It Wasn't Pretty

There is no post-apocalyptic story to tell, the human race has been classified as EXTINCT.

Why hadn't the cerebrum thwarted such a travesty? We knew why. The answer to the decimation of the species lies between the Homo sapiens brain and the heart. More precisely, the reason for the races extinction could be found in the misapplication of these vital human organs. There were those on the interplanetary Council who had argued that the end had become inevitable when the species began behaving in a manner that could no longer be categorized as 'human'. As she listened, she recalled how that she had once startled her mother when she had spoken aloud that, we humans are animals too. She was grateful that her mom had moved out of body before the end came.

Revealed among the basic causes for the elimination of the species, was flat out that man had begun using their intellect defensively. This act, these acts, flipped the switch. The function mode turned from evolutionary to anti-evolutionary. Intellect devoid of any intelligence.

Humankind on Earth, the planet of emotion, was on track for and entirely equipped and capable of maintaining a Utopian planet. The gene ARHGAP11B was extraordinary, as it was foundational in the evolution from apes to man. Found in the DNA of Homo sapiens, and in their ancient relatives the Neanderthals and the Denisovans, this gene is what separated man from the chimpanzees. Yet, this evolutionary gene was missing in 75% of the brain samples the Council scientists had examined, adults and children. Wouldn't have this change taken time, a lot of time?

The human brain consisted of three unequivocally different neural structures. Nature built her new and more complex systems on the foundations of the previous structures. Each of these three systems can to some extent, act laterally within its own structure and according to its specialties. Yet the three are designed to act vertically, as an integrated unit. Man's primary behavior would be primitive if all they had to work with were the core brain structure. There would be no emotion without the old mammalian limbic system, and no reason without the neocortex or new mammalian brain.

Human scientists recent work in genetics had suggested that trauma could be passed on in mans DNA through the biochemistry of the human egg, sperm and the womb. One generation. The ARHGAP11B gene multiplied the number of neurons in the brain, introduced folds to the neocortex, thus resulting in a larger brain and subsequent evolution. Even were this gene inherited from a wiser ancestor, thus present in the new born, its function could be quickly and easily bypassed by a parent, an adult, by a culture that was motivated solely by the passion of self-interest. Mankind was an interdependent species. One generation. Instead of the higher brain incorporating the lower brain into its service, as was evolution's intent, the hind brain began incorporating the fore brain into its service. This making for, as one man put it, this making for brilliant reptiles. Here was the beginning of the end. Too many had taken up residence in the core brain, the realm of freeze, flight or fight. Fight. It wasn't pretty. 'Sapiens' derived from Latin meaning wise, hence the debate about how man in the end could no longer be classified as being human, having become more cold-blooded than warm-blooded.

Everything, including pumpkin pie for dessert had been documented through visual digital media and through the written language, personally and culturally. It was clear to see how the demise had happened, but why? The how wasn't pretty. A mentally/emotionally intelligent being would know and understand that a species could not survive independent of one another. As recently, a virus had spanned the planet with a modern, its-a-small-world speed, killing millions, it too was clear that the loss of these occupied and properly functioning human organs had taken place planet wide. Utilizing the higher structures of the brain and the literal wisdom of the heart, in the past, when there had been differing perspectives, the matter was respectfully discussed and debated, reason prevailed, compromises were made, and man moved forward for the sake of the race. The neocortex, responsible for mans reasoning, was on-line. And then it wasn't, and humanity seized to be. All accept for her.

By societies standards she was a nobody, rejected and abandoned by her family and the community. Yet, this space and time had given her a different perspective than most of those whose time and energies were spent in the outside world. The how wasn't pretty, and her memories were vague. She spoke that she had felt and seen the end coming. Not in a dramatic doomsday scenario that for hundreds of years there had been those proselytizing about, that the end was near, some had even named a specific date. No, she saw the change happening not only through the Earth's distress and through the eye of the camera's documentation, but she saw the end coming through the very people surrounding her. It was blatantly evident from a witness perspective, from an occupied and properly functioning brain/heart perspective, it was evident where humankind was headed. But for those man whose only concern was for themselves, and for those who looked and thought as they did, they were incapable of a wider perspective.

By design, all sensory input enters the human brain through the core structure. Remaining there, sensory input wasn't making it to the mediation of the third and latest higher brain structure where man experiences thinking and reasoning, so they were literally incapable of thinking reasonably. The earliest core brain structure had one function, survival mode. If a threat is imminent, even if only a perceived threat, without the bump stop of the neocortex, the core brain would commandeer the body and subsequently the person will either freeze, flee or fight.

The second of the triune structures, the old mammalian or limbic system, added qualities of feeling to the core brain's aversion-reaction response. Together, a threat wasn't only about physical survival. The real or perceived threat now included that another is trying to take from one their way of life, what they think, what they care about, believe in, how they think the world should be run. It was found too by the Council, that recently a group of behavioral scientists had added a category to the reptilian core brain response. To freeze flee or fight was added, annihilate. How timely apropos. Man was gone, but at least the innocent planet which gave the human species its life had been spared destruction by a nuclear explosion. There is that. And that's everything.

It cannot be pinpointed when man became locked in a defensive posture, obviously it was a process across time. While man became stuck in its core and old mammalian brain structures, only that within the neocortex which served the earlier systems intentions was utilized. As with any unused organism, atrophy takes place. Elements in the neocortex including empathy, sympathy, compassion, critical thinking and love, fell by the wayside. As one researcher in the late 20th century put it, "thus we find highly anxious, insecure children at risk intellectually, and paranoid adults operating on minimals of intellectual power, subject to serious errors of judgment." Intellect without intelligence equals a novelty seeking mind that operates without regard to its own or others well being.

Bingo.

Prolonged emergency fight posturing with its chronic paranoia and anxiety can develop into a rage that can only be assuaged and relieved through physical violence. It felt like life or death to these people that their personal world view should prevail. Without the higher brain functioning to mediate the perceived threat, and to waylay such violent and destructive lower brain behavior, there was no way out from under the inevitable. According to the evidence, the tilt happened when more than 50% of the world's leaders across the planet displayed this anti-evolutionary behavior, there was no turning back. As leaders, they gave permission for literally like-minded humans to take up arms against their fellow countrymen, against their neighbors. Brother against brother. Though the core brain and reptilian brain are synonymous, the term 'reptilian' is appropriate, for it characterizes the behaviors intrinsic within that system. It wasn't pretty.

With the insight of the whole perspective, the Council understood that too, humankind had no real conception of what it meant to be human, what it meant to have life. Mankind didn't know who they were, or of what they were capable. Existing within their very brains and hearts was a capacity for a heaven on Earth. The intricacies of the relationship of the human body to the Earth's body was not on most man's radar, let alone taught to the children of the species. It is awe inspiring to understand how Earth's body and man's body shared the same material elements, how mans'lungs performed the same function as Earth's trees. Earth's Nature was mankind’s umbilical cord to material existence, supplying man with a home to procreate, with nourishment, medicine and wonder. What chances to survive as they, cavalier, destroyed her body? Ugly ignorance usurped awe.

Dear Diary, speaking of awe.... Along with the inverted functioning of the brain, there is a deeper factor that too was involved in humanities downfall. The fact is that actions in the human heart preceded actions of both the body and the brain. The human heart's atrium area produced a hormone, ANF, which dramatically affected every major organ of the body, including the operations of the limbic system. Scientists had proven that half or more of the cells in the human heart, perhaps as many as 65%, were neural cells like those making up the brain. These heart-brain cells cluster in ganglia, small neural groupings connecting between the same model of axon-dendrites which form the neural fields of the brain. This field of medicine which explored the BRAIN IN THE HEART was called neurocardiology.

It is no coincidence then, that the second evolutionary structure of the brain, the limbic system, which is the seat of all emotional bonds, it is no coincidence that this system in the brain would be the liaison to the heart, as they were in an ongoing dialogue through neural connections. The brain sent a running report of the environmental situation to the heart and the heart prompted the brain to make an appropriate response. Yet the heart did much more. Through hormones and transmitters and quantum communications, the heart controlled and governed brain action. Besides being a pumping station, the heart was just not some sentimental organ, the intelligence of the heart was a primary biological necessity. And the foundation of all bonding, including the bonding of the three layers of the brain in their synchronic power. Intellect absent of intelligence is like having a brain but having no heart. It wasn't pretty.

Whole people thought with their hearts. Frightened people aren't capable of thinking, literally, as they are cut off from the intelligence of the heart, from the higher structures of the brain. In the absence of this bonding force, not only were countries torn apart, but families too. The religious made their god in their own image. Nationalism dissected into more than my country against yours, but into me against you. Fear stripped down decided that, if you think differently than me, then for my survival I must overpower you. If you don't agree with me, then you are my enemy, and as my enemy, not only do I have the right to kill you, but it is my duty to do so. It wasn't pretty.

The Council did what they could for her, the last of the humans. With a silver heart-shaped locket around her neck, her final words were, "Dear Diary, where is Love?"