Humans are complicated creatures. we are made up of layers of very entwined processes that are both physical and ethereal in nature. We really need to take a closer look at this marvelous machine to appreciate its inner and outer beauty and complexity. We are so acustomed to our state of being that we dont question how we manage to function from day to day. Are we purely physical creatures, merely flesh and blood and sinews? or is there something more. If so how do we validate that? Lets take a closer look at you as you are today. Stand in front of the mirror and take a good look at yourself. Who are you really? u

         All of us humans have arrived here the same way, the hard way. We have been born either naturally or by surgical delivery by our birth mothers. We arrived in a seemingly small cute package that has managed to expand vastly. Our gestation period is a long one but there are animals such as the elephant who carry even longer pregnancies. We enter the world extremely vulnerable and totally rely on the love and goodwill of others to survive. We are not the only living creature that is born helpless but in a world of predators most animals mature quickly or literally learn to run from birth to avoid become another creatures lunch or dinner. Why our creator made us this way is up for question but perhaps the degree of our complexity and longgevity may be the reason. Elephants are equally complex in their social groups and they exibit a depth of understanding and intelligence that rivals humans. It has long been known that elephants grieve for their loved ones and carry their bones as remembrance. They create graveyards for their dead. To understand death means that they very much comprehend life.

         The first thing to note about all humans is that we have a physical body. No matter what racial type you belong to that body still has the same components and has through time. For those who think we are random mutations that have developed into our current status I give a side eye. there seems to be a set body type from which we dont deviate, random mutations would mean that through the process of evolution there would be a few people on the far corners of the world with mutiple limbs or heads. Our body like that of all creatures comes pre programmed and already assembled unlike furniture from ikea. We dont have to think about breathing to accomplish the task. The system come with checks and balances to alert itself when things go wrong and to prompt itself  when required. We are the most complex computer on the planet scanning our environment constantly and updating new facts as they become available. Our environment is filled with things that may threaten our safety at any given moment but your brain has stored a vast amount of data about what to expect  so it can differentiate between a life threatning event and an every day occurance. When you pull into the drive through window at McDonalds the clerk on the otherside does not cower in fear, he or she knows that you are there to pick up your food.

        As humans we dont just live in the now but are able to retain a data bank of past actions and feelings and calculate events so that we can plan our future based on past events. We are able to stand back and look at our past actions and learn from events already done to come to a new understanding. This ability actually creates the possibilty that neither the past nor the future are fixed points but ever changing. If I am able to discover something new about a past event which changes our concept about that event and therefore the past, we have hence changed the past in the present which also changes the future. Your machine comes with several applications that allow you to experience and navigate your environment fo a better journey but unlike apple computers humans have not gotten a new application since their inception. Our equiptment does not come with a warranty and roughly has a life span of about 72 years give or take a few in either direction. No matter what you do and how well you service your vehicle this journey will end because your body will succum to wear and tear through use and abuse and eventually stop dead in its tracks. In the past 150 years we have doubled the human life span by fighting disease and improving living conditions. But adversly our life styles have become sedentary resulting in new physical ailments and our interpersonal relationships have become complicated because our life span seems to exceed our desire to be with just one person. What does this all have to do with the title of this page? we will get to that.

       As comple x machines you would think that we would all pretty much function the same way and the world would be a robotic dance, but it is not.  Our arrival is the same and our timeline of growth into maturity is the same. Our life cycle as useful participants in society is fairly similar also. We go through a fairly similar routine each day from dusk to dawn to completion. The bulk of the human life span is made up of mundane things that we do over and over. Here are some statistics based on a human life span of 72 years.

                  Human life span 72 years = 26,280 days

                                             72 years = 630,720 hours

                                             Sleep based on 8 hours per day = 210,240 hours

                                             Eating based on an hour per day = 26,280 hours

                                             Bathing based on 30 minutes per day = 13,140 hours

                                             Working based on 47 years = 137,240 hours

                                             Commuting based on 47 years = 34,310 hours

                                             Watch TV based on 72 years = 26,280 hours

                                             Total hours spent on essentials = 454,060 hours

                                              Remaining hours to live your life = 176,660 hours = 7,360 days = 20.16 years

Please keep in mind that there many other things that could have made their way on that list, items such as house work, child care, shopping for food. But I decided to not depress you with the figures. The numbers speak for themselves and the time we have to spend get dwindeled down even further. We are clearly creatures that are very high maintenance.I know if I add up the time that I spend at the nail salon my life would be as long as that of a fruit fly. Come to note that dogs live about 20 years so in an interesting way we actually live a dogs life but they have more fun.

         Aside from our basic functions humans have two distinct lives, their external life and their internal life. Our external lives consist of all the motions and physical activities that we engage in every moment that we are awake. These external activities facilitate the internal life that is quite rich and exotic in comparison. External lives can be accounted for but internal lives are very personal and carry very deep meaning.  we can even divide the internal life into two parts , shared and private. Our shared internal lives consist of all the thoughts, feelings and emotions that are attached to people that we know and have or have had relationships with. Our internal private life consists of our hopes, aspirations, ego, self esteem, sexual orientation and sexual desires and all sorts of preferences that set us apart from another person down to the fine details. Our internal life is very opposed to our external life. One keeps us alive and functioning, the other is purely asthetic and by choice. Our internal lives define who we are, they are far richer and deeper than our external lives.

         Both our external and internal lives are driven by thoughts and emotions.Ourthoughts and emotions are not a part of the auto pilot that keeps our bodies thriving. Where does this thought come from? Why do we need to have esthetic needs and preferences beyond basic survival? where is memory stored? Humans are by no means the only animals with esthetic needs but we perhaps surpass all others. Remember that all things that have been created by man first existed as thought, a simple chemical reaction? or something more. So it is clear that we function on two separate levels that work together, the physical and the sensory.

         Look around you right now, feel your surroundings. You are not just experiencing a visual but it is accompanied by emotions ever so subtle. If you remove the emotions from life our dauly experiences would look like a slide show. Ten People sitting in a room watching an event will describe ten different versions of the same event, the one seen and experienced by them, none of them are correct in their descriptions and none are incorrect? What that might indicate is that the come line that binds human experiences is a very thin line indeed. Reality is not a static, solid thing.