September 14, 2008

Read about my new ebook

WHAT’S NEW? Don’t forget—I beg for your feedback! Comments, disagreements, questions. Just click “Email Lynne” and write your message. Thank you! My Web site has been Septemberized, and I invite you to take a look at these additions and changes here: » Vital Stats and FYI. Why Women Should Vote, by Deloris Wright. What our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had to pay for females’ right to vote. » Vital Stats. New statistics on women’s issues from N.O.W. » FYI. National and local peace, justice, and anti-war groups’ links. » FYI. Understanding America’s Military, by Fred Reed link to Fred on Everything. » FYI. Magic of Males, a Happy Birthday poem for my son, Jordan. Women’s rights are human rights? Stephen Henry Lewis, United Nations’ envoy for HIV AIDS in Africa, 2006, said: “[Women's rights have] never been made real, and so long as men control the levers and bastions of power… it never will be real. The demeaning diminution of women is everywhere evident… where freedom from sexual violence, the right to sexual autonomy, to sexual and reproductive health, social and economic independence, and even the whiff of gender equality are barely approximated. It’s a ghastly, deadly business, this untrammeled oppression of women in so many countries on the planet.” » Subscribe to Albeit or to unsubscribe. » Send Lynne a message!

At His (biological) Mercy

Women everywhere are at the mercy of men and their ways of being. Whether in personal, governmental, or religious relationship, masculine is the dominant energy. Men are governed by the serial processor which dominates their brain functions, and thus the serial mentality tends to rule this man’s world.

Processors in Charge

When Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist by profession, suffered her massive stroke in 1996, she was cognizant enough to realize what was happening and afterwards was able to remember her thoughts as it had occurred. Under normal conditions, the two halves of our miraculous human brain work together to perform bodily functions and to provide adequate reasoning for keeping the body alive. During Dr. Taylor’s stroke, the left and right hemispheres responded in different ways, yet surely cooperated because she’s alive (and well) to tell of her experience.

She described the left half of her brain as the masculine, or serial processor (which allowed her to pick up the phone and dial for emergency assistance); and the right half as the feminine, parallel processor (which prompted her to think of the changes she was going to have to make in her upcoming schedule).

Our brains developed gradually throughout our history as hominids, and eventually they allowed us to become the victorious bipedal mammal known as homo sapiens. One of the most significant advancements in the size and complexity of the brain came about when we added meat and other proteins into our dietary regimen.

Regress or Recover

Imagine yourself in a time before civilizations splotched the Earth with cities, wires, airplanes, noise. Your male protector has gone to hunt wild game for food, clothing, and the shelter it will provide. You stay in camp with the young and elderly. If he doesn’t return, you and yours will most likely die soon. Although your body stays, your mind is in both places at once—watching the little ones playing nearby and yet able to ‘see’ your man as he stalks his prey, spear at the ready. Your attention can be neither fully here nor there because so much is at stake.

He is on a crucial mission, knowing that many depend on his ability to fell a creature for life-giving food and other survival goods. Each outing brings heretofore unknown risks. Totally focused, he won’t remember you and the others until his mind and body have accomplished the task at hand. Having hunted before, he follows the pattern of previous successes in his attempt to avoid failure and perhaps even death. His senses are fully engaged and his physical functions at peak capacity. He will rest only upon completion and in relative safety.

Even at this early juncture of gender differences, our brains processed information in a suitable manner for keeping both males and females alive. The instincts for survival had long since been imprinted into our emerging DNA and genetic formulas.

The Gender Connection

There are many definitions for ‘serial’ just as there are many definitions for ‘parallel.’ But for the purposes of this rantler, I’ve chosen the ones we can most likely identify with, given the electronic age in which we currently exist:

A serial processor is described as “relating to or being a connection in a computer system in which the bits of a byte are transmitted sequentially over a single wire—compare parallel.” Key words for serial (masculine) are sequential (in logical order) and single (only one).

A parallel processor is described as “relating to or being a connection in a computer system in which the bits of a byte are transmitted over separate channels at the same time—compare serial.” Key words for parallel (feminine) are simultaneous (all at once) and separate (apart from).

Survival is the brain’s goal. Either hemisphere of the brain may be utilized for this purpose, but for maximum efficiency, the left and right sides must communicate and cooperate with each other. Both males and females have a corpus callosum, the great band of commissural fibers uniting the cerebral hemispheres of higher mammals. This bundle of nerves, like other biological differences between male and female, evolved to enhance the likelihood that our species would survive.

His Serial Bliss

• Characteristics and conditions of the serial processor that led to some modes of male behavior:
• One ‘wire’ must transmit bits sequentially (in order, rather than at random). If that one wire is out of order, the processor is useless.
• Perhaps enormous stress is placed on the one wire.
• With only one wire, sequential transmissions may be more lengthy since 2 must follow 1, and 3 must follow 2, etc.
• The serial processor, for all practical purposes, is often considered pre-programmed.
• The serial processor is conducive to and perhaps best suited for repetition. Therefore, spontaneity would be considered a malfunction.
• The capability to comprehend one bit at a time could be considered laborious by some and miraculous by others.
• The one wire serial processor may be resistant to transmission reversals; i.e., two-way transmissions must wait for completion (until the wire is clear) or must interrupt the transmission in process.
• Almost 100% of all serial killers are males.
• Standardization and formulization reduce transmission occurrences and conserve energy overall, e.g., production lines where identical parts are made or repetitive themes such as serial novels.
• One solution may be applied to many problems.
• Single wire processor is exclusive to one bit at a time and one particular order.
• Time awareness of length of transmission is essential as an energy saver.
• Single and sequential transmission is more simplistic than multiple and non-sequential transmission.
• Serial processor is based on dual choice of yes or no and driven by logic.
• Serial processor is compartmentalized to the present.

Her Parallel Hell

Characteristics and conditions of the parallel processor that led to some modes of female behavior:

• Many bits are transmitted over many wires all at once but not in any particular order.
• With many wires, non-sequential transmissions allow the possibility of receiving 4 before 1, or seeing the end before the beginning, etc.
• With many wires, shorter transmission times are possible but may result in longer sorting time once received.
• Parallel processing could result in enormous stress due to overload at receiving end.
• Reversing transmission direction is possible because at least one of many wires could be utilized, making two-way communication more feasible.
• Complex themes could more likely be interwoven over many wires without risking or sacrificing the integrity of a single wire.
• If one wire is out of order, other wires remain available for transmission.
• Many wires and more transmissions could allow for multiple solutions to a single problem.
• Parallel processor is based on multiple choices and driven by random.
• Arriving at logical conclusions or solutions would require experimentation time in order to make the best choice.
• With many wires, the possibility exists that more wires would need more maintenance and more energy.
• The parallel processor is more apt to idle in the unknown or unanswerable until sequences are determined.
• Obviously, the parallel processor is more complex than the serial processor, but complexity is not always desirous.
• Multi wires allow the possibility of performing multi tasks but not necessarily higher quality of results.
• The importance of processing time is often forfeited due to greater flexibility of transmission time.

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  Parallel processor is more apt to operate simultaneously in past, present, and future.

Our Deadly Cocktail

Without the corpus callosum, the left and right hemispheres of the brain would not be connected and could not communicate with each other. This bundle of nerves is notably larger in females, perhaps to allow for more ‘wires’ in the parallel processor’s transmission function.

One advantage to females’ ‘bigger is better’ bundle is that females recover more quickly and more completely from strokes than males. It seems that the paralleling capabilities in the female processor improve transmissions between the hemispheres, allowing damaged parts of the brain to re-learn particular functions or new parts of the brain to fully take on the desired task.

Yes, we know a great deal about the human brain, but don’t we all sometimes question the intelligence of our species? (At least, certain members?)

According to many experts in various fields and professions, humanity is hovering on the brink of extinction. Dr. Brian Swimme, noted mathematician and cosmologist at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, was asked in an interview, “From a cosmological perspective, how would you describe this moment in time?” His reply was, “I think the most important way to understand our moment is the end of a biological era….Nothing this destructive has happened in sixty-five million years. Why is that not our central concern?....Naturally we are overwhelmed by the challenge of not just understanding extinction, but realizing we are carrying it out.”

Personally, I think we must all take a long, hard look at the masculine serial processor that keeps sending the same deadly sequential message it has been transmitting since before the story of Cain and Abel: exclude and kill. Whether plants, animals, or other humans are his target, man is the ultimate serial killer of all time.

Albeit, if man does not come to his senses, we shall all perish. Once again, women hover at the edge of camp and the cosmos. If he doesn’t come home to safety, we’re all doomed forever. There will be no immortality without consciousness to recognize it.

Whatever you give a woman, she's going to multiply. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. Love and appreciate all the women in your life! Heed her pleas for peace before serial destruction overtakes the process of creation.