Pass it on

_{By Tejas Thakare and Devidas Godse}

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 forward what it has gained to the next generation.
I advise you the same dear- pass it on!

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

Speaker: Taking references from some evolutionary findings it looks “to keep species safe and to pass genes from generation to generation” has been a very fundamental motivation of living creatures with no exception to humans.

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: Well, the instinct can translate to higher level skills like the ideas which help future generations thrive. It all revolves about “to not let our-self die in any way possible even after the biological end”. So just like we make sure our genes go on in next generations, we even try to have our ideas survive the longest. What helps one survive will also survive because the being is likely to use it more and will make a way to have that idea survive.

These ideas we hold are just fictional stories we tell ourselves. Beliefs, concepts, theories.. all these are models to make sense of the world and to be able to operate in it. A kind of stories that we are telling others or being told by someone.

Skeptic: What does one consciously get if one is just communicating ideas?

Speaker: We need a descendent who can carry forward our ideas just like our genes. Hence concepts like legacy and heritage are common in all cultures. We identify ourselves not with just how we define ourselves biologically, but also with the things we believe upon and live life by.

But why so? Because a part of our identity is rooted in them. They are something we associate our own selves with.. A part of the person surviving even after the death of the individual!.. An attempt to defy death. One can not recover the body of a physically dead person but we have a choice to continue forward their memories, legacies, ideas just like genes.. 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 right? So that’s the first step everyone has to go for. To let your ideas out. To express what we have got.. In any forms possible.

Our goal seems to be passing on genes and knowledge both.. that’s what they want us to have done to them.

That’s why we build bridges, empires… and 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. Maybe someone will keep it alive through time.