Jump Start?
Considering the wide gap between human psycho-social development on the one hand, and human engineering abilities on the other hand, one cannot help but be struck by the dangerous prematurity of our manipulative abilities in relation to our ability to live in harmony and enjoyment with ourselves, others, and nature.
Was there a jump start? At some point were humans introduced to the arts which would lead relatively rapidly to our techno-industrial civilisation?
If this hypothesized occurrence had not happened, would humans have continued tribal hunter-gatherer, or nomadic agriculturalist life much longer, and evolved more slowly a cumulative culture of measure and the rest? Say over 100,000 years instead of 10,000? Would the difference have meant a greater evolution in our psycho-social make-up, a more stabilized and sustainable sense of self and other? Before we "got the bomb"? Had our evolution proceeded normally, would we have attained the wisdom and skills needed to begin techno-industrial culture without being obsessed with arms, violence, and destruction? Are we doomed to short circuit because of an ill-conceived jump start long ago?
If this sounds farfetched, remember that we first-worlders do this all the time- bringing "native peoples" forcibly into our timestream. Our justification: a misplaced sense of compassion. Visitors from outside the human neolithic times, aliens or time travelers, might have been motivated similarly.
In fact the following scenario is conceivable: Visitors are moved by the intelligence of the early humans, and know that this species is about to dawn; they take pity on them, because of their difficult and brutish lives, and would teach them things to help them. But the rule the visitors must abide by says not to interfere, particularly in the early development of intelligent species. Their leader rebels at the injunction, and contacts are made. His motivations are ultimately selfish because he wants also to be the one who brings the light to these people. The rule is it must grow within them. But he is like a demigod himself, and can imagine a civilisation flourishing here in the distant future, thanks to his intervention.
Sound familiar? It should: Lucifer, the Light-Bearer, rebels at God's orders, and gives Light (or the apple of knowledge) to humans; because of this we suffer the amplification of our fears and confusion, as well as the wonders of civilisation, and are thoroughly tainted by this 'original sin': just as Lucifer would displace Nature as the Source of Humankind, so Humankind feels free to ignore and destroy nature. That our technical evolution was jumpstarted while our spiritual-psycho-social evolution had to evolve all too slowly has led directly to a world where the individual human focus is on power and its extensions, and not on our spiritual-psycho-social development. And this has made human 'evil' that much harder to deal with.
Now, another piece of the jump-start puzzle. What follows is a straightforward account of some sort of sustained contact involving several beings over a long period of time, and is specifically related as the explanation of the beginning of civilisation. It is from some of the oldest historical records known, and describes the early history of Babylon, and the transition from hunter-gatherering ("...like beasts in the field...")to civilisation . I am indebted to Shlovskii and Sagan (Carl) who mention this text in their 1966 book, Intelligent Life in The Universe. Two Greek historians, Alexander Polyhistor,and Apollodorus, writing in the beginning of our era, report on the histories of the world written by Berossus, about 500 b.c. which he based in turn on the earliest known records or that time. The style is archaic, but the information is clear.
FRAGMENTS OF CHALDEAN HISTORY, BEROSSUS:
"Berossus, in the first book of his history of Babylonia, informs us that he lived in the age of Alexander the son of Philip. And he mentions that there were written accounts, preserved at Babylon with the greatest care, comprehending a period of above fifteen myriads of years: and that these writings contained histories of the heaven and of the sea; of the birth of mankind; and of the kings, and of the memorable actions which they had achieved.
"At Babylon there was (in these times) a great resort of people of various nations, who inhabited Chaldaea, and lived in a lawless manner like the beasts of the field.
"In the first year there appeared, from that part of the Erythraean sea which borders upon Babylonia, an animal endowed with reason, by name Oannes, whose whole body (according to the account of Apollodorus) was that of a fish; that under the fish's head he had another head, with feet also below, similar to those of a man, subjoined to the fish's tail. His voice too, and language, was articulate and human; and a representation of him is preserved even to this day.
"This Being was accustomed to pass the day among men; but took no food at that season; and he gave them an insight into letters and sciences, and arts of every kind. He taught them to construct cities, to found temples, to compile laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. He made them distinguish the seeds of the earth, and showed them how to collect the fruits; in short, he instructed them in every thing which could tend to soften manners and humanize their lives. From that time, nothing material has been added by way of improvement to his instructions. And when the sun had set, this being Oannes, retired again into the sea, and passed the night in the deep; for he was amphibious. After this there appeared other animals like Oannes, of which Berossus proposes to give an account when he comes to the history of the kings."
From Alexander Polyhistor:
"This is the history which Berossus has transmitted to us. He tells us that the first king was Alorus of Babylon, a Chaldaean: he reigned ten sari: and afterwards Alaparus, and Amelon who came from Pantibiblon:
"Then Ammenon the Chaldaean, in whose time appeared the Musarus Oannes the Annedotus from the Erythraean sea. (But Alexander Polyhistor anticipating the event, has said that he appeared in the first year; but Apollodorus says that it was after forty sari; Abydenus, however, makes the second Annedotus appear after twenty-six sari.) Then succeeded Megalarus from the city of Pantibiblon; and he reigned eighteen sari: and after him Daonus the shepherd from Pantibiblon reigned ten sari;
" In his time (he says) appeared again from the Erythraean sea a fourth Annedotus, having the same form with those above, the shape of a fish blended with that of a man.
"Then reigned Euedorachus from Pantibiblon, for the term of eighteen sari; in his days there appeared another personage from the Erythraean sea like the former, having the same complicated form betweeen a fish and a man, whose name was Odacon. "
(All these, says Apollodorus, related particularly and circumstantially whatever Oannes had informed them of.) (Ed note: i.e. they continued the teaching.)
BEROSSUS: FROM APOLLODORUS
OF THE CHALDEAN KINGS:
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And there you have it: Beings "instructed" early humans "in every thing which could tend to soften manners and humanize their lives. From that time, nothing material has been added by way of improvement to his instructions."
This being was followed by others like it, but different individuals, who continued this work over many generations.
These beings stayed in the ocean when they were not among humans at the surface- aquatic? preferred higher atmospheric pressure?
.....
If there was contact and jump start, and if there were any mention of it in the historical record, this is what we might expect to find!
If this is a possibility we might consider being more vigilant to the dangers that such a jump start might be exposing us to now, a few thousand years later, in a world with computer designed engines of planetary annihilation, in a world dangerously trashed by the intemperate reach of our industrial hyperactivity. It might mean we're due for a major spiritual-psycho-social catch-up: only we can retune a precocious imbalance of mind before we have lost our world.
-S. Miller
1995