarios on several
friends and the results are:
- Most would agree with scenario 1, (but the value of the
note found/lost may have to be raised).
- I only know three salesmen, but they all bitterly agreed
with Scenario 2.
- But relating Scenario 3 over a meal would cause a long
silence with everyone looking into the distance. Yes, girls too, if that makes
you feel any better.
Let us turn again to the famous Fig. 7 from the Andromedan
Report, Appendix 84. The top curve shows the pleasurable stimulus starting at
T1 and finishing at T3. The bottom curve shows what you feel - neutral or
Content until T1 then a spurt of pleasure, dropping down to Content again at
T2. Stay at Content for a while until the pleasant stimulus is switched off at
T3. Unhappiness results, but note that the curve sinks down in the Unhappy
direction much more than it rose initially in the Happy direction. Notice also
that the time to climb back to Content, at T4, is much longer than the time it
took to sink back to Content after the jump in the Happy direction.
Figs. 8 and 9 are also very interesting. Fig. 8 gives the
relation between stimulus and instantaneous Pleasure Detector (PD) reading for
an Andromedan, shown for comparison. With zero stimulus the Andromedan is
Content or neutral. A positive (pleasurable) stimulus produces a happier and
happier Andromedan until the curve tips over, or saturates (we would say
"cloys"). In the negative direction an increasingly unpleasant
stimulus produces a more and more unhappy Andromedan until the organism
responds no more (becomes insensitive). Note that the curve for the Andromedan
is symmetrical. Fig. 9, the curve for the human is the same shape but notice
that it is displaced downwards. The Andromedans being a civilized race, did not
apply the negative stimulus (pain) that produces insensibility to their
captive, so the bottom part of Fig. 9 is shown dotted.
Now any engineer amongst my readers will look askance at these graphs, immediately asking
"What units are Pleasure and Stimulus measured in?". Well,
the Andomedans have units on their graphs of course, but as they are
incomprehensible to us, they have been removed. So all we have
is an Effect.
Let us concentrate our attention on Fig. 9, because it shows
how humans react to pleasure and pain. Note that we react more to
"bad" things than to "nice" things. An act of cruelty
affects us much more than an act of kindness. Losing something affects us much
more than finding something of the same value. The Devil seems much more
immediate and powerful than God. There are people who have found a way to
religion not because of the goodness of God but through conviction that there
is a Devil and therefore there must be a counterweight.
But doesn't Fig. 9 show that the human 4P6 is accustomed to
living in a "pleasurable" environment? After all if it receives a
little more pleasure it "cloys". But no, 4P6 is (like all of us)
normally only "Content".
To check this, let us look back (with horror) at the life of
our forbears in the Middle Ages with its lack of medicine (especially
anaesthetics), disease, arbitrary justice, barbarous punishments and
superstitions. But this must have been "normal" to most people living
then so they were "Content". Give them more pleasure and they would
quickly cloy too. They were brutalized and they had adapted.
Even today there are a wide variety of life styles available
which would certainly make me unhappy. Take the case of Dai, who goes down a
mine far under the earth's surface, to dig out coal. It's hot, dirty, dangerous
and unhealthy. But what happens if the economic conditions change and Society
no longer wants Dai to go down the mine? To lure him out of the mine Society
offers to pay him a lot of money (in a lump sum), and to retrain him (for free)
for another cleaner, more "human" job. Dai refuses all these offers
and is so determined to remain a miner that he provokes the biggest and most
bitter strike England has seen within living memory.
Look at Bill who is in the Army. For him the
"cushy" life in barracks is boring. He prefers service in Northern
Ireland where he can be a real soldier. "Real soldier" in this case
meaning holding two mutually emotionally antagonistic populations apart and getting
shot at, cursed at and bombed for his pains.
Look at Joe. Joe has been in prison four times now, the last
for a 5 year sentence. As soon as he finishes a sentence and is released he
commits some stupid crime and is back in prison again. He is only really
Content in prison.
My own slight experience of discomfort came with Military
Service. The first week at the reception was quite a jar. What with the
terrible food and the condition of the toilets, I had a bad case of constipation.
Then the meeting with the rougher elements of the British population, sleeping
30 in unheated huts, being chased out onto windblown ice-covered parade grounds
to do endless foot-drill, arms-drill or just wait. The sheer dehumanisation of
being one in five thousand. But I have photos of myself taken then and I always
seem to be smiling. I have no really bad memories.
But instead of looking back 500 years to the Middle Ages,
let us try to look even 100 years forward. What will our descendants think of
our present life style?
They will be filled with pity
and horror. "How could they ever have been happy? The dreadful knowledge
that they would only live for 70 years or so. That during this pitifully short
life-span they would gradually lose their physical and mental facilities - not
only to know it but to see their loved ones gradually deteriorating before
their eyes and to know they were soon destined for the same fate! The
brutalizing and repetitive work, the incredible and wasteful preoccupation with
sex and sex-related activities, the horrifying interest in violence, pain and
torture!". (Extract from "The Middle Classes in the Western World
during the 21st Century".)
Yes, it's a tough life living in the Middle Classes in the
Western World. But we are brutalized and have adapted.
The Effect and evolution
Now the Andromedans have suggested that the Effect is a
deliberate brake on evolution. It is true that evolution has been very rapid on
Earth. The first "human" type footprint has been discovered in
sandstone in East Africa which is 15 million years old. The usual analogy is to
let these 15 million years be considered as a day. The footprint was then made
at the beginning of a day. On this scale Christ was born 11.5 seconds ago.
Modern history is about 2 seconds out of a day of human evolution!
As the Andromedans conclude:
"It seems that only a small and not long-lasting reward
is perceived for success whereas a disproportionate and long-lasting penalty is
perceived for failure".
Even with this Effect we behave stupidly enough. Young men
take all sorts of risks motor racing, mountaineering, sailing around the world.
The rewards are small and they are forgotten in a year. The penalty may be a
wheel chair. In wartime young men volunteer by the hundred thousand. The
rewards are mostly boredom, a chance of power, perhaps a medal. The penalty a
wound or death. After the war, heroes are a glut on the market.
How much rasher would our behaviour be, were it not for this
Effect? Would it otherwise push the rate of evolution to a rate which could not
be socially assimilated and so destroy us?
It almost seems as though success (either planned or by
luck) is discounted as being "normal", "that's how life should
be", whereas failure and bad-luck are equated and are due to stupidity or
bad planning. Hence a person who fails, often due to no fault of his own, is
called a "loser" and feels really bad. We chide him, saying "The
Lord helps him who helps himself".
To counteract this painful failure feeling we (and engineers
in particular), try very hard to prevent failure. We always assume that we will
have no luck, that everything will go as wrong as it can and yet the
device/system must still work. It's called "worst case design".
In a speculative venture we often assume something will go
wrong - if it does we are not too disappointed ("I thought that might
happen,") but if it succeeds we are pleasantly surprised. It's a sort of
insurance we take out against the extra strong negative feeling of failure.
It could be interpreted as Nature using the "inadequate
reward/disproportionate punishment" Effect to try to slow down
human evolution, and humanity
using the above tricks to get
around it.
Andromedan Test set 2 and their
conclusions C
Here the human, after a period of mental and physical
activity was suddenly ignored. During the test the human had to quickly adapt
upwards to handle the "ping-pong" game. To succeed, the whole brain
had to be working flat out estimating angles, ball speeds, guessing quickly
where the next ball was coming from. In engineering terms the human brain had
jumped to maximum bandwidth, switching off all unneeded sensor inputs so as to
give minimum response time. Suddenly the test finished and all the excitement
was over. The human was left alone and became bored and unhappy. The pleasant
stimulus had ended, it had got used to a high data rate input and suddenly the
data input rate had dropped.
The situation is analogous to a busy executive leaving the
stress of meetings, of having to react quickly to unexpected events, and taking
a long-awaited holiday:
He leaves the office hoping he has correctly delegated,
covered all possible eventualities, just catches the plane and finally arrives
in the south of France. Train out to the coast, search for a taxi, maps,
address, pidgin French and finally arrives at St. Ferianne, a little fishing
village. The taxi leaves. He is in a little quiet sunny square and the world
suddenly stops moving.
He picks up his
titanium and carbon fiber suitcases and pushes open the door to the Pension.
The sun makes an unmoving yellow square on the faded carpet and in the corner a
grand-father clock is slowly ticking. Reminding himself that he is not in the
Hilton, he coughs and after a while a small girl appears through a rattling
bead-curtain behind the counter and dipping a pen into an ink pot books him in
with careful calligraphy. With an incomprehensible accent she then shows him up
the creaking stairs to his room. He sits on the bed in the sunlight.
Fantastic! He had forgotten there were places in the world
where it is so calm. God! It's good to be away. He looks at his digital watch,
15:29. He left the office at 10:30 - air travel is wonderful. He breathes
deeply and the bed-springs squeak. It's going to be great to slow down, to
unwind. He gets up, hangs up his clothes, cleans his teeth, washes and changes
into a snappy Italian silk shirt and white shorts. Casually he looks down at
his watch. 15:37. Damn! It must have stopped. But no, it’s still flipping over.
He goes out of the hotel and walks around the silent, empty,
sun-soaked square. There is only a dog visible, sleeping under some sort of
wooden cart. He flexes his muscles. "Gosh, it's good to get away from all
the panic. They really know how to live out here." Watch says 15:42. He
walks briskly around the square noting the Prix Unique supermarket (closed),
the church, the bistro, the road to the beach. The beach! He walks down the hot
dusty road to the beach. A small brown-varnished man is sitting by an old
sun-bleached boat, looking out to sea. The sun hangs immobile in the sky but a
small puff of wind blows a piece of newspaper towards him. There is the round
spoilt face of a French politician on the front page and some excitable prose
about the CFTD. There is also a small ad for Suze. "Ah, yes! An aperitif
before dinner? Er, no, not yet, it's only 16:12". He walks across the
beach to look at the rocks and then back to the boat. The small brown-varnished
man is not looking out to sea. He is asleep. 16:29 - he has only been here an
hour! He scrambles up the headlands at each side of the bay to find similar
empty bays on either side. He walks inland to find there is nothing but spiky
scrub. Apart from the constant whirring of insects, silence. The heat is
intense. He bends over to look at a line of ants and thinks of life back at the
plant - that one in the front, now, is he going to go over or around the stone?
"I guess they have to make decisions too. I hope Joe remembered BASF
promised us a 7% discount on the next shipment."
You will notice our executive has begun to suffer from data
deprivation and his first reaction is to try to increase his data input rate by
moving around and exploring his environment. He is going out looking for data
instead of having it thrust at him. He has started to accept as data that which
he would normally reject, the landscape, insect noises, the activities of ants.
But he is not Content. Like Sherlock Holmes said "I feel like a dynamo,
racing itself to destruction for lack
of a load to drive." Our executive, driven by boredom, may leave the
village for a town, or even return prematurely to the office.
But if he
does stay he will study the rock formations, flora and fauna, listen to his
portable radio, read, try to talk to the natives. He can also turn inside
himself and examine unsorted data in his data bank. He can reflect on the
structure of his office and how it can be improved. Gradually his band-width
will decrease and he will start to think deeper. He may look up at the clear
stars at night and reflect on his future, is this what he really wants to do?
He may not return to the office. But he will gradually return to Content.
Then when his holiday comes to an end, and the taxi is
waiting outside his hotel with engine running, he will stand by it a moment and
slowly look around the square of the little fishing village with some regret.
Back at the office everything will appear to be moving very
fast and he will need a day or two to allow his bandwidth to stretch to cope
again with the cheerful cut-and-thrust of business life.