Everybody Is Connected
PAGE IN PROGRESS
What you see here is a page of my hypertext book Me, Looking for Meaning. Initially empty, it will slowly be filled with thoughts, notes, and quotes. One day, I will use them to write a coherent entry, similar to these completed pages. See this post to better understand my creative process. Thank you for your interest and patience!
What you see here is a page of my hypertext book Me, Looking for Meaning. Initially empty, it will slowly be filled with thoughts, notes, and quotes. One day, I will use them to write a coherent entry, similar to these completed pages. See this post to better understand my creative process. Thank you for your interest and patience!
Did you know that, in a very real sense, we are all made of stardust? The elements that make up our bodies—like carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen—were formed in the cores of ancient stars through nuclear fusion. When those stars exploded as supernovae, they scattered these elements across the universe. Over billions of years, those materials coalesced into new star systems, planets, and eventually life.
Every particle of matter and every bit of energy we see today has been around in some form since the beginning of the universe, possibly even before the Big Bang, if such a state existed. This continuity means that the atoms in our bodies have an ancient history, having once been part of stars, interstellar clouds, and countless other forms throughout cosmic history. This idea aligns with the law of conservation of mass and energy, which states that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed or transferred.
See ideas of Elihu Palmer (see ORE article about him)
"Palmer believed [that] meditation and its epiphanies had the power to bend the behavior and therefore the fate of humankind"
Meditation/mindfulness allows us to see interconnectedness of the universe, which makes us more ethical beings
Gaia hypothesis
scholars of “new materialism”
I believe that everybody is connected. "Yeah," you might say. "Kind of... But really, in what sense?" I am going to set aside a religious explanation - that we are all created by the same god or gods. My belief is also not about any specific and easily describable connection, for what kind of tie might I have with somebody who lives in a part of the world that I will never visit, who has never heard about me and never will?
First of all, we should consider our connection on the most global, even universal, scale. Much has been said about it. For example, Neil deGrasse Tyson puts it beautifully in this video quote (you can watch or read the transcript underneath):
Every particle of matter and every bit of energy we see today has been around in some form since the beginning of the universe, possibly even before the Big Bang, if such a state existed. This continuity means that the atoms in our bodies have an ancient history, having once been part of stars, interstellar clouds, and countless other forms throughout cosmic history. This idea aligns with the law of conservation of mass and energy, which states that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed or transferred.
See ideas of Elihu Palmer (see ORE article about him)
"Palmer believed [that] meditation and its epiphanies had the power to bend the behavior and therefore the fate of humankind"
Meditation/mindfulness allows us to see interconnectedness of the universe, which makes us more ethical beings
Gaia hypothesis
scholars of “new materialism”
I believe that everybody is connected. "Yeah," you might say. "Kind of... But really, in what sense?" I am going to set aside a religious explanation - that we are all created by the same god or gods. My belief is also not about any specific and easily describable connection, for what kind of tie might I have with somebody who lives in a part of the world that I will never visit, who has never heard about me and never will?
First of all, we should consider our connection on the most global, even universal, scale. Much has been said about it. For example, Neil deGrasse Tyson puts it beautifully in this video quote (you can watch or read the transcript underneath):
"The most astounding fact is the knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on Earth, the atoms that make up the human body, are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures. These stars, the high mass ones among them, went unstable in their later years. They collapsed and then exploded, scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy, guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself.
These ingredients become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems, stars with orbiting planets. And those planets now have the ingredients for life itself. So that when I look up at the night sky and I know that, yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up - many people feel small because they're small and the universe is big - but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars.
There's a level of connectivity. That's really what you want in life, you want to feel connected, you want to feel relevant you want to feel like you are a participant in the goings on of activities and events around you. That's precisely what we are, just by being alive."
So, there is this idea of universal connectivity that sounds beautiful (and appears to be scientifically sound), but is also very hard to wrap our mind about. And if we do manage to grasp it somehow, to most people this idea might seem more poetic than practical. For what am I supposed to do with the fact that atoms of my body were once part of a star?
On a more down-to-earth (both metaphorically and literally) level, we can talk about our whole planet being a giant system that each one of us is a part of. This environmentalist idea is also not knew. In fact, it can be often found in popular culture, for example in this song from Disney's Pocahontas (the clip below starts from the lines that directly introduce the idea of this connection).
These ingredients become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems, stars with orbiting planets. And those planets now have the ingredients for life itself. So that when I look up at the night sky and I know that, yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up - many people feel small because they're small and the universe is big - but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars.
There's a level of connectivity. That's really what you want in life, you want to feel connected, you want to feel relevant you want to feel like you are a participant in the goings on of activities and events around you. That's precisely what we are, just by being alive."
So, there is this idea of universal connectivity that sounds beautiful (and appears to be scientifically sound), but is also very hard to wrap our mind about. And if we do manage to grasp it somehow, to most people this idea might seem more poetic than practical. For what am I supposed to do with the fact that atoms of my body were once part of a star?
On a more down-to-earth (both metaphorically and literally) level, we can talk about our whole planet being a giant system that each one of us is a part of. This environmentalist idea is also not knew. In fact, it can be often found in popular culture, for example in this song from Disney's Pocahontas (the clip below starts from the lines that directly introduce the idea of this connection).
This is just one of many many popular narratives arguing that we are a part of life on the planet, we depend on the world around us and and we are also responsible for it. Some of these narratives warn us that not taking this environmental connectivity seriously is going to hurt us, possibly very soon. It is easy to notice that this idea, unlike the one about universal connectivity, is much more specific and practical.
Let us take a step back. This essay is about my belief that everybody is connected. My readers might note that the perspectives I have introduced so far are about how everything is connected. I believe in both universal connectivity and environmental connectivity. Although my work is about people and their relationships, I find it important to consider how the universal connectivity and the environmental connectivity are factored in our connectivity to each other as human beings.
I drew a Venn diagram to illustrate this relationship below. As human beings, we are all part of the environmental system of our planet, which is bigger than us, and part of the universe, which is mind-bogglingly bigger than our planet. You can think of how everybody who has ever lived and will even live on Earth is connected on the universal level ("we are all made of stardust") and on the environmental level ("we depend on each other and impact each other as part of our planet").
Let us take a step back. This essay is about my belief that everybody is connected. My readers might note that the perspectives I have introduced so far are about how everything is connected. I believe in both universal connectivity and environmental connectivity. Although my work is about people and their relationships, I find it important to consider how the universal connectivity and the environmental connectivity are factored in our connectivity to each other as human beings.
I drew a Venn diagram to illustrate this relationship below. As human beings, we are all part of the environmental system of our planet, which is bigger than us, and part of the universe, which is mind-bogglingly bigger than our planet. You can think of how everybody who has ever lived and will even live on Earth is connected on the universal level ("we are all made of stardust") and on the environmental level ("we depend on each other and impact each other as part of our planet").
Being human, we have one more level of connectivity added onto the universal and the environmental ones. People are different (not better!) from other animals in how they interact with the world around them, with each other, and with themselves. This difference is biological and cultural, although the difference between these two categories is often blurred. And because we a part of the ecosystem and the universe, despite our uniqueness, our human connectivity is impossible to fully comprehend without taking into consideration all the three levels of connectivity represented above.
We can, of course, discuss, how human beings are connected with each other on the purely human level, so to say (so, not taking our environment into account). We can explore how people are related through local and global networks. One curios network theory arguing that everybody is connected is called six degrees of separation. The idea is that you are linked to any other person on the planet through five or fewer intermediaries. Here is how I explained it in my book Media Is Us: "Pick any famous person and think who could link you to him or her. For example, if you are an American working for a big firm, your boss (link #1) might have interacted with a local politician (link #2). The local politician has probably met someone from Congress (link #3). This someone from Congress might have talked to the U.S. President (link #4). And the president personally knows many famous people (link #5)! If all the links in this chain were willing to collaborate, they could pass along an envelope with a note to be delivered from you to your celebrity of choice" (pp. 65-66).
Note that, according to this theory, I could be linked to any person on the globe, but I am not linked to them in any practical sense; they don't know me and I don't know them. Also, it is doubtful that absolutely everybody can be included in this network; for example, a member of a tribe living in the jungle of Amazonia would be much harder to reach than somebody with a social media account.
Another important aspect of this theory is that is only argues that everybody is connected in the present. After all, it is a social network theory, and we quite simply cannot network with somebody who is dead. So, really, the theory of six degrees of separation only argues that everybody who is alive at the same time on the planet could be connected. And, to me, this is far from everybody. But is it really possible to argue that everybody is connected, that is everybody over space and over time?
We should also consider genetic connection of human beings. We do not descent from just two people, as in Adam and Eve. But there is a concept of Mitochondrial Eve meant to describe "most-recent common ancestor of all humans alive on Earth today with respect to matrilineal descent." You can read this essay and this one, or watch the video below to better understand this concept.
We can, of course, discuss, how human beings are connected with each other on the purely human level, so to say (so, not taking our environment into account). We can explore how people are related through local and global networks. One curios network theory arguing that everybody is connected is called six degrees of separation. The idea is that you are linked to any other person on the planet through five or fewer intermediaries. Here is how I explained it in my book Media Is Us: "Pick any famous person and think who could link you to him or her. For example, if you are an American working for a big firm, your boss (link #1) might have interacted with a local politician (link #2). The local politician has probably met someone from Congress (link #3). This someone from Congress might have talked to the U.S. President (link #4). And the president personally knows many famous people (link #5)! If all the links in this chain were willing to collaborate, they could pass along an envelope with a note to be delivered from you to your celebrity of choice" (pp. 65-66).
Note that, according to this theory, I could be linked to any person on the globe, but I am not linked to them in any practical sense; they don't know me and I don't know them. Also, it is doubtful that absolutely everybody can be included in this network; for example, a member of a tribe living in the jungle of Amazonia would be much harder to reach than somebody with a social media account.
Another important aspect of this theory is that is only argues that everybody is connected in the present. After all, it is a social network theory, and we quite simply cannot network with somebody who is dead. So, really, the theory of six degrees of separation only argues that everybody who is alive at the same time on the planet could be connected. And, to me, this is far from everybody. But is it really possible to argue that everybody is connected, that is everybody over space and over time?
We should also consider genetic connection of human beings. We do not descent from just two people, as in Adam and Eve. But there is a concept of Mitochondrial Eve meant to describe "most-recent common ancestor of all humans alive on Earth today with respect to matrilineal descent." You can read this essay and this one, or watch the video below to better understand this concept.
Not to be confused, the idea of genetic connectivity does not suggest there is a genetic connection between all people who have always lived on Earth. Many human beings of the distant past disappeared without leaving any genetic trace. Genetic connectivity understood through the concept of Mitochondrial Eve has some interesting practical applications for studying the human species. In addition, authors of the video above claim (or joke) that "next time you get in a fight with a stranger on the internet, just remember that you share the same great great great great great (fast forward) great grandfather or grandmother." To that I would say that, as we all know, being somebody's relative does not stop us from getting into a fight with them.
Jokes aside, it looks like if we only look at the human connectivity (understood through social networks or genes) separately from other types of connectivity, it is hard to claim that all people are, and have been, connected through space and time. I still believe that this is exactly the case, and to explain it I will need to add environmental connectivity back to the mix.
I often find myself thinking about people whose names I will never know, whose names did not enter the history books, but that have lived, loved, suffered and were happy and left their imprint on the world in ways nobody will ever know. These are the majority of people who have lived on the Planet Earth. Even their lives were not what’s called “remarkable”, they still mattered in no small way. (these are some thoughts that come to mind when see the Picture of pre-historic hand)
Six degrees of separation
Global village
its not the same as « everybody knows each other » - the maximum size of natural social network is 150 individuals
Mushroom picking - connecting to hunter-gathers of the past (mushroom picking with my grandfather)
Quote from Cezanne: "In my opinion, one does not substitute oneself for the past, one just adds a new link" (1904).
connected through trauma
» But traumatic experiences do leave traces, whether on a large scale (on our histories and cultures) or close to home, on our families, with dark secrets being imperceptibly passed down through generations. They also leave traces on our minds and emotions, on our capacity for joy and intimacy, and even on our biology and immune systems. Trauma affects not only those who are directly exposed to it, but also those around them. »
(from The Body Keeps the Score, prologue), also add to Vicious Circle of Violence
transgenerational trauma
Everybody and everything is connected: we are made of the stardust. [write out the full text?]
Each individual exists on an extreme micro level of society, unable to fully comprehend the macro level , but these two levels are intimately interconnected-microlevel is shaped by macro level and vs versa
We think we know names of people who "made history", who influenced other, but that's not true. Influence is like ripples that are visible only in a localized area, then then seem to disappear, but they have left their mark, even if you do not know about them.
You know Hobbit, but you may not know Babbit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_(novel)
You know Rodin but you may not know Camille Claudel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Claudel
Examples of ideas that were neutral or could be helpful but they influenced somebody who ended up hurting others: Nietzsche > Hitler
harari, Sapiens, chapter 9, local cultures have not always be interconnected the way they are now; development of the global culture
can we say that people were as good interconnected before the global culture came to be?
Can we say that people who lived before globalization started happening (see Harari about how it started) were also connected to everybody? They were not connected with their contemporaries if a person A lived in the Americas and person B lived in Europe. But there were other connections from the past. For example, to see how people were spreading throughout planet, where are they coming from? They are coming from the same area, where first Homo Sapiens appeared. They had common ancestors (check the idea that all people share one common ancestor, one individual). They way the common ancestors lived affected people who then spread on the planet. These people were separated for a while, but the way they were living their lives affected their descendents, who then did reconnect at some point. So while the six degrees of separation is more relevant for the modern time, people have always been connected in some ways and influencing each other.
Language is an example of how we are connected through time and space. Understanding etymology of words, how words we use now connected to words that our ancestors in many different countries used hundreds of years ago (Latin languages, Indo-European languages). Even before, what sounds they made that turned into words they started using for describing the world. Language is a tool that reflects how we see the world and to some extent shapes it. It reflects how our brain works (words = categories; symbolic meanings). It is a tool that is as useful as it is imperfect. And to think that this took has been first created by our ancestors from distant past, evolved through the use throughout millenia and centuries, and it still impacts us today.
Another example: wheel. We will never know who created it, but it has been impacting people thoughout centuries.
From Starts With Us newsletter (April 12, 2023):
Before you say, “That’s the same as not being able to control anything!” — remember that how we act affects everything around us. While we can control only our own actions and behaviors, each action and behavior can have implications and effects far beyond the limits of our lives. Your children may imitate it, your family may be impacted by it, and your friends may learn from it — then it can ripple out to their children, their family, their friends, and so on. Every “big” event in our world is just the compounding of a million tiny events; a million small actions.
Harari, chapter 11:
» Zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts zerfällt die Welt noch immer in rund zweihundert Staaten. Wobei keiner dieser Staaten wirklich unabhängig ist. Alle sind aufeinander angewiesen. Ihre Volkswirtschaften bilden ein einziges weltumspannendes Netz aus Handel und Finanzwesen, das wiederum von starken Geld-, Arbeits- und Kapitalströmen geprägt wird. » etc…
we have samples of ceramic from ancient times. We know them but we cannot see other samples? Does not mean that they (or people who created them) do not matter? No, because they influenced people living in their time, creating pottery at that time.
(Terra history episode about while everything is connected to everything)
we have samples of ceramic from ancient times. We know them but we cannot see other samples? Does not mean that they (or people who created them) do not matter? No, because they influenced people living in their time, creating pottery at that time.
Everybody is connected: from Cope: “Human beings alone are helpless to resolve conflicts without it. With it, however, Gandhi came to believe that harmony is inevitable. Because harmony, Oneness with all beings, is our true nature.”
Maybe that’s why I hurt when I think about someone else hurting?
Empathy is a path to oneness.
SOURCES:
Hershberger, S. (2020). Humans are more closely related than we commonly think.
Kunchithapadam, K. (1995). What, if anything, is a Mitochondrial Eve?
Morse, G. (2003). The science behind six degrees. Harvard Business Review.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=kl0J6Le5MpM&ab_channel=Revtoned [transcript]
The most amazing fact: https://vimeo.com/38101676
see theory of earth as Gaya (see book in French on Gaya mentioned in French podcast)
About this project: Start page
Jokes aside, it looks like if we only look at the human connectivity (understood through social networks or genes) separately from other types of connectivity, it is hard to claim that all people are, and have been, connected through space and time. I still believe that this is exactly the case, and to explain it I will need to add environmental connectivity back to the mix.
I often find myself thinking about people whose names I will never know, whose names did not enter the history books, but that have lived, loved, suffered and were happy and left their imprint on the world in ways nobody will ever know. These are the majority of people who have lived on the Planet Earth. Even their lives were not what’s called “remarkable”, they still mattered in no small way. (these are some thoughts that come to mind when see the Picture of pre-historic hand)
Six degrees of separation
Global village
its not the same as « everybody knows each other » - the maximum size of natural social network is 150 individuals
Mushroom picking - connecting to hunter-gathers of the past (mushroom picking with my grandfather)
Quote from Cezanne: "In my opinion, one does not substitute oneself for the past, one just adds a new link" (1904).
connected through trauma
» But traumatic experiences do leave traces, whether on a large scale (on our histories and cultures) or close to home, on our families, with dark secrets being imperceptibly passed down through generations. They also leave traces on our minds and emotions, on our capacity for joy and intimacy, and even on our biology and immune systems. Trauma affects not only those who are directly exposed to it, but also those around them. »
(from The Body Keeps the Score, prologue), also add to Vicious Circle of Violence
transgenerational trauma
Everybody and everything is connected: we are made of the stardust. [write out the full text?]
Each individual exists on an extreme micro level of society, unable to fully comprehend the macro level , but these two levels are intimately interconnected-microlevel is shaped by macro level and vs versa
We think we know names of people who "made history", who influenced other, but that's not true. Influence is like ripples that are visible only in a localized area, then then seem to disappear, but they have left their mark, even if you do not know about them.
You know Hobbit, but you may not know Babbit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_(novel)
You know Rodin but you may not know Camille Claudel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Claudel
Examples of ideas that were neutral or could be helpful but they influenced somebody who ended up hurting others: Nietzsche > Hitler
harari, Sapiens, chapter 9, local cultures have not always be interconnected the way they are now; development of the global culture
can we say that people were as good interconnected before the global culture came to be?
Can we say that people who lived before globalization started happening (see Harari about how it started) were also connected to everybody? They were not connected with their contemporaries if a person A lived in the Americas and person B lived in Europe. But there were other connections from the past. For example, to see how people were spreading throughout planet, where are they coming from? They are coming from the same area, where first Homo Sapiens appeared. They had common ancestors (check the idea that all people share one common ancestor, one individual). They way the common ancestors lived affected people who then spread on the planet. These people were separated for a while, but the way they were living their lives affected their descendents, who then did reconnect at some point. So while the six degrees of separation is more relevant for the modern time, people have always been connected in some ways and influencing each other.
Language is an example of how we are connected through time and space. Understanding etymology of words, how words we use now connected to words that our ancestors in many different countries used hundreds of years ago (Latin languages, Indo-European languages). Even before, what sounds they made that turned into words they started using for describing the world. Language is a tool that reflects how we see the world and to some extent shapes it. It reflects how our brain works (words = categories; symbolic meanings). It is a tool that is as useful as it is imperfect. And to think that this took has been first created by our ancestors from distant past, evolved through the use throughout millenia and centuries, and it still impacts us today.
Another example: wheel. We will never know who created it, but it has been impacting people thoughout centuries.
From Starts With Us newsletter (April 12, 2023):
Before you say, “That’s the same as not being able to control anything!” — remember that how we act affects everything around us. While we can control only our own actions and behaviors, each action and behavior can have implications and effects far beyond the limits of our lives. Your children may imitate it, your family may be impacted by it, and your friends may learn from it — then it can ripple out to their children, their family, their friends, and so on. Every “big” event in our world is just the compounding of a million tiny events; a million small actions.
Harari, chapter 11:
» Zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts zerfällt die Welt noch immer in rund zweihundert Staaten. Wobei keiner dieser Staaten wirklich unabhängig ist. Alle sind aufeinander angewiesen. Ihre Volkswirtschaften bilden ein einziges weltumspannendes Netz aus Handel und Finanzwesen, das wiederum von starken Geld-, Arbeits- und Kapitalströmen geprägt wird. » etc…
we have samples of ceramic from ancient times. We know them but we cannot see other samples? Does not mean that they (or people who created them) do not matter? No, because they influenced people living in their time, creating pottery at that time.
(Terra history episode about while everything is connected to everything)
we have samples of ceramic from ancient times. We know them but we cannot see other samples? Does not mean that they (or people who created them) do not matter? No, because they influenced people living in their time, creating pottery at that time.
Everybody is connected: from Cope: “Human beings alone are helpless to resolve conflicts without it. With it, however, Gandhi came to believe that harmony is inevitable. Because harmony, Oneness with all beings, is our true nature.”
Maybe that’s why I hurt when I think about someone else hurting?
Empathy is a path to oneness.
SOURCES:
Hershberger, S. (2020). Humans are more closely related than we commonly think.
Kunchithapadam, K. (1995). What, if anything, is a Mitochondrial Eve?
Morse, G. (2003). The science behind six degrees. Harvard Business Review.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=kl0J6Le5MpM&ab_channel=Revtoned [transcript]
The most amazing fact: https://vimeo.com/38101676
see theory of earth as Gaya (see book in French on Gaya mentioned in French podcast)
About this project: Start page
