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reasoning half of the mind is compelled to
provide elaborate rationalizations to allay the senior partner's terror
of the void. Yet not only the naive concept of 'eternal bliss' (or eternal
torment for the wicked) but also the more sophisticated parapsychological
theories of survival present problems which are apparently beyond the
reasoning faculties of our species. There may be millions of other
cultures on planets that are millions of years older than ours, to whom
death no longer is a problem; but the fact remains that, to use computer
jargon, we are not 'programmed' for the task. Confronted with a task
for which it is not programmed, a computer is either reduced to silence,
or it goes haywire. The latter seems to have happened, with distressing
repetitiveness, in the most varied cultures. Faced with the intractable
paradox of consciousness emerging from the pre-natal void and drowning
in the post-mortem darkness, their minds went haywire and populated the
air with the ghosts of the departed, gods, angels and devils, until the
atmosphere became saturated with invisible presences which at best were
capricious and unpredictable, but mostly malevolent and vengeful. They
had to be worshipped, cajoled and placated by elaborately cruel rituals,
including human sacrifice, Holy Wars and the burning of heretics.

For nearly two thousand years, millions of otherwise intelligent people
were convinced that the vast majority of mankind who did not share their
particular creed or did not perform their rites were consumed by flames
throughout eternity by order of a loving god. Similar nightmarish fantasies
were collectively shared by other cultures, testifying to the ubiquity of
the paranoid streak in the race.

There is, once again, another side to the picture. The refusal to believe
in the finality of death made the pyramids rise from the sand; it provided
a set of ethical values, and the main inspiration for artistic creation.
If the word 'death' were absent from our vocabulary, the great works of
literature would have remained unwritten. The creativity and pathology of
man are two faces of the same medal, coined in the same evolutionary mint.

8

To sum up, the disastrous history of our species indicates the futility of
all attempts at a diagnosis which do not take into account the possibility
that homo sapiens is a victim of one of evolution's countless mistakes.
The example of the arthropods and marsupials, among others, shows that
such mistakes do occur and can adversely affect the evolution of the brain.

I have listed some conspicuous symptoms of the mental disorder which appears
to be endemic in our species: (a) the ubiquitous rites of human sacrifice
in the prehistoric dawn; (b) the persistent pursuit of intra-specific
warfare which, while earlier on it could only cause limited damage,
now puts the whole planet in jeopardy; (c) the paranoid split between
rational thinking and irrational, affect-based beliefs; (d) the contrast
between mankind's genius in conquering Nature and its ineptitude in
managing its own affairs -- symbolized by the new frontier on the moon
and the minefields along the borders of Europe.

It is important to underline once more that these pathological phenomena
are specifically and uniquely human, and not found in any other species.
Thus it seems only logical that our search for explanations should also
concentrate primarily on those attributes of homo sapiens which are
exclusively human and not shared by the rest of the animal kingdom. But
however obvious this conclusion may seem, it runs counter to the
prevailing reductionist trend. 'Reductionism' is the philosophical belief
that all human activities can be 'reduced' to -- i.e., explained by --
the behavioural responses of lower animals -- Pavlov's dogs, Skinner's
rats and pigeons, Lorenz's greylag geese, Morris's hairless apes; and
that these responses in turn can be reduced to the physical laws which
govern inanimate matter. No doubt Pavlov or Lorenz