An ode to the human brain

“Cogito ergo sum”, wrote that great proponent of reason and rationality, Rene Descartes, thereby linking human existence, progress, and destiny to our species’ ability to think. “I think, therefore I am.” To think is to discern and to discern is to be able to question. The extraordinary human skills to construct questions, rummage around for answers and comprehend and interpret the intricate mechanisms of the Universe emanate from that magnificent three-pound enigma: the human brain. It is also the master key to the numberless mysteries of the Universe. Whilst dealing with the intricacies of the Universe, this small 200,000-year-old contraption stands tall before an entity that is 13.8 billion years old! It is the ultimate warrior, the definitive soldier, the fearless combatant.

The evolutionary history of the human brain is studded with chronologically tangible milestones: increase in the size of the brain, consciousness, curiosity, intelligence, imagination, knowledge, rationality, and the macabre ability to identify the truth. This spectacular biological innovation has the innate capacity to observe and define, merge knowledge with imagination, reduce complexity to simplicity and reveal what is eternally concealed. It makes constant endeavours to know, and when it juxtaposes what it knows with reason, it triggers the remarkable process of laying it bare, making sense of it all. This nagging inclination to “make sense of it all” has become an ineradicable component of the collective human psyche. Slowly, but inexorably, we are being moulded by our hyperactive brains.

The Universe, it seems, has created us with a view to communicating with itself: it is exclusively through us that it causes its secrets to be unearthed. And yes, the last word of the sentence before this one has a pun concealed in it! This is not to suggest that the Universe has done this deliberately; in fact, it doesn’t care whether we exist for the next several billion years or become extinct on January 21, 2050! But it does seem to have unleashed formidable forces that have fashioned life and, in the course of that arduous process, created a weird species of naked apes that could attempt to mentally interact with the many seen and unseen aspects of its environs. As far as we know, no other life form inhabiting the Universe has ever had the requisite mental and physical wherewithal and the audacity to try and unravel the mysteries of existence. Incredible as it might sound, the evolution of the human brain could very well be construed as a novel attempt by a notoriously indifferent Universe to conquer itself!

It is uncomplicated to see why this is so: verging on the unbelievably improbable, the ascent of the human species has led to an amazing diminution of the bizarrely massive Universe: it can now slide into the spongy mass of the human brain whose average length is merely 167 milimetre! When humans think about the Universe, they actually make their tiny brains envelop the giant monster. But in order to humble the Universe, we need to court reason; and when reason becomes our teacher and companion, it liberates our minds, paving the way for us to embark upon a zillion new exciting voyages.

Humans rule this planet because their brains have a splendid software that can craft dreams and they can then translate those dreams into fantastic realities. The rise of the Homo sapiens may be dubbed as the greatest event the Universe has ever orchestrated. But this rise has not been without its peculiarities. The species could loosely be divided into two groups: 1) those who want to know the reality; and, 2) those who are either unaware of the reality or are just bereft of the inner urge to discover it. They are phlegmatic and stolid.

For the sake of the wellbeing of our species, let’s be a part of the first group.

­Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2020.

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