Part 3 of 3
We have all watched children play; we were children once ourselves. They can make up games and modify them as needed. They can find satisfaction and fun is the simplest of things to use as toys. There are many aspects of what children are like that we might choose to borrow. We might want to become child-like. Not childish, of course. Could it be that children are in touch with their jazz-like characteristics and humanness?
Children are spontaneous and inventive. They are creative and innovative. Children are free in the ways they act and behave. Also, they seem to be more in touch and directed by their feelings and emotions. Isn’t how children live very similar to what I have described as jazz? That is until we adults get in the way. Sit down a play with a child and see what they find fun. Try to learn how they are creative. See how simple their enjoyment can be.
Why is child-likeness so similar to jazz? Children are very spiritual. Their spirits are undamaged by the world of adults and technology. They can be free to explore and let their spirits lead them in various directions that adults might not think of. Being less encumbered with the complex things of an adult world might free us to be child-like and spiritual in nature. It could be a way to begin to discover how to live a more jazz-like life.
We human beings have three parts to us. We have a mind and we have a body. We also have a spirit. Every cultural group of human beings, either present or past, has had some sort of belief or understanding that we have a spirit. Our mind is usually considered to be the most important part of us humans. The brain is just a very fancy computer. Scientists are now looking at building artificial brains that can learn. They also talk about backing up the human brain to the cloud in the same way one might back up their computer hard drive. Now there is the real meaning of having your head in the clouds. Maybe the image of a little cloud graphic symbolizing a thought is sort of prophetic.
We often talk about our heart as a place where our feelings and emotions originate. One that special day of love, considered one of the strongest human emotions, Valentines Day, hearts are sent around. Love is represented by a heart shape. Where do these ideas come from? Love is one of the most discussed topics in our cultures, yet we can barely explain it. Love and our other feelings and emotions are attached to our spirit. What the heart does is pump blood to every part of our body—even our brain. Perhaps our spirit is part of our blood. Our life is in our blood.
Even if there was a smart computer that was like an artificial brain, it would never be able to be human, not even with an artificial body of some form of flesh. The human spirit will always make reproducing human thoughts, emotions and feeling impossible. Our spirit is where our jazz originates. Since we human beings are nowhere near any sort of agreement as to what our spirit is, finding a way to reproduce it is probably impossible. Some people might argue that there is no such thing as the human spirit. Let them explain feelings and emotions—how about love.
Even if an artificial reproduction of the human mind were to someday be produced. Human beings would be able to tell rather quickly that it was not human. It would be slightly different. Even if it were so accurate that the differences were nearly undetectable, or nearly indiscernible, a human would eventually know. Humans do have a spiritual dimension that is extremely deep and complex. If it indeed does exist in our blood, then jazz flows throughout our entire body.
Why is it important to learn to live a jazz lifestyle? Because it can help us be more human. We need to increase the distance between us and our technology. We want to ensure that whatever technology we allow into our lives and the way we decide to use it, we use it to make us be more human. To understand what it means for us to be more human, we need to strip away the dehumanizing aspects of our lives to find what is simple and liberating freedom; to not be slaves of technology. We can learn to be child-like and spiritual in nature. We want our technology to be ‘our’ technology. We do not want it to replace us, unless it allows us to be less dehumanized and more humanized. It is a journey into jazz leading to a life of being human and living in a world of technology—the Technojungle.
Be sure to read The Jazz Lifestyle.
Let’s think about it!
© 2015 by Bob Grahame
Please do not reproduce this article, or any part, in any manner, without my permission. Thank you!
The Technojungle Safari 