The predicament of our species
What is going on in the sphere of human affairs is truly insidious.
It is a consequence of what can be recognised, grasped, explained and understood thanks to by science availed explanatory pointers to what is and has been going on.
I have compactly accounted for this with help of a few assorted, enthusiastically pieced together, in some cases almost etymologically pioneering, ‘tools4thought’ or insight facilitating lingual lenses—mostly ”MAD”-inspired acronyms.
The aptly allusive nuclear arms-race shaming acronym for “mutually assured destruction” was what provided the inspiration that brought about these acronyms—not “mad inspiration” in the sense of whatever internally drives aims and behaviors that are largely counterfactual and destructive (sooner or later).
The acronyms that were contrived with the aim (not always successfully realised) to supply memorable (“MAD”-emulating) memes for making amends.
One of these acronyms was arduously engineered; positively to have remained ‘unbuilt and non-existent’ without a couple of likewise pragmatically produced portmanteau words (at least one of which is almost surely unprecedented).
The labour behind the resulting terminology, and also behind its “packaging” (wrapping in supporting or ‘loosely cementing’ semantics) was agreeably eased by “sem_antics” (=alliterative wordplay) and by injections of septic and antiseptic humor.
A near fatal philosophical stumble on a final acronym-building hurdle was saved or recovered from by a resorted to “tolerance principled attitude”—one as if heralded by Heisenberg.
The resulting terminology is now the backbone of an encompassing philosophical take on what is going on—a take that is chiefly the result of an anthropocentric evolutionary psychophysiology type of analytical enlightenment pursuing thinking.
I refer to this “take” with the (by ‘letter fusion’ fancified) acronymic flag ÆPT.
“ÆPT” is meant to be interpreted as a flag that stands for various complementary and of course never inept descriptions of what it is a flag for; such as, for example: an effectively philosophy terminating altruism entailing politically targetable atheistic enlightenment projecting truth-plotting perspective predominantly on our own species.
However, ÆPT is finished more generally than anthropically applicable prophylaxis promoting subjectivity snubbing precise definition of Absolute Life Quality/ALQwholesomeness, and it is rounded-off with a peripheral, simple but science-aligned and impossible to rationally (not verbally) contradict, conclusion about Ultimate Reality (UR); a take on UR in near enough normal English.
Please note that ÆPT is spelt and raised with a flexibility that allows it to in some cases be conveniently used as a word-meaning qualifier, by “upper-casing”.
Apropos which, beware that all irrelevant or derogatory derivations to ÆPT (from sequences of 4 words) are unaccEPTable!
ÆPT is an ambitiously explanatory philosophical thesis on the “Internet”. It, and the terminology embedded in it, is hopefully pedagogically potent and amenably mirth-inviting rather than provocatively pert and off-putting.
I hope you, an intercEPTee, are percEPTive and recEPTive to ÆPT!
We and our closest simian cousins, the chimpanzees, evolved to have brains, or neural attention selection serving systems, that clearly incline us to behave in opportunity exploiting ways—including in a ruthless usurping murderous tribal ways; a behavior that mainly adult humans are extra likely to engage in given certain (broached in this text) conditioning influences early on in our lives, combined with recent or current circumstantial prompts.
More recently in our evolutionary history, after the individual members of our lineage had become fully bipedal, a unique series of momentous selective sweep causing pleiotropic mutations endowed our hominin and eventually fully human ancestors with language functions that potently leveraged pre-evolved simian cognition — did so not least by enabling "tools for thought" which make it possible for us to, amongst else, delude ourselves and deceive others.
With the words "amongst else" I implied all other human characteristics that the momentous language-function conferring pleiotropic mutations concomitantly brought.
For example: All forms of art, all sciences & technologies; our proven capacity to create economies motivated and measured monetarily; our tendency to become fanatically ideological, or engaged in murderous wars encouraged by secular or theistic beliefs.
"BUT WAIT THERE’s MORE" — i.e. more facts of key importance that when taken into account make the evolved-into existential predicament of our species more plainly obvious or less easy to ignore.
The evolution of animals by natural selection led to brains that incur CURSES!
"CURSES" is the shortest possible aptly allusive acronym derivable from conditioned-in, unconscious, reverberative signalling state or states, effecting symptoms.
Harry Harlow's heartless experimentation with infant monkeys involved depriving them of their most basic social need, namely to obtain reassuring touch and physical closeness.
Harlow proved that the more severe the deprivation the more severe the behavioral “post -traumatic” symptoms—symptoms generated by the CURSES incurred by the monkeys.
Any predicament of ordeal that is coped with and individually survived but that leaves behind an indefinitely postponed distress-type response (a CURSES) is ÆPTly referred to NOT with the by too often so carelessly used Freudian word “trauma” (misused so much that its meaning has become watered-out) but with an ÆPTly defined concEPT amenable to a deservedly allusive acronymic spelling and pronunciation; namely the concEPT of for any reason ended up under circumstantial threats of “specific hibernation (SH) imploring” type.
SH is meant to be pedagogically compared with ‘general hibernation’ (GH), i.e. how some species or subspecies or animals have evolved to instinctively cope with seasonally harsh habitats by preparing for and entering into a metabolism minimising dormant state; a state that precludes all focuses of attention (attentiveness) and all behaviors or preoccupations—conventional notions comprehensively covered by the nearly self-explanatory ÆPT portmanteau term/word “actentions” or “actentiveness”.
The basic social need that Harlow made sure was deprived (to different degrees) in the monkeys is the same need we humans are born with.
Therefore the results of the experiment can be safely extrapolated to be one of a multitude of indicators to what has been an insidious factor in human evolution and a subconscious motivating factor in the development of human personalities until now and into our foreseeable future.
To reiterate, the aptly allusive acronym CURSES (same spelling in plural as in singular) refers to highly discrete indefinitely distress stalling states in brains.
CURSES are is a concEPT that refers to states incurred from (conditioned-in by) any circumstantial predicament or ordeal that amounts to a threat that “implores” (requires in order to have a chance of being adaptively survived) “specific hibernation” type of coping.
Here the word “implores” was meant in the same sense as “demands” or “requires”.
And what is worth mentioning again and say more about is:
1. that “Specific hibernation” (SH) is meant to be didactically compared with ‘general hibernation’ (GH).
2. GH refers to species or subspecies of animals that have adapted to a habitat that with seasonal regularity turns harsh and that is instinctively coped with by preparing for and entering into a state of dormancy.
3. Whether the habitat freezes over and is hibernated, or turns hot and dry and is aestivated, the common physiological denominator is a generally muted metabolism that blocks behavior and cancels “consciousnessT” (a reference to the ÆPTly defined meaning of this normally ill defined/understood phenomenon).
The most important point made by comparing “general hibernation” with specific hibernation is that the generally minimised metabolism of GH generally precludes manifestations of actentions or actentiveness and consciousnessT, whereas SH precludes particular extensions or contents/expressions of consciousnessT.
The intended ÆPT meaning of “actention” (an almost self-explanatory portmanteau term/word/concEPT) covers an ‘attention paying’ activity or action as simple, as inexpensive (primarily paid in the ‘currency’ of neurometabolic resources), and as fleetingly focused as an orienting reflex.
However, more importantly, “actentions” refers to different emotions and to any more or less skilled or learned sceletomuscular and/or mental (from language-lacking cognitive to language function involving intellectual) behaviors or preoccupations.
In the expression “specific hibernation” the word “hibernation” merely means a relatively muted (neural) metabolism, and SH is meant to refer to a discrete state of muted metabolism of neurons automatically kept rendered unable to receive and relay “SH imploring threat” representing excitatory messages within an “actention module” naturally dedicated to drive distress—do so as part of an individual brain or ”actention selection serving system”.
BUT WAIT THERE IS EVEN MORE—namely an ambitiously extended Primal Theoretical recognition about us humans; a recognition that I have condensed into the acronym EAVASIVE.
While all animals evolved so that CURSES are a consequence of individually survived predicaments or ordeals of “specific hibernation imploring type”, only anthropogeny (how we humans evolved) resulted in a uniquely consequential capacity to multifariously and potently convert some of the excitatory messages that are more or less chronically generated at the more or less successfully sequestered core of CURSES into a source of subconscious co-motivational fuel for EAVASIVE attitudes, beliefs and ”actentions” (≈behaviors or preoccupations).
[The core of CURSES consists of excitatory messages that ever since a genuine SHI type challenge was individually survived are on the way to drive distress but are kept blocked and “selectively unconscious”. IOW, a CURSES precludes an actention of distress type, from being generated by an actention module dedicated (by evolution) to drive distress by default.
At first a CURSES precludes maladaptive distress because of an unconditioned inhibitory reflex. But this inhibition is normally augmented by automatically learnt or conditioned “actention modular” (mental and behavioral) means of keeping SHIT- specific “synaptic gates” closed so that excitatory messages, generated because of such predicaments or ordeals (for whatever reason ended up under “specific hibernation imploring” threats) are precluded from manifesting what also in nearly all post-SHIT=post traumatic situations would be a maladaptively paid/focused distress-type actention.]
EAVASIVE is an extra pragmatic tool for an in-dEPTh grasp of what is going on .
EAVASIVE was contrived to stand for
Evolved Ambiadvantageous{ly adaptive} Verbal Actentions System Involving Various Endoopiates.
EAVASIVE would not have been contrived without the following haphazardly numbered ingredients:
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A resorted-to “tolerance principled” attitude—one as if heralded by Werner Heisenberg;
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The forcibly forged portmanteau word ”ambiadvantagous” that also serves as an extra pointer to the ÆPT sub-heuristic relative to Darwin’s—i.e. a recognition
of that and how CURSES came to be an exceptionally potent, though primarily insidious, fuel for good as well as bad EAVASIVEness;
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The in-dEPTh meaning of the “brain”-alternative actention selection serving system, maximally truncated to AS for it to feature right in the middle of EAVASIVE.
Of course, the internal functures/workings of our brains (neural ASSSs) and of the brains of other ‘brainy’ animals don’t only involve opioids (such as endorphins and enkephalins and dynorphin). However, those brain peptides have names and known functions luckily suited to the piecing together, as well as contributing to the meaning, of EAVASIVE (the most integrative of all ÆPT acronyms).
P.S.
CURSES is a concept that was never used by Harlow; nor by Freud or Arthur Janov or other analysers and authors on topics relevant to human affairs (other than I).
It is exclusively an acronymic expression pertaining to ”ÆPT”.
ÆPT is an acronymic flag raised and spelt flexibly (and frugally—as evidenced by the two ‘fused’ letters), sometimes as a word-meaning qualifier.
The flag is meant to be seen as derived from relevant and complementary descriptions or characterisations of what it is a flag for, with the exception of derogatory such, all of which are unaccEPTable.
For example, ÆPT can be interpreted as (standing for) an altruism entailing politically targetable thesis or as an atheistically enlightened perspective textualised, or an effectively philosophy terminating take on what is going on; or it can be aptly seen to be a concEPT exclusive to an explanatory platform terminology built after a dogged application of Nature’s one and only method, namely abundant error plagued trialing.