Pass it on

by Devidas Kachru Godse and Tejas Thakare

Inspired from following scene from Lucy

Scarlett Johnson asks Morgan Freeman:
what should I do with all this knowledge I have?
He replies back:
like what happens when a cell divides, it passes on what it has to the next generation.
I advise you the same… pass it on!

• Skeptic: What’s the fundamental motive of any creature that makes it act for survival?

speaker: From an evolution perspective, keeping a species safe and passing genes to the next generation is a fundamental motive of life.

• Skeptic: But people build monuments, post pictures, sing songs, write novels or even have conversations like we are having one right now? That doesn’t contribute to keeping species safe or making genes survive right? What makes us do these things then?

speaker: The survival instinct creates higher-level skills that help future generations thrive. It takes the desire “to not let our-self die” and extends it beyond biology. Just like we ensure our genes go on in the next generations, we ensure that our ideas survive the longest too. What helps one survive will also survive because the being will use it more and make a way to have that idea survive.

These ideas we hold are fictional stories we tell ourselves. Beliefs, concepts, and theories are all models there to make sense of the world and to operate in it. They are stories that we tell others or have been told by others.

• Skeptic: What there is to gain from communicating ideas?

speaker: We need a descendent who can carry forward our ideas like our genes. Hence concepts like legacy and heritage are common in all cultures. We define ourselves biologically and by what we believe in and live by.

But why?

Because a part of our identity is rooted in them. They are something we associate our own selves with. A part of the person survives even after the death of the individual! An attempt to defy death. One can not recover a physically dead person. Still, just like genes, we have a choice to continue forward their memories, legacies, and ideas. Provided those ideas stand the test of time.

• Skeptic: But why bother sharing these ideas?

Speaker: How will the idea go forward if nobody speaks it up? That’s the first step everyone has to go for. To express what we have got in any form possible.

Our goal seems to be passing on genes and knowledge both. That’s why we build bridges and empires, post pics, sing songs, create art, write books, and so much more!

• Skeptic: Seems fine. But if all that we believe is just a model and beliefs, isn’t this very idea you are talking about is also a fictional story?

Speaker: Yes it is. I am sharing a perception of the world. Something I feel is worth putting forward so that someone might keep it alive through time.

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