Can something all
powerful yet non-physical be quantifiable?
Is it possible to
measure an invisible strength
that shapes every
thought we make?
It’s a force not
formed of any material substance,
it’s only
perceptible through mental constructions.
So what creates
and sustains the influence of culture,
is it contained in
the mixture of nature and nurture?
Where innate
instincts and drives intertwine
with imagined
concepts in our brains’ neocortex?
Can we locate
exactly where this fusion takes place on our cognitive substrate,
and analyze how
neural components encode the stimuli of vocal waves?
Cause these sound
sequences are discerned as sensory impulses,
data fragments
that are converted into electrochemical action potentials
and disbursed by
neurotransmitters into our
cortical network
of pattern recognizers.
Modules within
which our brains’ neuronal language translates these information bits
into individual
lines and pixels layered into arrays of details
synchronously
streamed to construe meaning within our cerebral circuitry.
So can the
ingredients composing this process be dissected down into organic elements,
and reveal why
figments of consciousness dictate nearly every aspect of our existence?
Or is cultural
influence an abstract instrument that’s independent of biological mechanisms,
a social
contrivance that’s mutated a viral transcendence in the propagation of belief
systems?
Where cultures’
resemblance to viruses lies in its lifeless replicating,
grown and molded
in minds through standardized phoneme patterning,
manifesting
expressions consisting of specific thoughts and feelings
that breed
competition between human populations over ideological variation,
reflecting the structure
and function of evolutionary natural selection.
So is it an
enigmatic entity with emergent life properties?
A digital
technology needing our metabolic energy to regenerate endlessly?
Adaptive behavior
is a universal feature throughout nature,
so innovation
through reconfigurations of information is an infinite endeavor.
--Illya V., Adult