Busybody Alchemy Cannot Go As Planned

By Chris Rossini

​Plant an acorn into the soil and you will end up with a mighty oak tree. You plant, and the soil responds.

Plant an apple seed, and the soil will produce an apple tree. A lilac seed will produce a lilac bush.

The soil will not produce until you plant the seed. You initiate the process. There is no such thing as 'something for nothing' when it comes to the soil. 

The soil doesn't care which seed is planted, or who does the planting. It can be an Iowan planting corn, or a Floridian planting oranges. The soil doesn't care.

Pretty standard stuff right?

Nature...Science...It couldn't be more perfect.

Well, there are always some human beings who take this process and let their imaginations run wild. They visualize themselves treating other human beings the same way that they treat the acorn. These busybody micromanagers imagine that they can turn humans into the equivalent of the acorn.

They imagine that if they do X to the human, that the human will respond exactly as expected. Do XY, and the human will respond as anticipated. Do XYZ to the human, and once again, like an acorn sprouting into a mighty oak, the human will sprout into what the busybody micromanager wants.

The micromanager could not be more mistaken.

A human being is not an acorn. Yes, in terms of matter, both are composed of atoms, and yes, both are made up of the elements from the periodic table. 

But the human has free will and the ability (and responsibility) to choose. The acorn does not. The human being is conscious. It thinks. It values. It has goals and purposes. The human being acts, and acts with a purpose. Every action is taken to achieve a subjectively valued end; an end chosen by that individual in his or her own conscious mind.

The human can imagine anything, but everything imagined cannot necessarily be made into a physical reality.

Some human beings have imagined utopias, perhaps since the very beginning; at least since the beginning of our historical records.

Today's busybody micromanagers have joined the club. By using the word "science" as a smokescreen, they've fooled (not only themselves) but a good number of other people into believing that human life can be micromanaged in the same way that a farm can be managed.

The human is just one more variable, like an acorn. Just do this, and you'll always get that.

And since the beginning, reality has always rebuffed the micromanager utopians with one simple word: "No."

This "No" delivered back by reality is accompanied by mass pain and suffering; perhaps so humans could learn from their mistakes to never trust or believe the utopians.

But human beings seem to have short memories, and the utopians always return:

"No, no, you don't understand. We have amazing technology. We have data, and more data, and even more than that. This time we can turn the human into the equivalent of the acorn. We can turn human life into one giant Pavlovian paradise, that we run."

And yet, the answer that can be tossed back never changes:

No, no, it is you who doesn't understand, and your monumental error can do nothing but produce mass pain and suffering yet again. It doesn't matter what technology you have. It doesn't matter how much data you collect. You can place cameras and microphones on every square inch of the earth and it will not make one iota of difference. 

You did not make the human. You will not 'remake' him either. 

You are not the Creator, but a creation that combines that which already exists. You combine thoughts to make ideas. You combine elements to make tools, products, goods, and technologies.

You heard the Beatles song, right? "There's nothing you can do that can't be done."

You combine. You don't create.

So it is you who misunderstands your place in the world, and if you're attempting to turn a human into an acorn, you're going to combine things in a way that brings mass suffering to humans, irrespective of what you think are good intentions.

Technology does, and should, serve individuals and the ends that they each individually choose. 

A monumental error is made when technology is viewed as a means for you to try to control the uncontrollable. 

Your means are insufficient. Your end is imaginary.

You really should stop.

​Go plant some acorns.

Human beings are created free to choose, and free they shall remain.