# Manhood of Humanity

This is my re-telling of [Korzybski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Korzybski)'s _Manhood of Humanity_. First part [here](/lw/mm7/timebinding/).)

**3**

Clear thinking is important, because human ideas have _consequences_. For example, if we believe that lightning is a punishment of God, we will not try to save a house struck by lightning, because doing so would be opposing God's will. If we believe that lightning is a natural phenomenon repeating periodically, we will try to extinguish the fire. And if we believe that lightning is an electric spark, we can install lightning rods on houses to prevent fire. These definitions are increasingly more correct and more useful.

For correct analysis of classes of life, we need some ideas about dimensionality. We can't compare entities of different kinds: volumes with surfaces, surfaces with lines, lines with points. The consequence in real life is that when we take a cube and make it five times larger in every dimension, the lines will be 5 times larger, the surfaces 25 times larger, and the volume 125 times larger. Ignoring units would make our architectural and engineering computations wrong.

In chemistry, we have inorganic and organic chemistry. In inorganic chemistry, we have 79 elements (written in 1921) allowing a few hundreds of reactions. In organic chemistry, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Carbon can produce practically unlimited number of compounds. Thus we should treat organic chemistry as having higher dimension than inorganic chemistry; the same basic chemical phenomena involved in all reactions, but also many unique properties, including new phenomena such as "life", "instinct" and "mind".

Speaking about "life" in e.g. crystals would be the same kind of mistake as saying that surfaces have a volume. Inorganic crystals do not have sufficient dimension to contain organic phenomena. Analogies - such as pointing out that growth is one of the characteristics of life, and that crystals _do_ grow - are [superficial](/lw/rj/surface_analogies_and_deep_causes/) and fall apart when we look at [details](/lw/ic/the_virtue_of_narrowness/) of when and how specifically do living beings and crystals grow.

Plants can appropriate solar energy, convert it to another kind of energy, and store it up. Thus, plants are the **chemistry-binding** class of life.

Animals also have energy-transformation-and-storage abilities (although they use plants for food), but they also have a freedom and faculty to move about in space. Thus, animals are the **space-binding** class of life.

And finally, humans have both previous capacities, plus a unique capacity to summarise, digest and appropriate the labors and experiences of the past; to use what past generations achieved by trial and error; to increase the accumulated wisdom of humanity. Thus, humans are the **time-binding** class of life.

To treat humans as merely animals would be like confusing a cube for a square. In our geometrical analogy, zero dimensions (points) correspond to minerals, one dimension (lines) to plants, two dimensions (surfaces) to animals, and three dimensions (volumes) to humans.

**4**

(I was disappointed with this chapter, because the author seems to have developed an [affective spiral](http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Affective_death_spiral) around the term "time-binding", and most of the chapter feels like repeating over and over again, using slightly different words, that everything good and noble about humans is caused by time-binding, and everything bad happens when people are prevented from doing time-binding correctly. The technical definition of time-binding, which in my opinion is value-neutral, somehow magically also approximates the [CEV](http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Coherent_Extrapolated_Volition) of humankind; unless I misunderstood something here. Similar stuff appears also in the following chapters, but this chapter barely contains anything else. Since I am unable to make a charitable rewrite of this chapter, here are quotations.)

> Humans can be literally poisoned by false ideas and false teachings. Many people have a just horror at the thought of putting poison into tea or coffee, but seem unable to realize that, when they teach false ideas and false doctrines, they are poisoning the time-binding capacity of their fellow men and women. (...) There is nothing mystical about the fact that ideas and words are energies which powerfully affect the physico-chemical base of our time-binding activities.
> 
> On the other hand, when human beings are educated to a lively realization that they are by nature time-binding creatures, then they will spontaneously live in accordance with their time-binding nature, which, as I have said, is the source and support of the highest ideals.

**5**

Sciences like ethics, sociology, economics, politics and government should be changed from their current pseudoscientific level to the level of genuine science and technology. They are "life-regulating" sciences, by which I mean their influence on human life is more immediate and obvious than the influence of mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy and biology. Most important of them is economics.

If we examine the origins of our wealth, it is almost completely a result of the _previous generations_. Not just what _they_ built, but, foremost, the whole civilization and intellectual achievements that allowed _us_ to build what we built.

Examining humanity today, from the engineer's point of view, we can roughly divide people into three classes: (1) the intellectuals, who possess the _knowledge_ created mostly by previous generations; (2) the rich, who possess and control most of the _material wealth_; and (3) the poor, who possess neither and are limited to the struggle for mere existence, having little or no opportunity to exercise their time-binding capacity.

Both material wealth and knowledge are cumulative achievements of humanity. Material wealth is created by human work operating in time upon raw material given by nature. Knowledge is created by human intellectual labor of observation, experimentation, imagination, deduction and invention, all consuming the precious time of short human lives. For both of them, time is an essential factor.

**6**

Material wealth created by previous generations is often short-lived. We still use some ancient roads and waterways; many railroads, buildings, machines and tools created today may be useful for more than one generation. But many old things are useless, or we can put them in the museums but they have no use in practical life.

On the other hand, inventions can be useful for centuries or millenia, and even when they become obsolete, it is often because some other invention _based on them_ replaced them, so they still continue to contribute _indirectly_.

Knowing that the wealth of the world is mostly a gift from the past - the fruit of the labor of the dead - to whom should it belong now? How should we distribute the wealth that exists because of the invention of steam engine _et cetera_?

Looking at the standard political answers: capitalists ignore the fact that without human work, the fruit of dead people's work is also dead; socialists ignore that fact that accumulation of wealth, _when rightly used_, can bring tremendous benefits to humankind. What would be a rational solution?

Even the greatest minds of humanity do not need to consume more food than their neighbors. And how many potential great minds were lost because they couldn't get even that much food? Yet in long term most wealth comes from inventions.

Exploitation is madness. But revolutions are also madness. The only remedy is enlightenment - knowledge of nature, science. But even the press, which could spread information, is often controlled by people who use it to exploit others.

**7**

When people excuse accumulation of wealth in a few private hands, they often use the argument of "survival of the fittest". But this is an expression fit for plants or animals, which cannot be applied to humans unless we change the meaning profoundly. Humanity survives and thrives by using science (time-binding).

Our desire to transcend mere selfishness is a natural phenomenon for humans. We have already received material and intellectual gifts from the previous generations; we also have a time-binding impulse towards higher ideals. Just like animals (space-binders) try to survive in _space_ by fighting each other, humans (time-binders) also try to survive in _time_ by struggling for excellence; we want our ideas to be a perpetual blessing to endless generations after us. Human ethics is not the same as animal ethics.

The tendency of masses to let others think for them is _not_ natural. It is a result of thousand years of subjection, when people in authority used their cleverness to stop others from thinking. Also, disagreeing with some official opinion could get one killed. Then the average people learned not to trust speculative language.  But they are much less "stupid" when using everyday language. Belief in inferiority of the masses is an excuse for the privileged classes to indoctrinate the masses in the church or in the public school.

**8**

In WW1 Germany displayed tremendous power. It would be wrong to believe that this was all created by a "war lord". Yes, some individual has declared the war. But it happened on a pre-existing economical background. Germany was on the verge of bankruptcy, and only a victorious war could avoid a national catastrophe; but despite the gigantic power, after a long time Germany lost.

Germany applied scientific methods to build their national power. Their industry and military reflected each other. People were mobilized in industrial production long before they were mobilized in war. The consequence of the continuous mobilization was over-production, and war seemed like a cheapest and quickest way to acquire new markets.

We have laws that limit possible selfish behavior of individuals. We also need a system to prevent selfish behavior of groups, including nations.

**9**

WW1 is the end of childhood of humanity, and the beginning of adulthood. We must learn how to deal with the past. There are three ways how to do it wrong: (1) ignore the past, give up the experience of former generations and drift aimlessly; (2) worship the past by ignoring all its vices, misery and ignorance, and magnifying its virtues, happiness and wisdom; or (3) scorn the past by doing the opposite, disregard its virtues, happiness and wisdom, and magnify its vices, misery and ignorance.

The correct way is to study the past and keep asking "Why?": Why the centuries of superstition and ignorance? Why the cycles of enterprise, stagnation and decay? Why wars and slavery? Why inventions, craftsmanship, commerce, and art? Why the belief in speculation without observation and experiment? Why science?

We need to go in history beyond Herodotus; he lived 2,500 years ago, humans were here for about 400,000 years. That's like a 20-years old man who only remembers the last 3 months of his life. To understand humans, we need the help of geologists, paleontologists, ethnologists.

We see that humanity has progressed exponentially. Compared with the past, what we have now is impressive, but that is merely a beginning. Our ancestors survived geologic and climatic changes: earthquakes, storms, seasons of flood and frost and heat and drought, which destroyed the accumulated product of previous generations and killed the people. But the most hostile circumstance is our ignorance of human nature.

The ethics of adult humanity will not treat people as animals, fit to be slaves, but will it also not take "wisdom" from ignorant priests. The economics of adult humanity will optimize neither for "capitalist" desire to keep, nor for "proletarian" desire to get; it will optimize for prosperity of the world and the future generations. Instead of patriotism, people will care about the whole world.

Where to start? The first step would be to establish a new institution which will help [coordinate](/lw/64/helpless_individuals/) the groups of people who want to cooperate. It should have roughly the following sections: (1) section of _mathematical sociology_: sociologists, biologists, mechanical engineers, and mathematicians together developing the science of humans, promoting science, creating theory-of-value curriculum for elementary schools and wide public; (2) section of _mathematical legislation_: lawyers, mathematicians, and mechanical engineers together recommending legislation to bring jurisprudence into accord with human nature; (3) _educational_ section: teachers, sociologists, mechanical engineers, and mathematicians together evaluating teaching methods and textbooks; (4) _specialists_ of various kinds, giving expert advice to the supported groups when asked; (5) _banking_ section: financial experts, sociologists, and mathematicians together giving financial advice to the supported groups when asked; (6) _promoters'_ section: create plans, available only to societies which agree with this project; (7) _farming_ section: agriculture; (8) _foreign_ section: relations between the supported groups; (9) _commercial_ section; (10) _news_ section: publishing a large daily paper containing true information, with a special part reporting on progress of this project.

**END**