Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Man: the Machine

Man: the Machine
By Sikander Salahuddin
Mystery surrounds human origins. Creation stories of Judaic, Christian and Islamic traditions speak of him being created by God and placed on planet earth. Scientists have a different story to tell: Man is the product of stardust. He has humble beginnings and evolved through gradual progression from primates nearly 40 thousand years ago.
Keeping these mind-boggling speculations apart, if we focus on present day man then he appears a spectacular life form, a wonderful biological organism. But he is definitely not made of ethereal or angelic stuff. The elements that shaped his body are scattered throughout the universe. “The composition of tiny lumps of impure carbon and water of complicated structure, with somewhat unusual physical and chemical properties give birth to man”, as Bertrand Russell puts it. For a moment dismiss man as we subjectively conceive him and consider him briefly as a biological machine or a robot and he will definitely appear as such. Laced with vision, hearing sensors and above all with a powerful computer fitted in his skull he is capable of performing thousands of marvelous tasks. A comparison between him and a piece of machinery, for example, a car will bring out these similarities more forcefully.
A car needs fuel for its operations. Man needs food for carrying out numerous physical and mental assignments. Car has an engine; man has various systems for the smooth functioning of its healthy working. A car has headlights facilitating its movements in darkness; we on the other hand have eyes enabling us to see things. Car has got exhaust pipes emitting redundant material; man has excretory system expelling waster material, a result of metabolism.
When car breaks down it is taken to a mechanic, we on falling ill end up in a hospital. When humans die they are dumped into a graveyard with lots of ceremony and hopes of resurrection, but old useless cars end up in junk shops, or are parked in desolate corners and are left to their own fate. Man’s comparison with the cars is apt and interesting. But he is not he only biological machine, our earth abounds with so many of them. The animal kingdom exhibits craftsmanship of the highest degree. These biological machines, the animals find their echoes and parallels in man’s world. Trucks, tractors, are man’s ingenious efforts in replicating our dear beasts of burden, the camels, the donkeys , the mules and the bullocks.
Of course it is logical to question very basis and premise of the theory by pointing out that man and every member of the animal kingdom is endowed with a self will, unlike man made machines which cant get operational without man’s control. But the fact is that these biological machines have an inbuilt computer in shape of mind which enables them to become masters of their own selves. Mind gives them the self-drive ability. But sometimes it happens that a newly created machine, a new born human child for example is born with a dysfunctional computer and logically its self drive ability is also impaired and so such child is left entirely at the care of others all their lives.
So here we come. Our world having two kinds of machines, one biological in structure, the other man made and mostly mechanical and electronic in structure, but the distinction of biological and mechanical basis of making machines is fast blurring. 21st century man is playing God; rapid advances in the field of biology and genetic engineering are taking man to the realm of creation. Scientist in the US created first virus, cloning created Dolly the sheep and many other animals , and cloning of human beings is technical possible today.
Here this comparison or equation between man and a mechanical machine like a car raises another interesting and important question: the question of perpetuation and replication Man and other living organisms are busy in reproduction since the day one. But cars lack this vital capacity. But in spite of this roads are full of them. Where do these cars come from and why? The plain answer is that cars come from factories and that man is manufacturing them but again a question comes why man makes cars?
The answer lies in profit, a motive powerful enough to turn cars by millions out of a factory. When the factory owner is engaged in the task of manufacturing a car, profit is at the very top of his mind. Though the first man who invented a car may not have been motivated by profit motive, he would have been more like a painter who paints a picture to satisfy his aesthetic sense only. But today’s mass production of the cars is very much driven by profit. But man, the machine in replicating and reproducing himself not by profit motive, though again an exception could be made in case of Pakistan where some men reproduce to have male offspring to have greater man power and influence in their Biradri. Some religious minded people here in reproducing have a profit motive of another kind in minds i.e. to make Muslims greater in number to counter the power and influence of the West. But these two examples are slight exceptions. The thing that drives most of men in reproduction is the wild drive of mating, the desire to have physical communion with the opposite partner. This is really the reason why the process of regeneration and reproduction takes place. As a matter of fact, lust is such an overwhelming and overpowering passion that during mating the idea of children as its by product is rarely in the mind of mating partners. But this is what simply happens.
Man, woman working together brings into play the equation of factory and the laborer. Man assumes the function and role of a laborer and woman becomes a factory. Man puts into action all his energy and wild power in manufacturing another machine, another copy of himself. And thus man and women through their joint effort and enterprise bring into the world another self driven machine, the human child.
This obsession, the wild desire of mating drives the engine of life. This is a common thread that runs through our past, present and the future. Birds, animals and man, strange life patterns with origins unknown become perfect machines with self drive ability. A genetical clock determines their life span. Before they are dissolved back into the elements, of which they are composed and compounded, they transmit their genes, the blueprint and the basic design of their structure into their coming generations. The cycle of birth and death continues but life goes on. The motive for reproducing copies of one’s own species never comes to an end and the same ensures the continuity and perpetuity of all living species on planet earth.
Once back in the countryside, sitting on a long muddy wall of a dilapidated house, I saw birds flying and crying against the background of the vast expanse of the sky. I was fascinated. I don’t know for what purpose they are here, the life forms with the power of flight. Living a brief span of life, transmitting their genes to their children and then dissolving back to their elements. Still I hailed them as great symbols of life. Life is a mystery but it forms a grand and beautiful pattern. Animals and birds, prisoners of their own instincts of self preservation and perpetuation are an essential part of it, but we the human beings, have the added gift of contemplating the beauties of this grand mosaic, that we call life.

No comments:

Post a Comment