Most people have heard of the concept of a quantum leap forward as being one big hop towards a higher degree of improvement. This can be achieved through overcoming obstacles through spirituality, or small steps making big progress. This can be from spirituality or science, but it is widely viewed as leaps forward and progress for both. Other achievements have been dependent on what I call a carbon leap forward. That’s not so widely understood.
Carbon Origin
A book called The God Part of the Brain by Mathew Alper, illustrates how life came to existence on this planet. In the primordial seas that existed long before mankind, he states the world was nothing but a storm and a bunch of carbon molecules. Life then, in the form of these carbon molecules, would have ceased to exist had they not made a carbon leap forward.
Prior to that, many carbon molecules were “dying off” because they were too complex. As a result, they were not able to stand against the harsh weather conditions of Baby Earth. As a result of the pressure to transcend harsh conditions, like the bright sun, these baby carbon molecules made a duplicate of themselves, therefore transferring their “identity” to it as a way to preserve their version of self.
Those that did not make this carbon leap forward, disintegrated back into the earth. They were not simplified enough, which is what the carbon leap forward facilitated.
This is how life eventually came into existence on earth – eventually emerging from plants, then transforming into the animal kingdom, and finally, humans. Just to make it clear, carbon is what we humans are all made of, making up about one fourth of our bodies. It makes sense that we would have a sense of these remaining attributes of the primordial carbon compounds, even if it’s just a metaphor at this point in time.
Carbon Incarnate
A heated debate in science, the public does not need to be a scientist to know that there has always existed a degree of anthropomorphizing among humans and nature to increase abstract ideas.
Despite this carbon leap forward concept being a personal theory, history has proven that there has been a deification of nature. Or, in my analogy, applying ancient compound advancements to a phenomenon that comes from the physical – driving the mind to transcend former limitations. Regardless of the component, anthropomorphizing serves a purpose, in an interpretive view of the sciences.
Better Better
Based on observations, humans that envision and create a better version of themselves and “transfer” their identities to it tend to be more resilient and conscious than the people that get stuck in negative thinking or cynicism, getting caught up in other people’s behaviors, situations or their problems. That is truly not a beneficial way to live. It likens how harsh conditions caused carbon compounds to become unstable and die off. Those that made a carbon leap forward were able to project themselves into the future.
Through self-growth and the bettering of the self through consciousness, humans are capable of creating a better, more life sustaining future. Lives worth creating long into the future. By definition, creation means to live on, to produce or reproduce. That cannot be done when entropy is taking place. By optimizing modalities, humans are capable of creating new identities when the old ones fail, or when the environment cannot sustain them. It seems that life truly does depend on an extension of self into the future through carbon (or quantum) leaps forward.
Alper, M. (2009) The God Part of the Brain. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks.
