The Incredible Facets of Being What Does It Mean To Be Human
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
a star
studied panel of scientists gathers
annually to discuss
heady themes at the world science
festival
several years ago the question on the
table was what does it mean to be human
the same question has been asked by the
smithsonian’s institute
i’ve woven about eight to nine of the
presenters answers in sound byte form
into my presentation they were all
brilliant subject matter
experts by the way so here’s my go at
helping us to understand how awesome we
really are
to be human means that we are effective
beings
and as such we are able to process
regulating
emotional states and for the elicitation
of emotional reactions
we are also auditory beings
the feature that makes us human that is
vastly different from animals
is quite complex because we do not only
hear with our ears we hear with our
heart
we are able to detect innuendos uncover
the meaning behind the most obscure
statements and hear the emotions that
are driving a word
utter we are authentic beings
this above all to thy own self be true
and it must follow as the night the day
thou canst not
then be false to any man this is
polonius act one
scene three the tragedy of hamlet by
william shakespeare
we are biochemical beings the human
being
that marvelous machine precise and
efficient
elegant and awe-inspiring is a dynamic
framework of bone and cartilage
called the skeleton with hinges and
joints that
were made to move to mitigate
harmful friction such as moving parts
must be lubricated obviously so man-made
machines are lubricated only by
outside sources but the body
fantastically
lubricates itself by its own innate
manufacturing company
which produces a jelly-like substance
in the right amount at every place it is
needed
we are bioelectrical beings
the electrons and atoms in your body are
not just
cellular constituents or particles of
matter within the body but
waves of living energy einstein said e
equals m c
squared and that’s true one theory is
postulated that if the electronic energy
of the
hydrogen atoms alone in the human body
could be utilized a single person could
supply the electrical
needs of a large highly industrialized
country
for nearly a week that’s fantastic it’s
amazing to me
we are physical beings with our five
physical senses working
optimally we are able to move through
time and
navigate this terra firma because of the
beautifully and intelligently designed
body we are cognitive beings
daniel danette cognitive scientist said
we are the first species that represents
our reasons
and can reason with each other
the planet has grown a nervous system he
said
the brain is the center of a complex
computer system more wonderful
than the greatest one ever built by man
we
are complex beings to say that we
understand someone
is to deny the complexity of every human
being
we are also conscious beings the human
mind
not to be confused with the human brain
has
fascinated sciences and philosophers and
theologians for
centuries the mind a-local
and non-physical can be broken into
three categories
the conscious mind the subconscious mind
and the super conscious mind
we are a corporal being we are body
electric indeed we are creative beings
an act of creativity can be memento and
or inspiring such as
creating a beautiful painting or
building a spaceship that
takes us to mars or an innovative new
technology we are credible beings
i call this the art of ethics and
morality
we are cultural beings we have cultures
which
are ways of transmitting information
molded by the skillful hands of culture
we are educated
socialized and recognized
we are dynamic beings we are both
creator and creature
sinner and savior our perpetrator and
victim
conquered and conquered we are living
yet dying
that’s how dynamic we really are
we are embodied beings our mind
souls spirit emotions are all hosted and
housed in a body
the body is not you but only gives you
permission to live in time and operate
in a space we are more than our bodies
because the body only becomes animated
by
the non-physical forces that cannot be
seen by the human eye but
finds full expression of itself when it
becomes one
with the body it controls we are
emotional beings
our emotions are like a spectrum of
colors
that is both biochemical and
bioelectrical tools for self-awareness
and
we are enterprising beings take
innovation and creativity add a healthy
heaping
of risk and a drive to make things
better
and you will get enterprising
individuals
we are entrepreneurial beings we are
about doing the business called life
we are eternal beings we may lose our
bodies but
what remains is our soul and spirit we
are ethical beings john does paso’s
makes an inquiring into the psyche of
the human beings he acts
why do some people lie what is
right or wrong and who gets to declare
something is right or wrong
the mind cannot support moral chaos for
law
men are under as strong a compulsion to
invent an ethical setting for their
behaviors
as spiders are to weave themselves webs
we
are genetic beings francis collins
geneticist
says what does the genome tell us
there’s surprisingly little genetic
difference between a human and
chimpanzees yet
clearly we’re different we are god-like
beings
we are graced with a god-like ability to
transcend time and space in our minds
and
use the faculty of imagination to create
things that
are not impoverible and impossible
to those minds who do not believe henry
miller said imagination is the voice of
daring if there is anything god like
about god
it is that he dare to imagine everything
and a quote and so can we we
are gustatory beings we feel things in
our belly
like the punch in the belly mistake you
make or the
queasy feeling that something is wrong
with your child
or that feeling deep within that when
you get someone that is lying for
instance
and that hits you when especially
someone makes an angry remark and then
slams the door
and they make that remark that is below
the belt
that is what gustatory is all about we
are
hormonal beings this is the work of the
endocrine system which is made up of
glands that produce hormones and
release them into uh the blood a
work that is so magnificent when i think
about it the hormones cause certain
reactions to occur
in specific tissues the endocrine system
affects a large number of the body
functions including
temperature and metabolism and sexual
function and
reproduction and moods and growth and
development
we are innovative beings how did the
phone get smart it got smart through
innovation
someone saw a different way of
communicating and created something that
we
have never seen innovation is the art of
seeing a better and more
efficient tomorrow innovators have
an uncanny ability to peer into the
future and to
convince us that we can live there we
are intellectual beings
a person whose life and work revolves
around the study
or use of ideas such as in
teaching or writing is called an
intellect robert
louis stevenson an intellect himself
said
to be wholly devoted to some
intellectual exercise
is to have succeeded in life
we are intelligent beings in 1983
an american developmental psychologist
howard gardner
described nine types of intelligence we
are
kinesthetic names have you ever had
goosebumps on your arms by listening to
a beautiful song
or just by hearing the voice of someone
who
deeply loves you tell you that they do
that is the simple way of explaining
the catastrophic being we
are miraculous beings rene pira
embryologist said we’re uniquely
human from the moment the egg and the
sperm chooses
a human program begins before the brain
even begins to form
we are moral beings g.k chesterton
said or like morality or in this
instance morality like art
consists of drawing the line somewhere
we are neurological beings geography is
to the earth what
neurology is to the brain we are old
factory
beings the sense of smell have you ever
heard of the saying i smell a rat
that means that what the eye misses the
sense of smell
picks up we’re ontological beings
according to the merriam-webster’s
dictionary ontology is a very concerned
with
the nature and relation of beings we are
passionate beings i believe that life is
all about
being excited about something like i’m
excited about this
we see it naturally expressed in
children
seeing passion and enthusiasm helps
accelerate
growth progress and success it gives us
something to look forward to
and to being motivated we
are philosophical beings
this is a character that is not just
about the fields of studies such as
skepticism and hedonism and
nihilism it’s about your personal
philosophy
it’s about how you show up in life and
the values you bring
to your relationship your job in the
world
we’re physical beings dr weiner
geek said without a doubt the most
complex
information processing system in
existence is the human body
we are potent beings potential is a
superpower and it comes from
the word potent which is a latin
potentia which means power in might and
force
figuratively it means political power
authority or
influence so to simplify this context
i want to look at one of the most
powerful elements
in nature which is the seed and if i
howl the seed in my hand and ask the
average person
what do i have in my hand they would
probably say a seed
but that’s obvious when we look at
potential however
if you understand the nature of the seed
your answer would be you’re actually
holding
a bullet and so that’s what potential is
all about
we are problem solving beings problem
solvers are first
problem discoverers and we all have
discovered our ample share of them
we are also procreative beings we’re
productive beings we’re progressive
beings
walt disney said we keep moving forward
opening new doors and doing new things
because
we’re curious and curiosity keeps
leading us
down new paths we’re
rational beings doug cooper said
rationalization is
foreplay to the human conscience we’re
relational beings we relate with
everything around us we relate to other
people we relate to nature
we relate to animals we relate to money
even
our inanimate and imaginary objects
we relate to it so who we are
as relational beings is about
connections and cooperation and
communication
and rapport we are reproductive beings
reproduction is about succession and
survival
we are resilient beings we are wired to
overcome almost anything
like soot that becomes a diamond a worm
that becomes a butterfly we rise up
out of the ash heat as a phoenix in the
sky
we are retrospective beings we are
selective beings we are creatures who
look for variety we are self-centered
beings we are the sun in our own
universe
we are sentient beings sentience is
about
sense perception without the use of
intelligence or
mental perception driven by feelings as
opposed to
perception or thought we are serious
beings
not everything in life is fun and games
life is to be enjoyed yes but there is
always a time when laughter and pleasure
is inappropriate because
life itself is serious business
we are sexual beings that’s the fun
stuff that adults call
birds and bees activities children find
the virgin bees conversation confusing
even for darwin the father of evolution
sex was confusion he wrote in 1862
we do not even in the least know the
final cause
of sexuality why new beings should be
produced by the union of two sexual
elements the whole subject
is as yet hidden in darkness
we are social beings we are made for
community
able to create communities able to
communicate with others we are speaking
beings we
communicate our thoughts our feelings
our desires with language
we are spiritual beings we are not just
corporal or physical beings we are souls
who have a spirit
living in a body we’re thinking beings
renee descartes
said i think therefore i am plato said
thinking is the talking of the soul with
itself
we are unique beings in tyrosols
anthropologists said it is not what
is human but what is unique
we are visual beings this also
is the acuity of the mind and the heart
we are volitional beings life is made up
of the some
choices we make and finally
we are well creating beings
in the days to come we will discover
that wealth is not limited to
how much money we accumulate but how we
together
are able to find harmony in our
diversity
and to know that we are much wealthier
together than we are apart
so let us push for our collective
destiny
our commonwealth irrespective of race
color ethnicity or creed because that’s
what being human is all about