Splitting The Atom – Making Sense Of Chaos.

This year I realized that there is a reason for chaos. I realized  that when everything seems surreal there is always an underlying truth that offers the wisdom of a solution. I can say that I am finally starting to understand the simple complexities of the mysterious world that I live on.  I am beginning  understand life, answering questions like: why are there wars? Or why do people have different perspectives? I am learning how to  find comfort in the unknown.

As simple as these questions may seem, the answers I have gathered have led my understanding to this moment; A moment where I feel I have uncovered the truth behind the uncontrollable power of splitting the atom and decoded the drivers behind human action. What I know today has come from a web of recorded observations, learnt knowledge, and reoccurring patterns, all building meaningful connections and a deeper understanding of life. This Idea of building connections through my thinking arose at the beginning of last year when I started to use the Zettlekasten method to track my ideas and thoughts as I learnt different ideas. As my thoughts developed, so did my connections to them and my ability to build upon existing ideas. The power of these connections can be seen through the progression of my work from last year, but it can also be seen throughout history in events that have changed the world beyond imagination. One of these events is the Manhattan Project of WWII.

Finding the answer to the driving question for our first project of grade 11, was a journey that would take my full heart. It would drain me of my hope, rid me of my optimism, but what I came away with, was a trust that I can full-heartily say, transformed how I view life. “How did the Splitting of the atom change the world?”, was the question I was tasked to answer. To me, it was a question that asks not only of the significance of the breakthrough but the anthropological underpinnings of science and the ethics of human advancement.

 

The bombing of pearl harbour – like my entrance into this project, it marked the entrance into a war and the start a creation that would change reality

 

When we began our journey to find the answer, we were shown videos of nuclear bomb explosions. Like the simplicity of that sentence, I was put into a state of grief that took little effort to corrupt my mind with a draining fear. When faced with the thought of atomic war there is not much a human can do but feel an utter fear, but I knew there was something different about the fear that I felt. When we were introduced to the power of the atomic bomb, we watched a series of videos showing the destructive power of nuclear bombs which instantly released fear deep into my being, but it was when that fear did not leave after the video was done, that made me realize the true significance of splitting the atom.

This art piece is an artistically edited photo of a nuclear explosion. It  represents the psychological impact of watching nuclear tests,  looking at the bomb as how we see brain activity in its colourful representation. It represents the physical detriment from of watching nuclear tests by showing how the blurred edges fade into the frame which boarders represent the confines of the mind.

 

For the project, we were faced with reading Hiroshima by John Hersey to help answer the driving question. Through the horrific and soul-wrenching stories that were told, I had begun to find patterns, which is an instinctual trait like the fear that inspired it. I searched for these patterns to find comfort in this chaos. I searched for patterns of psychological reaction for the survivors and what it means to be human when all you know to be reality is gone. However, what I found is that like my own response to fear, the survivors had searched for patterns as well. This search for comfortability arguably kept them alive. It allowed them to keep going even when there was nowhere to go. It was in this reading that I found the power of a human being. Based on my understanding from our work on what makes an impact maker and learning about the Holocaust in WWII, I was able to craft a string of thoughts that wrapped and twisted through my heart, through the fear that I held, to attach onto the understanding that would be the answer to the driving question for this project.

Highlighting the understanding of what it means to be human.

 

The connections we hold have the power to change our perception, the power to change our identity, and as we saw in the case of Hiroshima, the power of a connection of ideas and discoveries can create something so powerful that even if we understand it, we can never have the ability to control its power. I thought very deeply about this fact. I knew there was a pattern. I asked myself: Why did we create something that could end all life with a press of a button? I wondered how that possibility could be created by a human, how the same biological being could be the one constructing this bomb as on who the bomb was dropped? I went even deeper and asked, “why?”;  Why was the world in a place to commit such an atrocity, and why am I still scared about the same thing happening today? It’s the fear that drove this search but what I found as truth, was the same symptom of evolution that made me look.

FEAR

As I said, fear drives comfort. It drives a search for trust, something that you can grab onto for at least a second to conceal the bone-numbing pain that fear has to offer. As I dove deeper into this newfound understanding, many patterns of instinctual behaviour and biologically-inflicted reactions became visible. I discovered the power of the mind in my podcast episode for our WWII project, and as I recalled the inhumane acts in war, I was able to trace this instinct of survival to almost all of them. It was our instincts of fear that drive us to hate, greed, and devaluation of the world around us. I discovered this truth in the final project of my grade ten year, and it was incredible to see my understanding align so perfectly with the actions of humanity during the end of the war.

The War in the pacific represented the worst of humanity’s instinctual behaviour and confused tendencies. Looking at human phycology, we as humans exist partially as the present and physical part of ourselves and partially as the instinctual and physiological areas of our being. In the events of the war in the pacific, I believe that these instinctual tendencies were amplified to a point that disconnected the Japanese soldiers from their own humanity and at times, even from life itself. This disconnection drowns out the unseeded hope and love towrds life and leads the soldier soulless in a soulless war. As we have learned, humans at war have a breaking point where we lose our connection to life and our ability to make sense of the world often caused by the constant drive to survive and kill. With that, I believe we lose our ethics and we become overcome by the emotions we are surrounded by such as fear and hate leading to physical association with mentally constructed thoughts or values such as patriotism. This does not justify the war in the pacific but I believe that it can give us a sense of the true horror and dehumanization that war creates.

It was as if everything began to slow down. The chaos of constant advancement through time began to form lines, and I could see why things are the way they are. The safety of the perceived separation between the dawn of the nuclear age began to lessen as the past began to connect to this moment. The lives lost in the sudden flash became closer to what I know as reality. The safety of the passing of time and the distance between borders lessened as I began to empathize with the thoughts of those in the time of the atomic age, and like the rapid rebuilding of bombed cities, I began to see the truth of our un-evolving attributes that do no change with the passing of time.

 

 

We are human. We are a biological species with the capacity to learn culture; to learn societal constructs, to learn a reality that feels so unique and evolved, yet we are truly and utterly not. We are still controlled by our instincts, by our fear-guided ethnocentric ideals, knowledge that triggers fear, and fear that triggers hate. I realized that the cliche of world unity is one of the only truths that our variation has to offer. I said it seemed impossible to find a remedy to a nuclear bomb because we cannot control it, but the significance of splitting the atom isn’t the bomb, it’s ignorance we hold towards the power of the single mind who decides to drop it. In this project, I realized the power that every individual has on history. I realized the power of a single life.

Like a candle flame, it can be blown out with a gentle sigh, yet it can also set fire to all its mindless burning can reach. I am humbled by the power of our instincts. Humbled by how they can teach us how they are controlling our lives, and humbled by how the same defined emotion can end the lives of so many. My teachers often tell me that we learn certain events to not repeat them. I wonder to myself: “how can I start another war?” Maybe it’s not the repeating I should worry about, maybe it’s just understanding that I am not very different from that person in that event. We are products of the past, set into a reality that can seem surreal at times, and so real at others. A life where we are taught how the underlying state of reality influenced people to do something but never why those people were influenced. A life where we think we have learned, but like being given the wrong prescription glasses, we have been a lens that makes or vision false.

I believe this a life where we can be comfortable, and as hard as it is to know if what is guiding you there is helpful, I think that all it takes is to hold an awareness of how our biological tendencies play a role in our life. Thank you for following along on my learning journey to make sense of chaos and I hope you comment any thoughts or questions you may have on this post.

One Reply to “Splitting The Atom – Making Sense Of Chaos.”

  1. Hey Ryder,

    First, I want to say that I think that you show a lot of courage by your willingness to consider deeply these immensely emotionally and cognitively challenging historical events.

    Recognizing that there exists this possibility for humans to act so inhumanely towards each other has got to be one of the most unnerving and sorrowful realizations a person who values peace and justice can have. I understand you to be positing this notion of “chaos” as one possible way to describe the experience that ensues when people resort to the most terrible and tragic actions towards one another.

    There is something essential to existence itself, perhaps nothing less than the sacredness of life itself, that is being betrayed by the utter confusion and hostility of war, and from the irreparable loss that results.

    I continue to grapple with this ‘dark side’ aspect of humanity that, as history reminds, has surely asserted itself within so many diverse cultures over millennia. Seeking to understand this, I think, leads to asking some very profound and difficult questions.

    For example, as you admirably ask in your post: “why are there wars?” It’s such an important question, yet, how many people, including, of course, political leaders, truly consider this, or, conversely, ask whether there can be enduring global peace?

    Yet, even while acknowledging these harsh human realities, I have seen time and time again your authentic, searching interest to understand human nature and the natural world, and to perceive those intricate connections that create and sustain life’s balance and interdependence.

    From a link that you provided to “biological makeup…”, you suggest that “trying to make sense of the world” is often motivated by both “curiosity” and “fear of the unknown.” And, how “love and care” may counter fear while fostering and connecting to those values that support a wiser culture. This sounds right on. And, I’ve also been reflecting on the powerful teachings of Christianity and how they may inform our Western culture and its relationship to nature.

    You express a wise understanding that “we are nature” and I, too, agree that we are not separate from nature… this truth can be experienced vividly, I think, in a drink of water!

    I hear you proposing that our instinctual, biological nature often manifests into human action and significantly affects our cultural values and history. You state how “fear is perpetuated through intergenerational collaboration.” And, yet, as you suggest, we have the strength of our awareness. These are great insights!

    It’s so admirable that you are considering our evolving, global civilization in such terms as the “underpinnings of science” and the “ethics of human advancement.” Bringing notions of evolutionary biology, ‘instinct of survival’, and the role of fear into the picture is very sophisticated. Of course, it’s a lot to take on! These are all such immense topics.

    What’s so amazing to consider, too, is how might our evolutionary inheritance change -along with society – as people increasingly embrace new technologies, such as generative AI?

    Well, I relate to how seeing atomic explosions evokes emotional grief. Also, I think that the desperation manifested in wars echoes on through the decades. And, yet, humanity can still find its way to peaceful, global coexistence.

    Also, I’d like to know more about this amazing art piece of an edited photograph that, I expect, you created.

    I think that you’re offering some very insightful understanding when you suggest that during war “instinctual tendencies were amplified” leading to a disconnection from one’s humanity. And, how losing ‘connection to life’ and making sense of the world, ultimately, leads to ‘dehumanization’ through the abandonment of ‘our ethics’ and becoming overcome with emotions such as ‘fear and hate’.

    Also, I appreciate reading your reflections on the human condition, such as when you write: “We value life through our own perspective, and when that perspective begins to crumble under the power of hate, we begin to lose our humanity.”

    And, well done on your contribution in PLP 10 with your podcast “The Dust That Never Settled.” Your discussion about ‘fight or flight’ and the physiology of stress was well articulated. I think what you said about how no one, whether civilian or soldier, makes it out without consequences is valid, as well as your observation that the “true horrors of war show us that we are all equal.”

    I value many of the ideas you offered in the podcast about ‘learning from our mistakes’ and how realizing “the true aftermath of fighting, makes us believe in good” and “the importance of order in humanity” and, finally, that “the importance of life is not to fight, but to live so the next generation can live even better than any other.”

    As you rightly point out, the accumulation and application of scientific learning over centuries resulted in the ‘splitting of the atom’. No doubt, human cognition has discovered a technological means to access extraordinary power. Interestingly, the word ‘atom’, of course, is only a placeholder for some astonishing process occurring within some microscopic dimension of reality.

    A mysterious reality out of which our sun releases tremendous energy from the fusion of hydrogen atoms, but, in this case, resulting in a life-giving force – light energy traversing the vacuum of space to be absorbed, at last, by a green fern growing within its forest ecosystem!

    As I’ve heard said, it is vital now for humanity to develop increasingly more wisdom in order to steward such power. I think you recognize this, too, when you write how “only stories can change that ignorance to wisdom.” I agree, our society needs some new stories to live by -new myths of meaning – that can help guide all nations forward in the presence of these new technologies.

    I endorse what you said about continuing “our journey to trusting in life.” I believe there is the possibility for nations, collectively, to transcend those biologically encoded instincts and culturally instilled beliefs that continue to create so much conflict. However, this would seem to require a large-scale shift in perceptions and values across the globe, particularly in order to bring systemic change to economics and politics. What do you think?

    Comprehending, as you put forth, both “the patterns we are taught to see” and “the true connections between events” must be integral to creating this systemic change. This is a useful photograph of plants and their network of roots to illustrate this needed shift in perception and a super insight!

    There’s got to be a lot of hope in the recognition that people might better identify complexity and interconnectedness in order to create societies that exist in healthy balance with each other and the biosphere, including non-human life.

    This is really an immense and profound blog post, Ryder. I’d suggest to you – as you likely have already gleaned – that this relatively recent and now ongoing planetary and technological change is unlike anything that humankind has ever encountered… and, yet, here we all are in the 21st Century and navigating, as you had referenced in another post, the so-called anthropocene!

    And, I’m glad to read that as you strive to understand, you are also “learning how to find comfort in the unknown.” I think this is a very wise approach to learning. As I’ve been discovering, there is such unimaginable depth to all these mysteries of life, human nature and reality, thus, presenting seemingly unlimited creative possibility. Do you agree?

    Well, as I also search for some answers, I’m finding that one of the most meaningful responses to these times is remembering the strength and resilience that resides within kindness…kindness for others when possible, yes… however, and so crucially, for ourselves too.

    So, well done for the very fine effort you are making as a student. And, thank you for your sincerity and insights… you have so much to offer.

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