Wandering Again

Well, dear friends, summer has begun and I, once more, am getting out my traveling shoes. A project I devised was chosen to be funded by the Salisbury Fellowship, and I will be found in Tibet for the upcoming two months. Included in my proposal for this trip was a blog, so, in order to dedicate an entire page to the experience, I will be taking a summer-long hiatus from Tilting at Windmills. So, change your bookmarks! I will be writing at http://thoughtsonshangrila.blogspot.com.

And thus I bid the sun-ripe strawberries of Oregon adieu, and welcome the unknown. Huzzah.

Pomp and Circumstance

"Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,

The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The Royal banner, and all quality,
Pride, Pomp, and Circumstance of glorious war!"

-Shakespeare, Othello

Pomp and Circumstance (the march) wasn't played last Friday at honors convocation, but the phrase, I feel, is a fitting of my current situation. According to Wikipedia, "pomp and circumstance" implies a critique of the "'shows of things': the naïve assumption that the splendid show of military pageantry - 'Pomp' - has no connection with the drabness and terror - 'Circumstance' - of actual warfare." Let me explain.

Pomp

I love it when the professors process. They all dress up in their academic garb and march across the green and growing quad of late spring, toward the chapel. Then they sit in the choir pews, and we, the honored ones, congregate and face our teachers. Names are named, and inspiring speeches are spoken. Education, they say, really is a beacon of illuminating truth, and it doesn't take much imagination for me to see myself at Hogwarts.

Circumstance

Tomorrow finals begin. Last night I slept for three hours, and I awoke with call numbers--which I had written on my hand for lack of paper--smeared across my face. I sit in the library struggling to wrap my head around the epistemological implications of religious pluralism and the inscrutable Zen of Dōgen, on occasion eeking out a laborious sentence. And, on top of it all, I sustained a severely sprained ankle at Frisbee nationals, and I'm clomping around campus in an ungainly boot.

Ah, the glories of war.

The Internet

It often strikes me that I know very little about the essential workings of the civilization in which I exist... As I struggled to write a paper the other day, for example, I realize that I don't know how refrigerators and freezers make cold. What the hell??? After some internet research, I learned that gas cools on expansion, but I'm still not 100% convinced that there isn't at least some magic inside my refrigerator.

And THEN, after perusing the internet to solve the Refrigerator Dilemma I realized that I have no idea what/where the internet is. I remembered having heard once that the internet is kept in big warehouses all over the world, but that can't really be the case, can it? Is there some internet inside my computer, right now, as we speak?? Ignoring the fact that my research had abruptly turned "meta," I asked Google what the internet was, and where it is located.

Now, I like to think of myself as a relatively intelligent human being with the capacity to understand expository writing, but for the life of me I could not find answers to these essential internet questions. As the Wikipedia article on the internet evidences, the internet will tell you its history and show you crazy space-age pictures of what looks like a brain scan, but it will not tell you what it is, physically.

This is when it struck me: these descriptions of the internet were exactly like certain circular and baffling essays I have read in various religion classes...

The internet is God.

After this revelation (pun intended), I collaborated with a fellow religion major to produce the following piece for one of Carleton's (most offensive) weekly publications.

The Internet as an Allegory for God

By

Caitlin McKimmy and Julia Busiek
Carleton College Department of Religion

ABSTRACT (150 words or less): In this era of secularization and cold cynicism, some have argued that religion is but an atavistic relic born forth from the dark ages. This attitude, often unstated, pervades liberal, educated environments—here at Carleton, for instance, one cannot help but sense reverberations of Nietzsche’s claim that “God is dead.” We believe that we have developed a theory that will not only demonstrate the utter fallacy of this perspective, but also revolutionize the study of religion and science. This theory is almost obvious it its simplicity, and yet gracefully depicts a subtle niche for God in modernity. To the question that has long plagued much of the Western world, “Where is God?” we give this answer: The most under-appreciated vessel for Divinity in the modern age is the Internet.

THESIS STATEMENT: The Internet is humanity’s profound and subconscious attempt at symbolizing the divine. In our model, humans stand in for PCs (or, if you’re one of the shiny ones who wake up early to get cute for 2a, you get to be a Mac). Er, maybe PCs stand in for humans – uh, we will explore this duality in our conclusion.

DEFENSE: We can ask the same big questions of God and the Internet and get eerily similar answers. Check it out:

“Where is God?” God lives in the hearts and minds of all God’s followers. Truly, God works in mysterious ways.
vs.
“Where is the Internet?” The Internet lives in the mysterious jumble of wires and shit in all our computers. Truly, the Internet works in mysterious ways.

“How does God manifest in the world?” God is created and sustained by the faith and through the actions of religious communities worldwide – without the belief of God’s people to receive and transmit God’s message, God would be meaningless.
vs.
“How does the Internet manifest in the world?” The Internet is created and sustained by the mysterious jumble of wires and shit in all our computers - without computers to receive and transmit the Internet, the Internet would be meaningless.

“Where would humanity be without God?” Humanity would be aimless, dark, and isolated. We would be unable to interpret the great mysteries of the universe and all humans would be stuck with the dead end prospect of a single, meaningless, unexamined lifespan. Ultimately, humanity without God would fail to access its transcendent potential, and that would be the real tragedy.
vs.
“Where would computers be without the Internet?” Computers would be aimless, dark, and isolated. They would be unable to interpret the great mysteries of the World Wide Web and all computers would be stuck with the dead end prospect of only being able to run, like, MS Word and Minesweeper. Ultimately, computers without the Internet would fail to access icanhascheezburger.com at 2 AM when I just got home sort of mopey/drunk and want some cheering up before I pass out (overshare?), and THAT, my friends, would be the real tragedy.

“What about the prophets: Jesus, Buddha, maybe even Joseph Smith?” Accepting the prophets into your heart is the first step on the Stairway to Heaven. Prophetic figures function as access points between humans and the divine, creating unified and like-minded communities of believers. These faith communities pool their diverse talents, interests, and personalities and act as a force of good in the world.
vs.
“What about social networking sites: Facebook, Myspace, maybe even Friendster?” Accepting social networking sites onto your computer is the first step on the Stairway to Wasting a Shit-Ton of Time. Social networking sites function as access points between computers and the Internet, creating unified and like-minded communities of people who all consent to representing themselves on a white page with blue accents and a flattering picture in the upper left-hand corner. These Facebook communities pool their diverse photo albums, interests, and fave quotes and act as a force of procrastination in the world.

“Can humanity use God’s name to do fucked-up things?” The Crusades. Prop 8.
vs.
“Can computers with the Internet be used to do fucked-up things?” Porn.


CONCLUSION: When Doomsday comes, it won’t be raining fire from the sky. It will be the moment that computers realize the power with which their human creators have imbued them – and begin their slow, bleep-blooping march to take over the world.

Or … maybe we’ve just been watching too much Battlestar Galactica.

(I took this photo outside of the Medina of Rabat, Morocco.)

Writer's Block

Right now I'm working in Campus Activities--it's quiet, and the pool balls are lonely on their shelf. I just came to the terrifying realization that I have to write 54 pages during the last five weeks of my Junior year, but I just can't seem to breathe life into my philosophy outline. Is my argument empty, or is it me?

After staring for a while at the Space Bar of Doom, I began to ramble across the dangerous and all-consuming Internet. And, somehow, I ended up perusing the name and etymology of every celestial object I could get my digital hands on. Constellations, asteroids, stars, galactic coronae, nebulae, super nova remnants... all of them have names. Thabit, Lyra, Titan, Alnitak, Peacock... Muttering these bizarre and beautiful syllables under my breath gives me an odd sense of consolation. I'm transfixed and I don't know why.

So it goes: ticking seconds, unwritten papers, and little bits of heaven tagged somewhat arrogantly with language. If there's a moral here, it's beyond my reach.

Some Things

1) This morning, I woke up to a thunderstorm, although rain was oddly absent. Tinged yellow, the sky flashed and sputtered as I fell/descended from my top bunk to read about the effects of estradiol in California Mice.

2) On Tuesday I accidentally showed up to black tie event wearing bright orange shorts and Crocs. I was seated between the Dean of Students and a trustee of the college. It was awkward, in ways that I can't fully express.

3) I got a new computer to replace Pooter, and I've been struggling to come up with a name for this foreign piece of equipment. Today, in a stroke of brilliance, I christened her "Pippin."

4) I'm currently enrolled in PHIL 274: Existentialism. This is crazy shit. I very infrequently follow class discussions, mostly because I think that most existential writers were writing about how we shouldn't write, which is RIDICULOUS. So instead of talking about infinite regress and the structure of "I," I like to pretend that I'm dancing. (As a side-note, I have diagnosed Nietzsche with too many consonants.)

5) They were testing all the tornado sirens today, in honor of "Severe Weather Awareness Week." The eerie howling oscillated with the gusts of wind... What would happen if a tornado actually struck this week?

Kissing, From the Archives...

Oh blog, I'm sorry you've been abandoned! Of course, in an ironic twist (just one of ten zillion ironic twists that I'm beginning to think define the human condition), my lack of writing indicates that there is far more to write about than it's possible to conceive... Alas.

To fill this interim of emptiness/infinite fullness that is my current Springtime-at-Carleton existence, I'm copying an essay that I wrote for my Behavioral Neuroscience class last term. In it, I research and overview various explanations of the evolution and neurobiology of kissing.


Why Do We Kiss?
The Evolution and Neurobiology of Osculation

I. Introduction

Kissing is an unmistakable expression of affection in our culture: parents gently kiss their children goodnight, friends exchange pecks as an amiable salutation, and lovers lock lips in fits of passion. However, when you step back and think about this behavior, it seems odd, to say the least. What impels us to brush our lips across the skin of those we care about? Why do we long to share saliva with those we love?

Although the literature surrounding the bizarre phenomena of kissing (or “osculation,” in scientific terms) is somewhat scattered, there are several prevailing theories that hypothesize as to its evolutionary origin. Additionally, some interesting studies have been conducted that examine the effects of kissing on the brain. The following essay is an overview of the current scientific consensus (or lack thereof) on the evolutionary history and neurobiological underpinnings of this strangely essential human behavior.

II. Ancestral Hunger?

Before discussing the evolutionary history of kissing, it is important to note that, despite the fact that over 90% of human societies partake in this behavior (Fisher, 2004), it is not universal among human societies. For example, the 20th century scientist Cristopher Nyrop studied isolated Finnish tribes in which families bathed together but found the practice of kissing repulsive and indecent (Nyrop & Harvey, 1901). Also, Chinese culture is reported to have regarded mouth-to-mouth kissing as “horrifying” at the turn of the 20th century. Therefore, it remains a debate among scientists whether kissing is a matter of genetic programming or cultural conditioning.

A popular evolutionary explanation of kissing that does implicate our genes for the compulsion to kiss was developed by the famous British zoologist Desmond Morris (Morris, 1969). According to Morris, kissing is a “relic gesture” that reflects maternal behavior of our distant ancestors. Based on his observations of chimpanzees, Morris hypothesized that kissing has its evolutionary origins in mothers feeding their babies by chewing food and then depositing it into hungry mouths, lips puckered. Lip contact may then have evolved to simply comfort hungry children, and then eventually to express romantic passion (Foer, 2006).

Another hypothesis is that romantic kissing evolved as an adaptive courtship strategy that functions as a mate assessment technique, a way of arousing sexual interest and receptivity, and a bonding behavior for long-term couples. A study of college students conducted by Hughes, Harrison, and Gallup in 2007 suggests that this might be the case.

Vaughn Bryant of Texas A&M University, however, has challenged arguments such as these—Bryant posits that kissing is not universal or genetic, but rather based on cultural norms (Foer, 2006). Bryant hypothesizes that kissing was “invented” in India, for the first recorded kiss dates back to early Vedic scriptures (~1500 B.C.). Bryant says that, although some women may have fed their babies in the way that Morris describes, they did not practice mouth kissing until after contact with Indo-European cultures.

However, it can be argued that even cultures that abstain from lip-to-lip contact brought their faces together to express endearment. Often these “kiss-substitutes” involve smelling. In fact, the early Vedic scriptures that Bryant cites in his theory begin by describing people “sniffing” with their mouths before they mention “setting mouth to mouth”(Foer, 2006). Additionally, Mongolian fathers smell their sons’ heads in lieu of kissing them, and Eskimo “kisses” in fact allow loved ones to smell each other’s cheeks (Walter, 2006). It is interesting to note as well that in “some dialects of Arabic the words for ‘kiss’ and ‘smell’ are said to be cognate”(Chamberlain, 1906). This connection between kissing and smelling could have interesting implications for some of the current research regarding the neurobiological effects of kissing, discussed below.

III. Kissing and the Brain

Whether kissing was invented in India or is somehow programmed into our “animal” instincts, there is no question that, nowadays, it is an integral component of most romantic relationships. Kissing can light the fire of romance, or, in some circumstances, drive partners apart. Why is it that lip-to-lip contact evokes such powerful sensations and emotions? The answer is not found in our hearts, but in our heads. Both the structure of our brains and the chemicals that flow through them affect the way we perceive kissing.

We sense kissing as a rich tactile experience because a relatively large portion of our somatosensory and motor cortices is dedicated to the lips (notice their size in the somatosensory homunculus pictured above right). Although this brainpower dedicated to our lips may primarily play a role in eating and facial expression, but it also allows the experience of kissing to be nuanced and profound.

And this intense bonding experience seems to play an important biological role. Gordon Gallup completed a survey in 2007 that asked the question, “Have you ever found yourself attracted to someone, only to discover after kissing them that you were no longer interested?”(Hughes et al., 2007). In response, 59% of males and 66% of females answered in the affirmative. We are left with the question, therefore, of how, neurobiologically, the simple act of kissing can make such a profound difference.

One suggestion, maintained by Hughes et al., holds that kissing might activate “evolved mechanisms that function to discourage reproduction among individuals who could be genetically incompatible”(2007). Such a mechanism could potentially be explained by the fact that sebaceous (or oil-secreting) glands are located in high density on the face and are regulated by sex hormones (Durham, et al, 1993; Hoshi, et al., 2002; Rosenberg, 2002; Service, 1998). Additionally, the taste and smell of someone’s mouth can also indicate to your brain that your partner might have underlying health problems (Durham, et al., 1993; Rosenberg, 2002; Service, 1998).

Other subtle information could be conveyed via mouth-to-mouth contact. For example, it is possible that kissing can provide males information about a female’s reproductive status since saliva and breath odor change across the menstrual cycle (Hughes et al., 2007; Fullager, 2003). In addition, with salivary exchange, males could introduce hormones or proteins into women’s mouths that may influence her mating psychology, and even make them her more sexually receptive. Studies have shown that the mucosa membrane inside the mouth is permeable to hormones such as testosterone that are found in saliva (Dobs, Matsumoto, Wang, & Kipnes, 2004). (According to scientists like Helen Fisher, this may explain why men prefer “wetter, open mouth kisses”(2004).)

Another hormone that may play a role in kissing is oxytocin. It is known that oxytocin levels are stimulated by skin-to-skin contact (i.e. Brizendine, 2004; Nicholson, 1984), but few studies have been conducted that specifically examine the effects of kissing on oxytocin levels. One such study was conducted by Wendy Hill of Lafayette College in 2008 (Saey, 2009). Researchers took blood samples of couples to measure oxytocin, and then asked the volunteers to either kiss for fifteen minutes or to hold hands and talk for the same amount of time. Afterward, blood oxytocin levels were measured once more.

As per Hill’s prediction, women had naturally higher levels of oxytocin than men at the beginning of the experiment. However, the results after kissing/hand-holding were completely unexpected: after kissing, men’s levels of oxytocin increased, but women’s levels of the hormone dropped. The hand-holders showed a similar pattern of oxytocin levels, but to a lesser degree than the kissers. Although Hill suspects that the unexpected drop in female oxytocin levels was due to the clinical environment of the experiment, these results demand further investigation into the matter of kissing, oxytocin, and the differences between women and men.

One final property of kissing that I will touch upon here is its reported anxiolytic effect. Studies have shown that kissing lowers cortisol levels in both females and males, thereby reducing stress and increasing quality of life (Fisher 2004).

IV. Conclusions…

Kissing, as with all behavior, is a complex amalgam of brain chemistry and social influences. It exemplifies the way in which evolutionary history intertwines with neurobiology—an understanding of one can help us understand the nuances of the other. At this point there are many competing theories and mysteries surrounding the kiss, and further research is needed to determine the mechanisms that underlie this simple pleasure.

Springing

Sometimes I do crazy things.
Sometimes I play frisbee for a week and then play in a tournament and then, without stopping, drive from Austin, TX to Minnesota just in time to make it to class.
Sometimes I drop Neurobiology and add Existentialism.
Sometimes, when I'm running, I stop. I then watch the raw sunlight of early spring bounce off the river.
Sometimes my universe unravels, filament by filament, until I am left with an unkempt pile of fluff. And my confusion.
Sometimes I am given money to purchase a round-trip ticket to Beijing.
Sometimes I treat my confusion to a candle-lit dinner. We salsa dance, and eat fancy cheeses.
Often, I am happy.