Androcles

Perhaps all creatures, but surely whales, dolphins, humans and surely others (elephants? Chimpanzees) all once upon a time looked inward and saw the qualia in their own minds. It was the birth of higher consciousness.

Qualia, the most well known of which are color, smell, sound, texture and taste, is usually stuff we perceive outside of ourselves. They are the qualities (or quales) that attract our attention because our senses happen to take notice of them. We move toward them. If it is beneficial, as it was for the bees that moved toward flowers or the moss that grew on trees, a relationship developed. A qualiadelic relationship.

Certain animals noticed something – qualia – inside their own selves. They paid attention to it and moved toward it. This original, introverted qualia may have been a primordial sense of self )who knows what it was?). But we ritualed with it and a qualiadelic relationship began.

Qualiadelic relationships are like symbiotic relationships, except lots of evolution occurs in a qualiadelic relationship; after a while the evolution slows down and the relationship becomes a plain old, symbiotic one.

Anyway, because of our (human) inward-looking qualiadelic relationships, our brains evolved very quickly, and on the qualia side, qualia grew into complex ideas, symbols, and intuitions.

This seems to have happened to whales and dolphins, too, and maybe some other animals. The major difference is that people became really good at manipulating the environment. This ability may have led us astray from a greater purpose.

Whales and dolphins do not make buildings and cities and material culture and whatnot. In them, qualia appears to remain within. They seem to be contented with pure thought and their own manner of conscious ritualing. They may be way ahead of us. Certainly, we have lost the race toward contentment and happiness.

Our ability to make things is not necessarily a bad thing. Man the maker (homo faber) may have a special place in this universe. I believe we have, and I think the story of Androcles and the Lion tells it. Here is the story by Aesop, as translated by G.F. Townsend.

A slave named Androcles once escaped from his master and fled to the forest. As he was wandering about there he came upon a Lion lying down moaning and groaning. At first he turned to flee, but finding that the Lion did not pursue him, he turned back and went up to him. As he came near, the Lion put out his paw, which was all swollen and bleeding, and Androcles found that a huge thorn had got into it, and was causing all the pain. He pulled out the thorn and bound up the paw of the Lion, who was soon able to rise and lick the hand of Androcles like a dog. Then the Lion took Androcles to his cave, and every day used to bring him meat from which to live. But shortly afterwards both Androcles and the Lion were captured, and the slave was sentenced to be thrown to the Lion, after the latter had been kept without food for several days. The Emperor and all his Court came to see the spectacle, and Androcles was led out into the middle of the arena. Soon the Lion was let loose from his den, and rushed bounding and roaring towards his victim. But as soon as he came near to Androcles he recognised his friend, and fawned upon him, and licked his hands like a friendly dog. The Emperor, surprised at this, summoned Androcles to him, who told him the whole story. Whereupon the slave was pardoned and freed, and the Lion let loose to his native forest.

The moral of the story is that we must be the helpers. That is our role in the world. All animals, including “higher” animals, exist; but we do. Or, should I say, we undo; we must undo the damage we have done, withdraw the thorn we have stuck into ecosystems.