DESTINATION: UNSOLVED!
Puzzling evidence invites wonder tempered by critical thinking. That means hypothesizing. It's a way of mapping out, in a logical way, the confusion of perceived reality, and is usually only resolved after some random good night's sleep, if ever. Let's take a look at two examples of critically imaginative hypothesizing:
Human beings are interestingly lucky. They can eat tubers that would send wolves to wolf Valhalla. The weird, looming heighth of humans can, with a little clamouring, scare away some very dangerous yet stupid predators. Some of whom we have bred to become actual slaves to our needs and emotions.
Of course, our very vulnerable yet versatile skin, opposable thumbs, and exploding neocortex, have all allowed us to live in a vast variety of environments, unlike most any other species, except the like of water bears. Though we may not be as hearty as cockroaches, who would survive a nuclear war, at least we can start nuclear wars, and that seems to be a first in the otherwise unviolated evolution of life on Earth.
We also taste terrible to sharks and tigers, and other players of the wild game game. Most of the time, we just slip through their digits like viruses through a cloth mask. But some beasts actually love to feast on the meat of humans, and these include the lion, whom we call the King of The Jungle. In fact, tigers have it all over lions, as far as strength and prowess go. But, since lions like to boss us around, we call them kings. And they look quite regal, with those manly manes, ironically bedecking the males who mainly like to reign lamely on the plains.
Isn't it weird that these lions look so much like us, with their beards, and their noses? Did they evolve to resemble us, for some reason? Did they evolve to look familiar and awesome to us, at least in this respect? Or are we vainly anthropomorphizing, here? Maybe, actually, our males evolved their beards, and their long noses, to more resemble lions - for some reason! That's a very weird idea. Why would that happen?
Well, distinct species of primates do sport different hair and/or skin appearances, which is a way to distinguish their species from others, and so to attract members of the same species to each other. Our appearance, as a naked ape, with a compensatory large, full, Grizzly Adams / BeeGees head of hair, distinguishes our males from, e.g., male baboons, etc. All that hair is also a way to protect the upper body from the sun, and to hold in heat during hunting treks through the cold nights. So, it just makes sense that we have evolved this interesting feature, lions or not.
And, whatever caused male lions to evolve their mane - such as protecting / retaining heat; distinguishing from tigers, or attracting females, because more hair means more surfeit energy spent, meaning more power, (like a peacock) - could just have have been similar to what happened to humans, but have had absolutely nothing to do with humans. On the other hand, I have noticed that, in a lot of cases, things that eat other things frequently resemble the things they eat, in some way, and vice versa. We look at a familiar-looking animal and suspect he may be "kind" and meanwhile we get swiped into oblivion.
Like a king may be kind - or a tyrant.
The interesting thing about evolution is that, in many - possibly most - cases, it involves a whole constellation of factors at work, in order to set one species, or even one individual, in some specific niche. For example, set within one location, within a rain forest, there is one monkey who has been able to survive, but only because he knew the right predators to avoid, the right plants to east, the right birds to listen to, the right moves to make, the right communications to make, the right rhythms to follow, the right songs to sing, and so on.
And all the factors of that rain-forest - all the other elements and creatures, and formulae of possible circumstance - just so happen to, in this and only this case, permit the existence of that monkey to be, at least for now. Just like the universe, being so amiable to the existence of humans, right? And, this present permission also extends infinitely back into the past, into a myriad of genetic and circumstantial conditions, events and interactions.
This is why superstition, magical thinking, hypothesizing, often may fare better than scientific logic. Because science cannot control for all variables, but, sometimes, instinct and intuition can. Therefore, it is not so easy for animals to evolve such intelligence as we, controllaholic humans, do possess. Divorced, as we became, from nature, and all that, spiritually, and so on. We use that intelligence to seek out a diversity of resources.
But dumber animals just make lucky guesses, over and over again. By doing well, suspended in the multifactoral Eden of their niche, it doesn't occur to them to develop larger brains. Plus, fear and danger also hold them back. Because that is the taught tightrope they walk. We, on the other hand, got lucky. At least, so far.
So, how does this pertain to a lion's mane? Well, I am saying that, most of the time, the reason why something happens is because there are a lot of reasons why something happens. So, all or most of the hypotheses about the evolution of the manes of lions and or humans may be true. Science would posit otherwise... until it discovers some new logic, and possibly even overturns its conclusions, or theories.
And, just as correlation is not always irrelevant, superstition is not always wrong. Logical thought as superstitions thought are both related, (and ultimately the same), cognitive processes.
Have you ever noticed that we generally call some idea superstitious only after the fact that we have, "proven it incorrect"? We seldom step in and call, e.g., the search for a unified field theory superstitious.
In fact, logical thinking bears more resemblance to cognition during fear than it does imaginative thinking under relaxation or hope. Hypothesizing. Dreaming.
So, here's one hypothesis, which need not - or may - contradict all the others: Humans evolved their mane, mainly, to more resemble the beast they feared, in their dreams, deep down in those bones, who had an aversion to being crushed. This made us feel more powerful. And, it might have helped scare away animals who feared the spectre of lions. And maybe lions would look at us, and occasionally think, "why would I want to eat such a cute looking animal?"
Because lions are superstitious, too. And we are lucky.
Now, if we see a black panther cat, that's something different, altogether.
So, this sort of imaginative thinking can be a way of dealing with wonder, and can even open up doors to further scientific study and resolutions. Humans can be better at this sort of thinking than we are at war, but not always. Because there is so much going on in our heads, war seems to be an inevitable consequence.
Now, here is a boring video about a man sent out to Oregon, who found a meteorite. Thence developed a long mystery over wither he had found the stone. He said he got it off of a much large stone. A multi-tonned meteorite lodged in the side of a mountain.
He also reported that he needed to go back to find that boulder, but required additional funding. He assured, prospects looked quite good for his location of said boulder.
Now, someone who pays attention to lots of cues eventually develops a sense of pattern-recognition. And superstitious learning can ultimately lead to solving riddles, such as, where was that boulder. In one mental snapshot. All you have to do is look at the two paragraphs above, and you will have your very strong hypothesis of where that boulder was.
However, that's not what people, or the Smithsonian Institute, did. Instead, they, and others, went on a long, long search for that boulder, which ultimately proved fruitless. Looking at maps, and going over directions, and thinking this logical way and that - it all ended in nothing, but spent time, money and energy - and lost opportunities elsewhere.
But, just looking at those two paragraphs, tells you this: Hmmmm, sounds like that man was stringing the government along, so he could get more funding, and... hmmmm, you don't get that big of a meteor hitting a mountain and not causing a large impact crater! That's all the info you need to basically say, "this pretty much looks like a hoax." But, science didn't do that. And it took over 80 years for researcher to finally find the evidence that this meteorite prospector was full of shit.
First impressions are often right, unless you're an idiot. So, if your impression were to be, oh, IDK, something like, "I will get eaten in two seconds unless I jump off this cliff," you had probably jump off the cliff, rather than pull out a calculator, cellphone or sketch pad, and start dawdling away. The way Europe has, lately.
Sometimes, the best way to deal with unsolved mysteries is to take your best guess, and freely leap into the unknown.
You fall prey to the logics of science or fear and you fall prey forever.
Because that's how most science is made in the first place.
Here are some interesting videos, somewhat related.
The Mysterious Arizona Meteorite That Baffled Experts | Meteorite Men | Spark
Imagine these abandoned places as having no background. You just happened to wander upon them. And you want to figure out their past lives. I first imagined that the amazing abandoned home in Ontario had been a mobster hideout, and then an Elvis Hideout, but it was probably just a rich person's retreat. Maybe someone died in 9/11, no idea...
10 Abandoned Places in Arizona
Retro Time Capsule Home Forgotten Deep In the Woods!
More about the Sexy Retreat.
And here is a tab-dump of possibly interesting unsolved mysteries, in no particular order...
WEIRD / PARANORMAL / UNSOLVED MYSTERIES...
4 Unsolved Mysteries That Are Stranger Than Fiction - YouTube
5 Unsolved Mysteries That'll Leave You Questioning Everything (Pt. 1) - YouTube
THESE 4 UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA WILL TERRIFY YOU | The Proof is Out There - YouTube
Bible Secrets Revealed: The Forbidden Scriptures Lost to Time (S1, E3) | Full Episode - YouTube
Bible Secrets Revealed: The Real Jesus (S1, E4) | Full Episode HISTORY 510K views 3 months ago
Bizarre things found in the unexpected - YouTube
World's Most Mysterious Extraterrestrial Incidents | Top 10 Mysteries | Free Documentary Free Documentary 2.5M views 4 months ago
MonsterQuest: HUMANOID TERROR FROM THE SKY (S3, E21) | Full Episode | History - YouTube
4 TERRIFYING SOUNDS CAN'T BE EXPLAINED | The Proof Is Out There - YouTube
There is an unsolved mystery of a face on a floor in France which won't stop reappearing, even when washed or paved over. One thought I had was that bleach could do this. I spilt bleach in the basement and the stain won't go away. It wants to stain some more.
Human beings are interestingly lucky. They can eat tubers that would send wolves to wolf Valhalla. The weird, looming heighth of humans can, with a little clamouring, scare away some very dangerous yet stupid predators. Some of whom we have bred to become actual slaves to our needs and emotions.
Of course, our very vulnerable yet versatile skin, opposable thumbs, and exploding neocortex, have all allowed us to live in a vast variety of environments, unlike most any other species, except the like of water bears. Though we may not be as hearty as cockroaches, who would survive a nuclear war, at least we can start nuclear wars, and that seems to be a first in the otherwise unviolated evolution of life on Earth.
We also taste terrible to sharks and tigers, and other players of the wild game game. Most of the time, we just slip through their digits like viruses through a cloth mask. But some beasts actually love to feast on the meat of humans, and these include the lion, whom we call the King of The Jungle. In fact, tigers have it all over lions, as far as strength and prowess go. But, since lions like to boss us around, we call them kings. And they look quite regal, with those manly manes, ironically bedecking the males who mainly like to reign lamely on the plains.
Isn't it weird that these lions look so much like us, with their beards, and their noses? Did they evolve to resemble us, for some reason? Did they evolve to look familiar and awesome to us, at least in this respect? Or are we vainly anthropomorphizing, here? Maybe, actually, our males evolved their beards, and their long noses, to more resemble lions - for some reason! That's a very weird idea. Why would that happen?
Well, distinct species of primates do sport different hair and/or skin appearances, which is a way to distinguish their species from others, and so to attract members of the same species to each other. Our appearance, as a naked ape, with a compensatory large, full, Grizzly Adams / BeeGees head of hair, distinguishes our males from, e.g., male baboons, etc. All that hair is also a way to protect the upper body from the sun, and to hold in heat during hunting treks through the cold nights. So, it just makes sense that we have evolved this interesting feature, lions or not.
And, whatever caused male lions to evolve their mane - such as protecting / retaining heat; distinguishing from tigers, or attracting females, because more hair means more surfeit energy spent, meaning more power, (like a peacock) - could just have have been similar to what happened to humans, but have had absolutely nothing to do with humans. On the other hand, I have noticed that, in a lot of cases, things that eat other things frequently resemble the things they eat, in some way, and vice versa. We look at a familiar-looking animal and suspect he may be "kind" and meanwhile we get swiped into oblivion.
Like a king may be kind - or a tyrant.
The interesting thing about evolution is that, in many - possibly most - cases, it involves a whole constellation of factors at work, in order to set one species, or even one individual, in some specific niche. For example, set within one location, within a rain forest, there is one monkey who has been able to survive, but only because he knew the right predators to avoid, the right plants to east, the right birds to listen to, the right moves to make, the right communications to make, the right rhythms to follow, the right songs to sing, and so on.
And all the factors of that rain-forest - all the other elements and creatures, and formulae of possible circumstance - just so happen to, in this and only this case, permit the existence of that monkey to be, at least for now. Just like the universe, being so amiable to the existence of humans, right? And, this present permission also extends infinitely back into the past, into a myriad of genetic and circumstantial conditions, events and interactions.
This is why superstition, magical thinking, hypothesizing, often may fare better than scientific logic. Because science cannot control for all variables, but, sometimes, instinct and intuition can. Therefore, it is not so easy for animals to evolve such intelligence as we, controllaholic humans, do possess. Divorced, as we became, from nature, and all that, spiritually, and so on. We use that intelligence to seek out a diversity of resources.
But dumber animals just make lucky guesses, over and over again. By doing well, suspended in the multifactoral Eden of their niche, it doesn't occur to them to develop larger brains. Plus, fear and danger also hold them back. Because that is the taught tightrope they walk. We, on the other hand, got lucky. At least, so far.
So, how does this pertain to a lion's mane? Well, I am saying that, most of the time, the reason why something happens is because there are a lot of reasons why something happens. So, all or most of the hypotheses about the evolution of the manes of lions and or humans may be true. Science would posit otherwise... until it discovers some new logic, and possibly even overturns its conclusions, or theories.
And, just as correlation is not always irrelevant, superstition is not always wrong. Logical thought as superstitions thought are both related, (and ultimately the same), cognitive processes.
Have you ever noticed that we generally call some idea superstitious only after the fact that we have, "proven it incorrect"? We seldom step in and call, e.g., the search for a unified field theory superstitious.
In fact, logical thinking bears more resemblance to cognition during fear than it does imaginative thinking under relaxation or hope. Hypothesizing. Dreaming.
So, here's one hypothesis, which need not - or may - contradict all the others: Humans evolved their mane, mainly, to more resemble the beast they feared, in their dreams, deep down in those bones, who had an aversion to being crushed. This made us feel more powerful. And, it might have helped scare away animals who feared the spectre of lions. And maybe lions would look at us, and occasionally think, "why would I want to eat such a cute looking animal?"
Because lions are superstitious, too. And we are lucky.
Now, if we see a black panther cat, that's something different, altogether.
So, this sort of imaginative thinking can be a way of dealing with wonder, and can even open up doors to further scientific study and resolutions. Humans can be better at this sort of thinking than we are at war, but not always. Because there is so much going on in our heads, war seems to be an inevitable consequence.
Now, here is a boring video about a man sent out to Oregon, who found a meteorite. Thence developed a long mystery over wither he had found the stone. He said he got it off of a much large stone. A multi-tonned meteorite lodged in the side of a mountain.
He also reported that he needed to go back to find that boulder, but required additional funding. He assured, prospects looked quite good for his location of said boulder.
Now, someone who pays attention to lots of cues eventually develops a sense of pattern-recognition. And superstitious learning can ultimately lead to solving riddles, such as, where was that boulder. In one mental snapshot. All you have to do is look at the two paragraphs above, and you will have your very strong hypothesis of where that boulder was.
However, that's not what people, or the Smithsonian Institute, did. Instead, they, and others, went on a long, long search for that boulder, which ultimately proved fruitless. Looking at maps, and going over directions, and thinking this logical way and that - it all ended in nothing, but spent time, money and energy - and lost opportunities elsewhere.
But, just looking at those two paragraphs, tells you this: Hmmmm, sounds like that man was stringing the government along, so he could get more funding, and... hmmmm, you don't get that big of a meteor hitting a mountain and not causing a large impact crater! That's all the info you need to basically say, "this pretty much looks like a hoax." But, science didn't do that. And it took over 80 years for researcher to finally find the evidence that this meteorite prospector was full of shit.
First impressions are often right, unless you're an idiot. So, if your impression were to be, oh, IDK, something like, "I will get eaten in two seconds unless I jump off this cliff," you had probably jump off the cliff, rather than pull out a calculator, cellphone or sketch pad, and start dawdling away. The way Europe has, lately.
Sometimes, the best way to deal with unsolved mysteries is to take your best guess, and freely leap into the unknown.
You fall prey to the logics of science or fear and you fall prey forever.
Because that's how most science is made in the first place.
Here are some interesting videos, somewhat related.
The Mysterious Arizona Meteorite That Baffled Experts | Meteorite Men | Spark
Imagine these abandoned places as having no background. You just happened to wander upon them. And you want to figure out their past lives. I first imagined that the amazing abandoned home in Ontario had been a mobster hideout, and then an Elvis Hideout, but it was probably just a rich person's retreat. Maybe someone died in 9/11, no idea...
10 Abandoned Places in Arizona
Retro Time Capsule Home Forgotten Deep In the Woods!
More about the Sexy Retreat.
And here is a tab-dump of possibly interesting unsolved mysteries, in no particular order...
WEIRD / PARANORMAL / UNSOLVED MYSTERIES...
4 Unsolved Mysteries That Are Stranger Than Fiction - YouTube
5 Unsolved Mysteries That'll Leave You Questioning Everything (Pt. 1) - YouTube
THESE 4 UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA WILL TERRIFY YOU | The Proof is Out There - YouTube
Bible Secrets Revealed: The Forbidden Scriptures Lost to Time (S1, E3) | Full Episode - YouTube
Bible Secrets Revealed: The Real Jesus (S1, E4) | Full Episode HISTORY 510K views 3 months ago
Bizarre things found in the unexpected - YouTube
World's Most Mysterious Extraterrestrial Incidents | Top 10 Mysteries | Free Documentary Free Documentary 2.5M views 4 months ago
MonsterQuest: HUMANOID TERROR FROM THE SKY (S3, E21) | Full Episode | History - YouTube
4 TERRIFYING SOUNDS CAN'T BE EXPLAINED | The Proof Is Out There - YouTube
There is an unsolved mystery of a face on a floor in France which won't stop reappearing, even when washed or paved over. One thought I had was that bleach could do this. I spilt bleach in the basement and the stain won't go away. It wants to stain some more.