Monkey Hears, Monkey Sees, Now Monkey Talks

It has finally come to this most unexpected way humans have not anticipated. Actually, it was about thirteen years ago that historians will confirm as the point in our history when a widely diverse sector of the planet's inhabitants finally decided they have had enough. So it was  in 2009 when the unthinkable happened but was kept from our attention.  We were busy worrying about an economic downturn that began in 2008 that lasted for about two years, so it escaped our attention. 

Well, this year, we're going through another economic reckoning as we speak, and we're still not paying attention. 

1898 was the year when the U.S. took over the 7,000 island archipelago from Spain and held it for fifty years before granting it independence on July 4, 1946 (after WWII). Now, it can be revealed.  But first, it was way back in 1907, somewhere in the southern tip of the Philippines when the idea first germinated, in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War.  

The U.S. Army's 27th Infantry Regiment was formed in 1901 to serve in the Philippines. For its regimental march, the regimental band leader, G. Savoca, wrote the official lyrics in 1907 based on the tune that was the official march of the Philippine Constabulary Band which notably played it during The St. Louis Exposition in 1904.

The song was officially called, "The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga".  Zamboanga refers to the western peninsular province of the southern island of Mindanao. It was there that an undercurrent of outrage begun which sparked a rag-tag group to form.  It remained a secretive group for many decades.  In 2009, it adopted what is now its current name. But let's back up for a bit for a little zoological detour.

In the scientific classification of living things, we are part of the Animal Kingdom. A step further down, we are in a Class of Mammals, then belonging to the Order of Primates, which is subdivided further into Humans (us), the Great Apes, made up of gorillas, orangutan, chimpanzees and bonobos, and the lesser ape - the Gibbons. The other sub order are the monkeys, lemurs and tarsiers. 

Well, note that the difference between apes and monkeys is that the latter have tails; all the apes have none. 

The monkeys in Zamboanga took offense to how they were depicted in the song which they declared to be a big lie. But they kept their outrage to themselves the way they had kept their cool during the previous three centuries when the country was a colony of Spain. They did form a semi-formal organization in the mid 1900's which they thought would help the country's plea for independence by forming the Delegation of Monkeys from Zamboanga (DMZ). They claim to this day that they had coined DMZ long before it was used in the English language in the aftermath of the Korean War in the 50's, when the phrase "demilitarized zone" was first used. 

Why come out now?  The final straw is the post-Covid but new disease called monkeypox.  The DMZ has now evolved into a much bigger, diversified organization called, "Coalition of Highly Intelligent but Maligned Population", CHIMP, for short, since 2009.  Operating under the radar, they influenced the United Nations and the U.S. CDC to expunge and replace the name monkeypox because apart from racist innuendos, it is stigmatizing and insensitive. Very clever. But how did they succeed?

For one, we brought this on us after over a decade of cancelling, modifying, and redefining words in the English language, often in the name of political correctness and insatiable woke-ism.   We have gone way overboard by succumbing to every little hurt feelings so that everything must be softened to the constituency of marshmallow or the delicate softness of a pillow encased in silk, so as not to offend or hurt feelings of a few hypersensitive souls.

Well, chickens are preparing to document their grievances for the other disease called, chickenpox. But the monkeys are not done yet.

It was in 1835, long before the monkeys in Zamboanga were offended, when a political article was written, "It remains for the juste milieu, which are amidships, to consider whether they will not quash this ‘monkey business,’ by hauling down the rag of offence, on condition that the other shall disappear along with it.” CHIMP made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that they are appalled by referencing questionable behavior to one of their upstanding members.

What's up with brass monkeys, another thing to gripe about. Meanwhile, the organization is claiming for compensation for the trademark abuse of the phrase "monkey wrench".  Additionally, CHIMP is offended by the use of "throwing a monkey wrench" as a form of disruptive rhetoric.

CHIMP is increasing in numbers and clout as they expand their membership to other species.  No less than the symbol of America is speaking out.  

A representative said this, "For the life of us, for the majestic symbol that we represent, we question the people's sanity and intelligence for insisting on calling us bald eagles. They continue to use the term ascribed to our general avian population the phrase 'bird brain'.  Little do they know that those droppings they find on the hood and roof of their cars are strategically jettisoned to hit only newly washed vehicles".  They point out that the smallest of their species, the hummingbird, is equipped with a spectacularly high-performance brain.  They remember every flower they visit, calculates  the  interval to re-visit them when the flower has replenished its nectar.  They can recognize the face of the human who replenishes the bird feeder. Without GPS and long before humans had created maps, hummingbirds for thousands of years would go from as far north as  what is now known as Canada to South America on epic roundtrip migrations, flapping their wings at 70 times a second.

One bird species is really peeved.  "You see, one does not have to use any modifier to our species' name to make it sound vulgar and demeaning. To be called a vulture is singularly gut wrenching. Specially when ascribed to a species that practically depends on a gut that can handle five-day old corpses.  We perform the dirtiest job to keep diseases from spreading on planet earth by getting rid of all the unburied dead.  We have a reason to be offended and we're waiting to have our soiled name formally changed.

"Now, now", counters another member group.  "The word, maligned, in our organization's name mostly applies to our species. Snake oil is a total lie and to associate it with charlatans and con men by referring to them as snake oil salesmen is outrageous. Forked tongue is clearly another ignorant abusive reference. Our forked tongues represent our uncanny ability to analyze the environment by sampling the air for minute scattering of molecules, capturing them and swiping them at the roof of our mouth for a rapid analysis. It is forked so we can actually read the environment in 3 dimensions and determine sources of our interest left or right, directionally. The spine tingling revulsion at the sight of us is unwarranted."

Animals from "down under" have come also to seek assistance from CHIMP. One in particular is irritated by what is clearly a derogatory phrase that is of American origin. The largest of the marsupials take serious exception to connecting the name of their species to a  mockery of the justice system by describing it as a kangaroo court. Along with that complaint the Australian chapter of CHIMP is also taking up the case of the Tasmanian devil. Here is a statement from their representative, "We are uniquely a carnivorous marsupial and while we take pride in being a ferocious predator, there is a creature in the West that is more aggressive and temperamental than we are, yet they are called  honey badger and the wolverine is honored as a team mascot.  We protest the discriminatory and unequal treatment".

From the ape family, we hardly hear much complaining, specially that a manufacturer of what has now become a popular and effective product line named it after their largest member; Gorilla glue and other adhesives are big sellers. However, their representative has this to say, "What is really wrong with the idea of an 800 pound gorilla in the room?  Come to think of it, if you put one of us in that room, we are not responsible for any awkwardness created nor should that situation be used in reference to a purely intractable human problem". The not-so-forgetful pachyderm family remembers that moment when they first heard of the white elephant. "It is derogatory to our species although there is no such thing", their representative claimed. "And by the way, we are not big fans of peanuts, really. We prefer watermelons."

From the canine and feline order, although much loved and adored, they signed off on a joint petition.  One group is clearly justified to rail against the expression, "dog eat dog". "We find that disgusting but what is even more revolting is that in some places, however remote and far from civilized society, we have become part of the human menu.  It shudders us to think that we are man's best friend on one hand and we are a delicacy on the other. A former U.S. President even bragged he tried it once as a young man."

A delegation of cats have this to say, "It is nice to be referred to as having nine lives. It is not true, but it has not stopped some crazy humans from testing that false characterization and many have attempted many ways to test it. We are still grappling with the idea of associating black cats among us with the paganistic celebration of Halloween.  Why do they keep images of black cats with witches? In America where Halloween is a huge tradition, we are maligned by their hypocritical and superstitious attitude towards us on one hand, then on the other, they brandish with fervor that, 'Black Lives Matter', our nine lives notwithstanding".

We only have ourselves to blame. Political correctness and woke-ism, the snowflaking of the youth, particularly, are all to blame.

Since it all started from a song, I include below the first two of nine stanzas of it. I understand Spotify has it in their selection.  The song was featured in the old war movie, starring John Wayne, "They Were Expendable", about PT boats and their heroic Navy crew, based in the Philippines during WWII. Years ago I remember a conversation with an American veteran of WWII who served in the Pacific who remembered the song.  He even belted a few bars with gusto for my benefit after I told him I've been to Zamboanga a couple of times on business, while still working in the Philippines. It is a beautiful part of the country and is a tourist attraction with key historical landmarks.

Here goes:

The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga

Oh, the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga,

Oh, the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga,

Oh, the monkeys have no tails,

They were bitten off by whales,

Oh, the monkeys have no tails in Zamboanga.

Chorus:

Oh, we won't go back to Subic anymore,

Oh, we won't go back to Subic anymore,

Oh, we won't go back to Subic

Where they mix our wine with tubig*,

Oh, we won't go back to Subic anymore.

*Filipino for water

Eternally You

That is not a typo although I did peel that off from the more well known closing salutation, "Eternally Yours", from many a-love-struck letter-writer pledging unwavering devotion. But this is much farther and deeper away from that because this is really about the "everlasting you" - a daring look into why some scientists and researchers think that consciousness, discreetly individualized or as a composite  trait of all humanity, is fundamental to the entire universe; which begs the question, therefore, does our individual consciousness survive into eternity? 

"Donald David Hoffman (born December 29, 1955) is an American cognitive psychologist and popular science author. He is a professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, with joint appointments in the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and the School of Computer Science".

He has a PhD in computational psychology at MIT and at one time a research scientist on artificial intelligence there, which establishes that he is not some New Age philosopher or conjurer of outlandish metaphysical theories on the conscious and subconscious mind.  

What sets him apart from the mainstream scientific academia is that he believes that consciousness is fundamental to the universe.  He is not alone though there are far fewer of them relative to the majority of scientists.  However, the concept is not exactly new because for centuries some notable historical figures, who were scientists and philosophers and religious leaders in the past, adhered to a similar concept - the idea of eternal life, which has long been the foundation of almost every religion from Buddhism to Islam to Christianity.  But I am getting ahead of myself here.  A few steps back first.

Scientists, medical doctors, neurologists, psychiatrists tell us that consciousness originates only from within each individual brain - soft tissues of neurons, nerves and the trillions of synapses that occur within the confines of the average three and a half pounds of gray matter.  The brain dies and consciousness associated with that  brain, and that brain alone, ceases to exist.

Except for the truly non-believer in anything non-physical, and those un-swayed by anything spiritual, or who've unsubscribed to any faith, most people from various cultural upbringings believe that in the aftermath of death, there is something that goes on beyond. But every believer is stuck with the fact that we have  yet to see or witness beyond any doubt the existence of consciousness after death, particularly in a laboratory setting with conclusive repeatable recurrences.  However, and this is a huge "however", Hoffman and others like him believe that no one has come up with a compelling argument to the contrary, either.  Though proving the negative is not logically proper. 

For many decades scientists relied on theories and suppositions that  they believed with strong convictions, based only on mathematical equations, but without physical proof or effects until much, much later. Gravity is a good example. For a long time, scientists either believed or doubted Einstein's predictions on Gravity's ability to bend light, or affect the passage of time.  It was over a century later when sensitive and super accurate measuring instruments  became available that proved the theories right.

We will not get into the weeds too much, except perhaps for just a bit, and you may skim through the next long paragraph below and not miss anything.  The last third of this essay is where, I hope, we can get to the essence of why consciousness is indeed fundamental.

Now, to say  that consciousness is fundamental in or to the entire universe is no trivial declaration. Why? The so called Standard Model of everything that we know, so far, says that there are only four fundamental forces in the entire universe and that there are only 120 basic elements in existence, as graphically printed on the Periodic Table. These elements, of course, may be combined, mixed and matched, into complex compounds that make up everything we can touch or see. From the lightest of them all - the hydrogen atom with its one proton and one electron to the heaviest in terms of density, osmium and iridium, these were accepted fundamental elements long before we had proof of electrons and way long before the Large Hadron Collider was built to show us evidence of the existence of sub-atomic particles.  Scientists believed in quarks when they were mere speculations.  The Higgs boson,   first postulated in the sixties, suspected to exist theoretically, was not confirmed until 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider. It was a sensational scientific event because this sub-atomic particle is the carrier of mass.

Now, take the fundamental forces of gravity, electromagnetism (light, all radiation and magnetism), the strong and weak nuclear forces.  Those are fundamental, now very much beyond any doubt, and to lump consciousness with them  as fundamental too is earth shaking, to say the least! 

So, let's dive  into it.

Consciousness, in case you have not thought of it in one particular way, is our only path to reality. But wait!  What is reality?

"Perception of the physical world is a byproduct of consciousness".

First question: How can consciousness, in all its non-physical, invisible, imaginary nature, come out of some physical objects, such as a lump of moist gray substance that is our brain?

A piece of rock or iron has no sense of perception nor the ability to feel emotions. They are inanimate objects and are called non-sentient matter. Puppies and kittens are capable of sensing pain, hunger, the environment, hot or cold, wet or dry, but they do not have emotions; at least not the kind of emotions that we feel.  So, puppies and kittens are loosely sentient for being able to have impressions, feelings and senses but not to the same level as we are able to feel, such as sympathy, sorrow, grief, kindness, love, jealousy, etc.

Strictly speaking, therefore, we can claim to be the only truly sentient beings. Philosophers subscribe to the idea that the universe exists the way it is because there are conscious beings, like us, to observe it.  To the bees who "see" in the ultra violet spectrum, dogs that are color blind that only see in black and gray but can distinguish with super sensitive senses of smell, dolphins and bats navigate thru sonar, and snakes that can detect in infrared or sample the air with their tongue their version of the universe is completely different from ours. The reality of our universe is created in so many different ways.

The question then is, "How and why are we able to emerge from purely non-sentient body that is made from non-sentient material?"  Our bones, muscles, even nerves and skin are independently non-sentient body parts, including our brains. Yet, we are capable of not just sensing what is truly non-physical and independently but invisibly imperceptible to others, and furthermore  we feel myriad shades of emotions from physical body parts, specifically concentrated within that mass of gray cells encased in the skeletal cranium, but discreetly our own, and our own only. 

How can something that is without form, mass, weight and color, does not emit light or radiation nor does it occupy space, emerge from inanimate components that rely on inanimate sustenance like food and water,  minerals and vitamins, etc., but will cease to exist once denied of those?  Of course, the immediate response is that why are computers able to do calculations and so many other things we are not capable of doing mentally but cease to function once unplugged.  Lest we forget, computers do nothing but abide by and do nothing more than follow the algorithms specific only to the functions they were designed for,  created by humans. We label computer generated capacity to calculate and "think" as artificial intelligence (AI).  Where then does our own individual intelligence come from?

More importantly, no one can explain the process by which we are able to feel and convey love, hate, happiness, worry, sympathy, conscience, guilt, and so many other unquantifiable qualities. How do we know animals don't experience any of those? We don't, but if they do they must go through the same processes as we do to derive those qualities. But we are the only ones capable of complex thought and conveying those thoughts, like putting them down in an essay like this and you reading and critiquing it from your own individual perspective and nuanced ideas truly and discretely your own.

Going back to Dave Hoffman's conjecture that consciousness is fundamental to the universe, one profound question then is, "How does consciousness manage to not only manifest itself in every individual but how does it manage to survive after death, if at all, and move about from and to wherever?"

We do not know. But since we did not  see proof of electrons, all the other sub-atomic particles, the special and relative effects of gravity, etc., until much later, then should we not consider that someday we will actually see evidence of the origins of and processes of consciousness?  And, dare we say, incontrovertible proof of the everlasting existence of the soul?

It is at this point when we run out of answers that we acknowledge and surrender our inadequacies  to the existence of an All Powerful Creator.

To Be Uniquely Human

What does it take to be uniquely human? What is it that differentiates the species of homo sapiens from each and every other creature?  What makes one human uniquely different from one to another? To attempt to address those three questions, let alone get to some kind of easy answers, will be impossible within the limited format of an essay in a blog; it will be one audacious undertaking for one mortal to even try, if one were to write a thesis or a book on it.  To expect a facsimile of an answer is fair but it will not be justly proper to expect an explanation to everyone's satisfaction.

However, one should not be discouraged to try because only we, homo sapiens, are properly equipped mentally - to at least make such an endeavor, to understand even just a tiny bit, a sliver, of our humanity.  So, here it goes.

Memory (To Remember)

Every animal species is capable of remembering,  studies and experiments proved that certain plants even exhibit the ability to remember as well. Of course, to compare the ability to remember among animals and plants to our own would be like comparing a boulder to the entire pyramid of Giza. But strictly speaking, genes of every living thing are packets of memory codes, full of information on when to "switch on" at specific times, parts or groups of parts, often in synchronicity, towards putting together what would eventually be a physical copy of  creatures distinct from one another.  Every living thing's fate and survival depends ultimately  on bits and pieces of information that individual cells "remember".

Where we, homo sapiens, differ from all other living things, is that memory, to us, goes far beyond the basics of simple survival. What does this mean?  Distinctly different from all other living things is that our memory has taken us far beyond the confines of the natural physical world. We remember  for pleasure. Sometimes it pleases us more just to remember. In fact, people, deprived of the basic necessities of food and water, or freedom during forced confinement, or worse - imprisonment, will rely on memories of joyous past in order to survive the next few moments, the next few hours, days or longer.  The human brain may even hallucinate as a last resort to conjure happy moments, urging the physical body to cope and to keep on, thus ignoring physical pain momentarily.

Homo sapiens have learned to use memory beyond what animals and plants are capable of doing.  We remember for the sake of merely remembering.  For no other reason than to derive pleasure from a repository of data deep within our conscious brain.

A lion or tiger or barracuda, even a "smiling" dolphin, does not remember a perfectly cooked steak or lasagna, the charcoal and smoky aroma of barbecue or the tangy but sweet taste of strawberry.  Our memories are not only far too complex, there are layers upon layers of them - as if each layer in a Baklava is one distinct flavor from among an infinite number of layers. 

  

See?  The above photo has already triggered your salivary gland into action.

Our memories of over a trillion layers is what makes us distinctly human.  Every layer of them that we lose over time, or injury, or disease, is a bit like losing part of our humanity. Until that last moment when it will all be gone.  Or, is it? More on this later.

But we have another thing going for us, meanwhile.

Memory (To be Remembered) 

To remember is matched only by this one other uniquely human phenomenon -  our desire to be remembered.  It is indeed uniquely human to want to be remembered.  From our first day in school, from the very moment we met someone we liked, someone we loved to be with into as yet to be fleshed out future, we want others to remember us.  Reunions were invented precisely for reasons that we value our past as the present moment. We also long to be remembered. A truly human trait.

That favorite teacher of ours in elementary or high school will continue to live on in the memories of the twenty or so students in her class.  The thing is, unbeknownst to her (or him),  she is twenty different people in the minds of the students. Each student will remember her based on their interaction with her, how she affected them, and those views of her changes with time as well. Her influence on them changes as each student goes through his or her phases in life, how long ago it had been, how they turned out, etc.  Depending on how long that teacher taught, she will be many people to all the students she taught.  She lives on as a memory in every student's mind. She too will remember many of her students.  Come to think of  it, apart from our memory, our knowledge of who we are, we actually exist as diverse memories in other people who know and remember us. Such memories can be compiled into holographic images of us as we exist or have existed long after we are gone. Such is the power of memory.

Let's for a moment think of some kind of artificial intelligence (AI) software with special algorithm that can collate every bit of memory of the teacher from each student who went through her class over as many years. Not only will we see as many different persons as there are students' memories of the teacher but that she continues to exist in other people's minds. Even long after she is gone.

Each individual life can be summed up in the end as, "What and how we remember" and "How and what others remember us for". 

I've read of this heart-warming story a long while back. A man who regularly visited his wife, ailing with Alzheimer, in a nursing home was asked by a friend, "Why do you still want to visit her so frequently and are you not frustrated that she does not even know or remember who you are?"  His reply was, "She may not remember me or know who I am but I still know her and I still remember what she was and who she is."

Let's get back to that software and allow it with even more power, and it is able to collate memories of and about every human being who ever lived.  As you know, 99.999 ..% of people who ever lived are no longer with us.  That software has all the story of us, purely based on how every human being is remembered by everyone else.  Too fanciful?  No.  That is what we call civilization.  Keep in mind that every story of people, of individuals, of nations, of every era, is a collation of everyone's memory.  Not all of the stories may be real; in fact, for the most part they are almost all the recollection of those who managed to remember.  Yes, there are artifacts and records, but our story is mostly how every generation is remembered, how each  one is influenced and affected by the preceding ones.

Civilization is all about a compilation of memories - people eager to remember and being remembered.  That is what makes us human.

Speaking of that powerful software, is that not what humans have all along yearned for?  Well, perhaps it is not right to use the word software. Think carefully about this.

Whatever your faith is, whatever your inclination or persuasion, we will always come to that point where we run out of answers to questions (humanly answerable, that is).  Do we not in the end need to believe in an all knowing Entity who has all the data? Is it not then possible that how we've come to be who we are today, is because we are a compilation of data collated from all the memories of and created and held onto by generations upon generations of people who relied on software - we call the mind - being constantly updated by a Universal All Knowing Entity?  Call it what you want.  But is that not what God is? 

(Let me remind the reader that this is what this blog's sub heading at the top says, all along ..

"When you find yourself having to take a break from those that keep you on edge and stressed out, you can take the time to ponder with me some of the un-ponderable and the whimsical and lightly thought provoking issues you did not have the time to consider but now you may want to look into because you have a moment or two to spare or you just want some of your brain cells to be tickled out of slumber".)