| 1 |
You
are unique. |
| 2 |
You
are 100 trillion little animals all working together. Every one of
them is unique, too. |
| 3 |
They
die, but you keep on living as new ones constantly take the place
of the ones that die. Except your brain cells. They are with you for
life. |
| 4 |
The
atomic elements forming you right now are ashes from blown up stars.
Most of them are the same atoms that formed our planet 4.5 billion years
ago. |
| 5 |
The
atomic elements flow through you. Even the calcium in your bones and
teeth. In four months more than 80% of your atoms will be exchanged
for new ones. In a year, all but a few stubborn atoms will be new. A
year ago you were completely different earth atoms. Next year you will
be "materially" new, too. |
| 6 |
The
DNA in every living cell in your body has never died. Every bit of it
is at least 3.6 billion years old. |
| 7 |
Genes
are memories encoded in your DNA. Some of your memories are 3.6 billion
years old. |
| 8 |
Genes,
like all memories, are meaningless unless they are remembered. Like
words are meaningless unless remembered. Words are memories, too. |
| 9 |
All
your energy, your life, your vision, comes from solar radiation. |
| 10 |
Awareness
is surprise. |
| 11 |
Mind
is what awareness does to adjust to surprises. |
| 12 |
Life
is a cycle - bringing the elements, energy, information towards you;
weaving these together with your expectations and needs; responding
to any errors in your expectations; observing the effects of your responses
and repeating this process. |
| 13 |
There
is no such thing as an invariable cycle. That's what generates the surprise of awareness. |
| 14 |
One
response to surprise is to communicate with other beings, to work together
to avoid unpleasant surprises next cycle. Predicting the variance of cycles by knowing
together. |
| 15 |
Consciousness
is knowing together. |
| 16 |
Cells
know together, so do we, so do societies, and ecosystems, too. |
| 17 |
Knowing
together produces a new level of surprise. A brand new Awareness. |
| 18 |
Surprises
pass through our cells, our selves, our societies, our ecosystems. They
are refreshed by forgetfulness. |
| 19 |
We
eventually remember how to avoid bad surprises, and how to have the
good ones again. This is learning. It is evolution, too. |
| 20 |
Awareness
has learned a lot in 3.6 billion years. But the best thing it has learned
is to write down these 20 facts and share them around. |
