Hello Mark and MF.
You wrote:
> Hi Marco and All,
> MARCO:
> <<The main characteristic of a “machine code” seems to
> be something that is the “entire
> design goal “ for the below level. So if we want to
> find the machine code for social
> patterns, we must search for a set of biological
> characteristics, very refined, that helped
> people to unify their existences to create a very
> simple structured social pattern. A set of
> characteristics that has been then surpassed, while
> remaining as substratum in social
> activities.>>
> Fist of all, thanks Marco for taking the time to share
> your provocative insights. They sent
> me wandering down a wide variety of Intellectual (I
> hope) avenues in search of these
> “biological characteristics”. In backtracking the
> social path, I arrived at a vague idea of
> some biological pattern designed to bring sexual
> partners of a species together...
> hormones? While “deep searching” the Internet, I
> arrived at pheromones! Some of the
> following information is ‘lifted’ from “The Mystery of
> Smell” at:
> http://www.hhmi.org/senses/d/d110.htm
Interesting observations. You will notice that Marco has agreed to
calling the "machine code" of the biological level SENSATION
(instead of 'instincts') and smell is definitely one of the most
powerful senses in the - um - sense that it can bring forward strong
EMOTIONS. So I think you are on to something here The smell
centre (olfactory) is very ancient and belongs to the reptilian brain
we share with all creatures. (My source is Carl Sagan's "The
Dragons of Eden")
> A pheromone (for those who like myself lack a science
> background) is a chemical
> produced by one member of a species that is detected
> by another member in which it
> produces a physiological or behavioral response. Such
> a response is probably due to an
> influence of vomeronasal input on hormone levels.
> A virgin male hamster or mouse whose vomeronasal
> organs (VNOs) are removed
> generally will not mate with a receptive female.
> Apparently, the VNOs are needed to
> start certain chains of behavior stimulated by a
> specific pheromone. These chains of
> behavior are already programmed in the brain. However,
> losing the VNOs has a much
> less drastic effect on experienced animals. When male
> mice have begun to associate
> sexual activity with other cues from females they
> become less dependent on the VNOs.
> Sexually experienced males whose VNOs are removed mate
> almost as frequently as
> intact males.
After an influenza/cold bout in early April I suddenly lost my sense
of smell (haven't regained it fully yet) so I am a "guinea pig" now :-).
Smell and taste are closely associated so food is a bit tasteless,
I can sense the basic flavours, but the more subtle variants are lost
so it's impossible to judge what I'm eating. The point is however
that I - like the laboratory rats - am an experienced eater
so I sort of know what it should taste like and enjoy food in an
indirect way.
> So what about human VNOs and pheromones? It has long
> been noticed (by women) that
> women living close together (e.g., college roommates)
> develop synchronous menstrual
> cycles. It turns out that this is because they release
> two (as yet uncharacterized) primer
> pheromones one prior to ovulation that tends to speed
> up the onset of ovulation in others
> one after ovulation that tends to delay the onset of
> ovulation in other women. Both
> pheromones are released from the armpits. The
> pheromones are not detected consciously
> as odors, but presumably are detected by the human VNO
> (the vomeronasal organ).
Yes, I have heard of these social phenomenons.
> Four distinct functions of pheronomes have been
> identified in animals. These are (1) Sex
> Attractants, (2) Alarm Pheromones (3) Aggregation
> Pheromones (4) Dispersion Pheromones
> Perhaps these pheromones in their functioning form the
> basis of a machine code for social
> patterns: but as our social level has evolved, social
> patterns (refined, perpetuated and
> transmitted across human generations) have replaced
> the need for them. Sex Attractants
> have been replaced by rituals of courtship
> (conversation, looking, smiling, dancing),
> appearance (dress, hair-style, make-up), perfume, etc.
> Alarm pheromones, which signal potential threats to
> the group have been replaced by
> drums, smoke, sirens, house alarms, road signs,
> flashing lights, etc.
> Aggregation pheromones have given way to
> infrastructures: roads, canals, paths, visual
> signs, city lights!, etc.
> Dispersion pheromones (for territorial marking) have
> evolved as social man has utilized
> organic patterns. geographical borders, city walls,
> visual markers, buoys, maps, etc.
> It is noticeable that most of these ‘social
> pheromones’ rely on sight and hearing, but not
> smell. We do not have much of a vocabulary for our
> sense of smell compared to that of
> the other senses. We see things in a wide spectrum of
> colors, patterns. We can accurately
> measure sound- loud and soft, low and high. Our sense
> of touch is so refined we can
> ‘read’ with our fingers. We categorize taste in terms
> of sour, salty, sweet, bitter, and
> expert tasters can tell one wine vintage from another.
> But how do we differentiate smells?
The senses ARE the differentiation! It's the power of the MOQ that
it has made us able to differentiate between these four static
realms while subject-object metaphysics just have a body-mind
aggregate and the mind should theoretically be "conscious" of all
bodily functions.
The British writer Colin Wilson speaks of the difficulty to describe
the difference between the taste (which through my own experience
really is the smell) of an orange and a tangerine. He adds that in
the future it will be possible to name it. Typically SOMishness:
Nothing is real until it's intellectually pinned down. We supposedly
are the mind.
> However, the evocative power of smells reminds us of
> their former glory at the biological
> level. (Whenever I smell freshly cut grass I think of
> the aging caretaker at my Primary
> school in Yorkshire, England over 25 years ago, and
> all the associated memories come
> flooding back.)
Yes, this is well known. Smell is most evocative regarding
emotions - connected to memories - but hearing has this
memory-emotion ability too (music) and really do all senses
"carry" emotions. Something that affirms Marco's hunch and
underpins the Quality approach. Do you btw know Marcel Proust
and his famous experience? When he dipped a cake in his tea he
was overtaken by a rapture, carried back to his childhood days
along with an insight into the very heart of existence.
> So, perhaps we may find in time that pheromones and
> the VNO represent some kind of ‘machine code’ for the
> social level, buried now by patterns built upon human
> senses more functional for the social
> level. And so how does all of this relate to the
> Giant?
The pheromones and VNO belong to the inorganic fundament for
the sensational (biological) level, but these are rather advanced
forms. At the lowest rung there aren't even defined senses. A
bacterium has no detectable sense organs, yet it relates to its
environment (remember the amoeba passage in ZaMM?). At the
social level there is a similar development from rudimentary to the
more advanced and subtle - like you said above about sex from
merely mating (triggered by pheromones) to the whole human
spectrum.
This says a lot about the Social Giant, but also something about
the Intellectual one. What stage of has it reached and what
"machine code" will it spawn? Something for the next month?
Bo
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
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