Topic: Biology
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Year:
- Current postings - 2000/2001 - 1998/1999 - 1997 -
Name: Jacob Ghitis, MD
Username: ghitis@star.net.il
Subject:
Date: Wed Sep 3 16:54:09 EDT 1997
Comments:
BIOLOGY, EVOLUTION AND SOCIETY
The CHICKEN AND THE EGG CONUNDRUM REVEALED. Imagine an egg, a chicken head protruding from its wide end, and two corresponding legs from the underbelly: Let's call it a
Chegg, and the problem is solved! Why not? Is a photon particle, or is it wave? Both! And how was the Energy - Matter antithesis solved? By a simple formula! And what do dreams do? Condense! And the Nature vs. Nurture altercation? Well, that's not a good simile, for they interact. But slugs are androgynous, male and female, aren't they? So, why not imagine that some time during evolution there were all kinds of cheggs, which eventually evolved and parted ways? One of these days I’m going to lie in bed one whole morning,(or two)
a la Descartes, in order to find out how it was done. Until then, I’ll fill up a page (or two)dealing with the net result of the biological evolution which resulted in Mankind setting up the....
Society And Its Precepts
1.- The appearance of Man.
2.- The evolution of Woman and the start of Civilization.
3.- Morals, Ethics, Etiquette and the Law.
4.- The Law as object of Politics.
5.- Skepticism in Politics.
Several millions of years ago, our ancestors, the Menwomen lived in an unstructured way: there was no Society, and reproduction was haphazard, whereby anyone could function as male or as female, impregnate or be impregnated, sire or give birth and breast-feed. One day—as a result of a chromosomal deletional mutation—a defective creature was born. He lacked the female anatomical characteristics and was bigger and stronger. As he matured, he impregnated many Menwomen. This defective creature, this giant—this Man—sired many sturdy Men, who in turn populated the earth. The
Menwomen were comparatively weak to compete with those Titans, becoming as a result relegated to a passive, receptive, fruitive role. When a Manwoman gave birth to a Man, shehe suffered pain, for this son was big: only Menwomen with wide hips were able to survive the delivery of a son—of a Man.
With the passing of time, the male attributes of Menwomen atrophied by reasons of Natural Selection,while their female characteristics, accordingly, became salient. And so, Woman slowly evolved and became perfected. One day a Man was watching disinterestedly a Woman, while lazily picking up lice from his hairy skin. She approached—exuding a powerful scent and walking with a swinging motion along a single line. He realized that she was special and that he desired her, not only for penetration, but also to become one flesh with her—to keep her for himself, by his side. Others reacted similarly, and he experienced a strange, unpleasant sensation, which he was still unable to interpret as an emotion: he felt jealousy. And he not only became aware of this Woman, he became also conscious of himself.
There he stood, detached, alone, naked.
END OF PART ONE
Name: Paul Grobstein
Username: pgrobste@brynmawr.edu
Subject: Fractious fusion
Date: Wed Sep 3 17:47:55 EDT 1997
Comments:
Like the emergence from a merged figure (though, if so, it happened much earlier in evolution than the appearance of humankind) ... and the wish to return to a unified form. But, Jake my friend, I suspect you're going to get yourself into trouble with "passive, receptive, fruitive". I can think of too many counterexamples on both sides of the male/female divide (if there is one) ... and suspect that PARTICULAR piece of your story will elicit sufficient commentary to prove the point. Far be it for me though to discourage the dialectic. And, when the smoke clears, by all means let's condense.
Name: Jacob Ghitis, MD
Username: ghitis@star.net.il
Subject: THE MANY FACES OF EVE
Date: Fri Sep 5 07:53:46 EDT 1997
Comments:
THE MANY FACES OF EVE
"Ladies and gentlemen: As promised, we are entering Paradise and taking an inquiring look around. First of all, let's take a look at that explanatory board which reads:
Visitor: 'Paradise' derives from a Persian word which was adopted as PARDES in Hebrew, meaning 'orchard’; it is nowadays mainly applied to the growing of citrus fruit. Please follow me.
"We are now inside the well-preserved remnants of the original dwelling place of Eve, of her consort, and of their first son, Adam (meaning 'Man' in Hebrew). You will have the opportunity to visit the
'pardesim,' that is, the many orchards around this well-preserved prehistoric hut. Take a look at the streams and at the lush greenery. You might let your mind wander, seeing the trees and imagining which one was the forbidden tree of
knowledge and which one the
life tree.. They are metaphoric, of course.
.
"The ‘Many faces of Eve,’ used as the title of the present visit, refers to the several components making this story, which obviously deals with Mankind's ancient and still contemporary anxieties. However, the central distress touches mainly on Womankind’ immanent source of anxiety. Remember Helen of Troy? How she was converted into the metaphor 'The face that launched a thousand ships'? Yes, Helen’s face was the source of passionate love, war, and living poetry.
"But her face was the face that every woman looks at each time she sees herself on a mirror. This is the true face of Eve. You will listen now to a short story about Eve's face and how it shaped the world. Following it we shall try to find other metaphoric 'faces,' and then you'll be free to wander, to wonder and to ponder.
"Some 150,000 years ago, a woman referred to as Chava ( ‘Life-giver’) and whom we shall call Eve, looked at her face for the first time on the limpid surface of a quiet stream, and realized that it caused her a pleasant feeling. Conditions were harsh and she had to struggle for survival, gathering food while her father went hunting. Some years later, she blossomed into a beautiful woman, while her father became feeble and couldn’t provide for sustenance. A mature and powerful man took her father's place, and now he installed her in a spacious and very well provided hut, surrounded by fruit-bearing trees and leisurely flowing water streams--truly a paradise. She had been chosen amongst the many women around her, who looked at his magnificent figure as if it belonged to a god, and that was the nick name she applied to him. How happy she was, how care-free! While resting from the many hard chores she had to take care of, she played with her favorite snake, and marveled at molting time, watching how its worn-out skin peeled off and looked fresh again...
"With her god-mate she bore a son, whom she named Adam, just as Genesis tells us she said: 'I got myself a Man with God.' What else could she ask for? Adam grew to be a nice-looking adolescent, while Eve noticed her waning passion towards her 'god,' although he was an unfailing provider and-- though somewhat remote--still cared much for her. One day she looked pensively at herself on her water mirror, and for the first time she knew anxiety...
"Ladies and gentleman, let's have a short recess. There are refreshments or, if you prefer, unpolluted, er... I mean... recycled filtered water from one of the surrounding artificial streams..."
END OF FIRST PART
Name: Jacob Ghitis, MD
Username: ghitis@star.net.il
Subject: NICE MAN LOOKS FOR HIS FOREVER-LOST SOULMATE
Date: Fri Sep 5 15:20:05 EDT 1997
Comments:
To: Paul
Subject: Fractious fusion
Date: Wed Sep 3 1997
You wrote:
Like the emergence from a merged figure (though, if so, it happened much earlier in evolution than the appearance of humankind) ... and the wish to return to a unified form. But, Jake my friend, I suspect
you're going to get yourself into trouble with "passive, receptive, fruitive". I can think of too many counterexamples on both sides of the male/female divide (if there is one) ... and suspect that that PARTICULAR piece of your story will elicit sufficient commentary to prove the point. Far be it for me though to discourage the dialectic. And, when the smoke clears, by all means let's condense.
I retort:
Contemporary Womankind might refuse to be called ‘passive’ but not ‘receptive’ or ‘fruitive.’ Besides,women used to be passive 150,000 years ago, the least. If you do not believe me, read the previous post!
Condense? What do you call several million years serendipitized in one or two posts? By all means, dear Paul, give me just a single counterexample! Why before the appearance of mankind? The
Australopitecus afarensis, affectively called ‘Lucy’ by her friends, was a small creature. I bet her companion was big in comparison.
We need to find him. Until then, yours, Jake
Name: Jacob Ghitis, MD
Username: ghitis@star.net.il
Subject: DESCARTES AND THE CHEGG
Date: Fri Sep 5 16:12:25 EDT 1997
Comments:
DESCARTES AND THE CHEGG
Indeed, the following morning I stayed in bed
a la Descartes for about an hour, thinking of the chicken-egg antithesis...To my mind came the memory of an article I had read the previous day, which dealt with a bacterium that had suffered a mutation, so that it divides by creating another one, but...the new one remains attached! Filaments are formed in that way, and they start to entwine and entwine... (gives me the creeps...). Physicists galore are busy studying the force that guides those movements. Well, problem solved like that! (snap). Obviously, the pristine
chegg was created in a water medium, being therefore leg-less. Have you seen under the microscope an intestinal parasite in the act of laying egg after egg after egg? I bet there is going to be discovered at a vent site at the bottom of an ocean a relic of a parasite which first evolved as an egg, which hatched into a 'chick' which later-on by dint of more mutations ended up incorporating an egg so successfully that the inchoate ones just disappeared in thin air!
Preposterous? Then you, my dear serendipitant, do not know that there, at the vents, live giant worms which have no intestinal tract because in that absolute lack of solar energy they thrive on the energy of a supernova which exploded five billion years ago! How so? Are you really interested?
Clue: Stardust
Name: Jake
Username:
Subject: WHERE ARE YOU,PAUL>
Date: Sat Sep 6 10:39:24 EDT 1997
Comments:
Paul, again I forgot to: caret /i caret. You are accumulating @s.
Name: Jacob Ghitis, MD
Username: ghitis@star.net.il
Subject: A BRIEF HISTORY OF MANKIND
Date: Fri Oct 17 18:40:46 EDT 1997
Comments:
The text is available in
Serendipia.
Name: Jake
Username: ghitis@star.net.il
Subject: ANALOGIES
Date: Wed Dec 17 18:25:51 EST 1997
Comments:
THE GAME OF ANALOGIES HAS BEEN RESTARTED AT
"COMPLEXITY."
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