Genetics, Personality and Cloud Computing

Genetics, Personality and Cloud Computing

Cloud computing.  By now most of us have run across this term at least once and have an idea as to its general meaning.  Big groups of computers doing a lot of processing.  Got it.  But…Cloud.  Perhaps not the best name/metaphor as it conjures thoughts of things not working as well as they possibly could.  Problem solving in a cloud; in a fog, in a haze.  With where I intend to go in this article that might not be far from the truth, given the state of our genetic evolution as humans. 

As I write this I find I am digressing a bit from my original intent.  The point is more about how connected we all might possibly be.  I haven’t found nor read any literature or research stating anything quite like this but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.  If you know of something please tell me!  Keep in mind most of what you’ll find in these articles are my brain dumps, meant to start a conversation, gather ideas and spread them.  Hopefully something good or at least interesting will come of them.  Best case scenario I get good enough at writing and inventing things to pay the bills! 

As I have witnessed and worked with thousands of different personalities over the course of my lifetime I marvel at not just the diversity among them but those effects that alter them.  We’ve all seen the most humble, pacific and introverted person turned into anything from a horrific, raging demon to a witty, comedic genius by the likes of alcohol, drugs, (emotional) stress, food allergies, change in temperature and more.  This happens at a chemical level I don’t fully understand and am not sure to what extent modern physiology might explain it. 

Stepping down a notch, I wonder about many baseline personality traits themselves.  There are those obvious trends in the global populace we all share to some extent.  I love this list from MIT:

http://ideonomy.mit.edu/essays/traits.html

Disclaimer:  Still studying what the best practice is in linking to other sites and quoting material.  I intend to get it right!  Credit where it is due whenever possible. 

I keep wondering if there isn’t a specific genetic combination within our DNA’s base pairs for each individual personality trait, the way you could say there’s a combination for green eyes.  It seems incredibly likely, and why not? 

*Forgive me while I try to reel myself in.  If you read my disclaimer, you’ll know I bounce around a lot.  This is a blog, not a formal article for Scientific American, even though I would like it to be someday. 

OK, I’m back - this is where the cloud computing analogy came into being .  Think of it in terms of each genetic iteration, however you want to explain it chemically, being a receptor for not only our physical makeup  but our emotional makeup as well.  If you have this specific combination, you are a natively happy person.  Given the number of combinations you also have iterations of happy, and to what degree it might be expressed, given billions of possibilities.  EEK

Yeah, we knew that, or at least knew of that theory.  Please get to your hopefully new and interesting point. 

Imagine each combination being its own radio-like receptor; a sensor.  A ‘radio dish’ if you will, which pulls that specific kind of information from this ‘cloud’ in the multiverse, wherever or whatever that might be.  Maybe this ‘cloud’ is made up of dark matter?  Maybe not physical in the way we imagine it.  Maybe it is made up of tachyons?  In any case, talk about the ultimate wireless network.  Wave or particle?  Not now, Pichahchy… 

Now, with respect to drugs, alcohol, cell phone and other radiation sources.  I like to think of these chemical interruptions as things that interfere the makeup of our personalities.  Some more powerful effects jamming our signals more than others.  Some even have the potential to permanently alter and corrupt our genetic makeup, permanently changing our personalities. 

*Wild thought – what if we living things actually are the sensors, built by some higher form of being, just to collect information, experience, and the like?  Feeding our readings back into those beings’ cloud?  My grandpa used to believe we were put here by aliens, though I don’t know how serious he was.  I need to call my grandma again soon, too.  Based on that I’ve always dreamed of the Earth being a giant petri dish… 

Here’s where we get philosophical.  As we evolve, our brains attain a higher state of consciousness.  This is where I take great stock in the discipline of Buddhist monks and the like – they are so completely committed to these meditative states I believe they do very much achieve some higher state.  Initially I believe they become more self-aware, and when they have reached some measurable state they advance, progress.  Obviously there has to be a ton more studied and written on this elsewhere but I haven’t gone looking for it yet.  There are only so many hours in the day and I have to pet the kitty and stare out the window sometimes. 

How about human genetic similarity.  I’m thinking specifically about immediate families, at least to start with.  Obviously there are those families where there appears to be nothing in common, but I am thinking a little deeper.  Parent-child relationships, twins.  Why is it that we feel so devastated when we lose a parent or sibling?  My feeling is that we’re genetically similar enough that our little clusters of ‘radios’ are so in tune with each other that they…hmm…let me think for a sec.  SQUIRREL!  Actually it is GEORGE!!  Dammit, that man…I cannot help but geek out over his line “it was as if millions of voices cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced”.  It strikes me as dumbfoundingly relevant right now. 

But I digress. 

Where was I…  Oh, yeah.  Think of you and your identical twin.  You feel something together, don’t you.  I’ve heard of and read many studies of this kind of thing.  On this related note, I like to think of it as being tuned in to the cloud, with your lil radios, over a ‘frequency’ that is sooo close to each other that it could be said that you are using almost the same line.  Maybe some cross-talk?  Some input/output is shared between you?  Maybe a lot of it.  This makes me want to go back to grad school and study just this subject!  Now, their respective personalities might be vastly different, which seems often to be the case, but sometimes not.  That isn’t to say they each don’t know what the other is thinking.  Twins might be so genetically close that they are using almost the same line to the cloud.  Wild, huh?  No wonder! 

Random thought about how we’re mapping so much of the brain’s activity during certain activities.  I still think we could, eventually, dial in whatever signal we’re using to upload and download from this crazy cloud.  Maybe the tachyon thing wasn’t so crazy…?  Faster than the speed of light?  How much bandwidth could we possibly be talking about?!!  But, even if all this were true, I’d still swear some people are limited to 17Kbps… 

Parents and their children.  Why is it we feel such an immense sense of loss at the death of a parent?  Maybe it is that genetic closeness, that loss of such a similar companion signal?  Maybe, as we age, with a thought toward genetic corruption and decay, we lose signal strength?  Maybe not.  But why does it seem to be more devastating for some parents to lose a child? 

Cloning?  Can you imagine?  If this were actually true, you could attempt taking the purest sample of your DNA from a point in your life when you had been fully established and clone at least most of who you are.  Obviously there are environmental examples, explored to appreciatively great extent in our popular culture.  Think Star Trek: Nemesis.  And if you wanted to back up your current personality you need look no further than The 6^th Day. 

Relatedly, swarms.  Birds, fish, pods, ants…?  Hive-mind capacities.  Given a less complex genetic makeup with fewer possibilities for iterations, I wonder sometimes if what gives birds, fish and other living things the ability to react the way they do.  Birds changing course.  Of course there has been research that shows examples of why this is, I am simply offering another possibility for people to gnaw on. 

I feel like, science notwithstanding, there is potential for a great novel or screenplay here…?  Bathroom daydream!  Christopher Nolan found my blog and wanted me to co-write something fun on this note.  ;o) 

Edit:  Diluting the signal?

I just had a thought as a response to an article Robert Reich wrote on Salon.com.  I haven’t read the article yet; this was borne of just reading the title and reflecting on it for a few seconds. 
Robert Reich: Conservatives have an empathy deficit disorder
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/29/robert_reich_conservatives_have_an_empathy_deficit_disorder_partner/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

What if, based on my theory detailed (poorly?) above, we are diminishing the ‘signal’ between our minds and the ‘cloud’?  Not to geek out too much, but what if we’re saturating the available bandwidth to the point of increasingly poor communication?  I mean, of course we have the ability to interact directly, interpersonally, but I am thinking of the potential for behind the scenes communication.  Think of it in terms of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems; control over heartbeat, respiration, peristalsis.  I’m just spouting ideas again, thinking aloud, so don’t mind me.  Or do, just post your thought and spread the ideas around. 

I can’t help but think about all we might accomplish if we didn’t have to worry about our financial lives.  I’d love to at least be financially stable, wouldn’t everyone who isn’t?  I’m trying to work out how I might be able to explore writing (and photography, and helping people…) as gainful pursuits, at least enough to pay the bills. 

Argh! 

More to come…much more as I gain steam. 
 


12-24-2014!!  Merry Holiday type thing!  Enjoy family, friends, food, games, creativity!  

I've been pondering the best way to add additional thoughts to original blogs, so I'll be experimenting with a bunch of them.  

©Michael Pichahchy 2014