Human Design and Purpose: A Co-relation

You don't see a dog with a thick lower jaw! It is thin! While the upper one extends, beautifully accommodating the nose, the eyes. And the thin jaw is the reason, the dog is able to pick up food from the ground.

Its hind legs are flexible enough to reach even its face, and itch and unsettle the parasites before they turn gluttons. It wasn't given a separate 'itcher' in its design. Imagine how that would look. A limb of sorts hanging from don't know where just to itch. It would be poor, un-thoughtful design.

On the other hand, the poor cow may be not be able to do so, but it's got its loose flappy tail, capped with a mop of hair, that can solve some of those uncomfortable problems. The same concept of tail, but modified suitably to suit that creature's habits and habitat. Clever!

At the same time, the same concept of jaws, but the pelican has a wide accommodating lower jaw.

What flawless design! Every need is taken care of, for the habitat the creature was given. All aspects of the design coming together beautifully, most efficiently to form the whole creature. Not a part unnecessary, not a hanging loose end.

You go deeper in the design, from the tangible physical aspects, it is the same. Pain, for instance! We may hate it, we may think it is unnecessary! But, most necessary. It points out where something fishy is going on, it forces us to take care of it, to mend it. Else, we would just be plain careless and damage ourselves to death.

And if we take just our planet's example, millions and millions of creatures, all designed to fit into the larger design of our symbiotic existence. I mean, each aspect of one creature's design would balance or complement another design aspect of another creature's. And the permutation and combinations of these would probably run into trillions and trillions of design fixes to keep the planet's life design running.

And these are the tangible design elements. They all happen in, let's call it, in the womb of energy and time and gravity and god knows what not.

We now know them, of course, by experiencing them. But even thinking of the concepts of time and space and pain and emotions and intelligence and probably a billion other things, are sheer genius to even be thought of.

Can anyone think of a completely, fundamentally new concept such as these. Like, something we have never seen, heard, imagined. And then get it working!

Let us for instance, imagine you were to build the universe from scratch. There is just nothing, and you have to build it from scratch. You have never known something like a time, or something like energy, or intelligence. There is just nothing, And you have to invent it. Now imagine conceptualising something like Sound, let alone an entity like Time. (I don't even know what it is, entity or element or fuck knows what!) I mean, inventing not ears or receivers of sound but the concept of sound itself.
Where would you begin, where would you end, and to what end would your creation be!

Supposing, you somehow figured that and begin with somehow inventing gravity, and with something called as attraction, you decide to make objects turn around each other just to put things in automation. But you made the planets square. And then you figure it is not working and make them something else. Then you will have to worry about what material to use in making the planet, how will they come and a million other things just at the conceptual and design level. The sheer trial and error to get something called life working would probably take trillions of years. (But if you also invented time then would these trillion years matter? Ok, let me not go there and turn insane.)

So, it would be indescribably tough; no, not tough. Impossible, actually. Because we are just not equipped to create something we have not experienced! Because we are creations ourselves! We are only equipped to experience it.

So, in the context of this creation and our design, what could really be our purpose in life? To make money? Career? War? Fight for God? And a hundred other silly things? (Notice how the numbers have come from trillions to just a hundred. That's how minuscule we are!) I think not. And if we were to find answers in our own design, like how a cat's teeth and physiology would suggest it would hunt and eat, our design could suggest many things. But from an ultimate purpose perspective, to me it seems our only purpose in life is, to experience life. (The life that created us and not the life we created. What we have created is a joke.)

Also, probably, try to understand it here and there, but marvel at it for sure. I don't think any other creature is designed to marvel. All, of course, part of the experience.

Before I end, one more design observation. If you look at it physiologically, all creatures around us seem to be forward bound. Only trees and humans seem to be upward bound. Is there something there? Maybe. The possibilities are in trillions!

The Economics of Dreams

Now, no one ever wanted a "regular" job. And for most until a decade ago, their dream job was actually a dream. A fantasy they indulged in on inspired nights. The next day, all was regular again. And if there were remnants, society ensured its devices effectively wiped them out till reality was all could they could see again.

Cut to, today, where "following your dream" is the norm. No one thinks you are crazy or brave or special if you want to follow your dream. It, in fact, sounds like the only truth and only purpose of our lives. Why, even parents are beginning to act all cool and supportive of dreams. Or rather are under great pressure to do so. Because, society at large is tending towards this. The reasons, we all know. Technology, connectivity, opportunities, exposure, yada yada yada. Every one has access to all kinds of shit floating around irrespective of age groups. There is no real TG in that sense. Today, a 10-year-old is probably feeling insufficient after he couldn't "do it" in his gully cricket match in spite of repeatedly being repeatedly told "Just do it". And in search of inspiration when he tries to emulate his idol, there comes along "Be Yourself"*. In the wake of this premature existential crisis, probably "It's your life, make it large" will appeal to him the most.

And finally, to validate all these statements, to nail all of this, there are results! Yes, there are ever-increasing success stories of dreams coming true. Facebook is full of them, Twitter is full of them, YouTube is full of them. Start-ups are full of them.

And, if by any miracle, in spite of all those awesome inspirational quotes on Whatsapp, if someone is still untouched by this, brands ensure they are not spared. How can brands even stay out of this? In fact, they have gone on to take leadership position on all of this. On a side note, who the fuck do they think they are. Earlier there were sages who showed us the way, then there were parents, and now brands! Brands! At least, when parents preached, even if it was crap, their intentions were good. But brands playing your friend and guide through life, well let us just say should be taken not just with a pinch of salt but with as much of it as possible.

These brand philosophies are just freewheeling thoughts of 30-year-old copywriters like me, doled out by the dozen every day. And to be honest, we copywriters don't like to sound so preachy. But with clients in fierce competition with each other to take the next high moral ground, we are left with no real choice. In the process, not only are we getting bored but also the consumer. Yes, now you know how religion got boring. But the bombardment of boring, though might bore you, also bores a thought into you efficiently. Setting it deep in your head and consciousness. So, you would assume, they are succeeding? The future is bright? Logically, far from it I would say. They are digging their own grave. And along with it, society's.

Because the problem staring me in the face, the subtler ones aside, is an economic one. Let us make the safe assumption now that with further penetration and development of technology, combined with the brands' ambitions of expansion, a majority (70%, to be conservative) of the population is completely convinced, intently inspired and madly motivated to follow their dreams. On yet another side note (pardon me), majority know just the word Dream. Most haven't delved deep into its nature and don't know dreams keep changing every fortnight. More dreams are born in people's heads today than ever, due to a tremendous and continual exposure to other people's dreams. When new dreams are born every hour, focussing and deciding on one, especially when a brand is saying 'Time is ticking!', can get paralysing to say the least.

Anyways, coming back to the economics of a time when such is the mindset of people, the first concern is a flimsy human resource. If everyone wants to start up, who will work in the corporations. If everyone wants to be a musician, who will fix the mic? Who will build the speakers and the amps? And I'm certain, if there were no speakers and no lighting systems, most wouldn't care to be musicians. This is the first kind of deadlock.

Another kind is, suppose if everyone wanted to open Youtube channels, who would watch Youtube videos? Assuming every Youtube channel were to be a success, it would mean the rest would be watching Youtube videos every second of their lives. And if they were to be watching then it would only fuel them to make their own channel, which would upset the entire thing.

Another related deadlock would be if everyone watched Youtube videos all the time, who would work? Who would keep the Youtube servers going? Who would provide the internet? Who would mail those bills? Who would manufacture the ink used to print those bills?

We are already seeing this. Most of us, especially the young ones, want to do everything all the time. Instead, all they do is end up drinking to deal with this stress, and discuss more such dreams over a drink.

Let me christen this human resource led economic bubble that is rapidly expanding, as the 'Dream Bubble'. Like all bubbles it is luring us in with tremendous initial success. But markets being markets, know no dreams. By definition they are all about debit and credit. If dreams get debited in one's account, then they have to be credited from some one else's. (I hope I got the debit and credit bit right) As long as we live in this economic structure, all idealism is bullshit. And at the point when it no longer makes economic sense, the Dream Bubble would burst leaving behind a nightmare.

It would essentially mean massive unemployment, battered morales, countless shattered dreams. And a human resource that will struggle to even make a new beginning. At the end of the day, this human resource that we talk about is people; it is you and I.

What can we do about it? Well, quite a few possibilities. You can invest now and make money while it lasts. If you are a thorough asshole, then you can even short it. But if I were you, I would be cautious. I would not get trapped in these false ideas of dreams. They are just fed to us. They're not even original! So I would reduce social media time, media time, avoid reading random success stories, take everything with a pinch of salt, save and invest in gold, do some yoga, try to convince the clients to stop playing God and go back to being a clown, and of course continue to dream.




*A subset or an evolution of the Dream propaganda. I probably wouldn't call it propaganda. Because maybe it is all happening organically, but for simplicity's sake let us call it that.