There's an interesting thought from The Evolving Self -- and that is: about 4 million years ago humans were born, in more or less the conditions that we define as human today. About 10 thousand years ago we discovered that we could plant seeds in order to enhance our survival and safety and make sure that all our needs were provided for. Then about 100 years ago we discovered that we could control the state or the health or the outcome of our own selves. I don't think that anyone has thought about that or maybe they feel it but just look at the numbers: 4 million years ago, 10,000 years ago and then 100 years ago and then today we are grappling with the idea of self-actualization.

The idea about what is the meaning of life -- that question comes up again and again. What is the meaning of life? From the book, the meaning of life is meaning. Which means whatever meaning we apply to our own lives, that is it. There is no other external source that'll prescribe meaning for us. It's just whatever we want this life to be that is the meaning of life. Individually and collectively, that is it.

There is so much freedom in that and it's very liberating but at the same time it's very daunting. With that freedom, especially in this day and age, we have a very very wide range of choices. Our choices are only limited by what we can dream. If we can dream it, we can do it.

It's been said before, but really all you need to do is think about it or dream the big dream. If you can think it, it can probably happen. All it needs is a lot of work, patience. It may not happen in the same lifetime as yours, it may happen later on, but as long as you dream it, it can happen.

Back in the 60s, everybody was dreaming about personal communicators, like in Star Trek. They'll flip open the communicator and "beam me up, Scotty". We have those now and they are called cell phones. We can call anybody in the world, at any time as long as we're on the provided networks. And if you don't like the cell phone networks, you can get a satellite phone, and you can call anyone, anywhere, any time as long as they have the proper technology to do that. It's interesting to note that we have this ability. Again - if you can dream it, it can happen.

Here's also another thought -- Maslow describes the hierarchy of needs.
At the very bottom we have the physiological which are food, sex, and excretion. Then we have saftey, to ensure that we are safe and protected. Above that we have love and belonging: our social structure. Then we have our esteem: what we think of ourselves. At the top, we have self-actualization. Self-actualization is being able to fully utilize what you're capable of.

You see athletes who are disabled in some way, either one leg or one arm, their physial capacity is diminshed, but they are still able to compete and sometimes they can do a hell of a lot more than what normal or healthy humans are able to do. In general, humans aren't efficiently utilized. So if we were to really follow our hearts, and continue on with what we want to do and what we can do -- to just strive for it head on completely and forgetting about all the trivial things like self-doubt and things like that, just remove negative thoughts and keep moving forward: that is self-actualization.

Now, self-actualization can only happen if the bottom four needs are satisfied. The idea is going back to the hierarchy of needs on the evolutionary scale. Let's say that 4 million years ago, we are born, 10000 years ago we developed the technology to plant seeds. So where on the hiearchy of needs does this evolutionary marker apply for humans as a whole? The physiological happened 4 million years ago since we've had basic bodily functions in order.

The next level of safety, must have happened when we secured a renewable source of food and settling to fortified positions against attackers. When more humans settled, a community was born and there the love and belonging was satified. And then for esteem when people in these settlements got to be more specialized and valued by the community. Thereafter we noticed that we were in control of our collective fate, we've been in this self-actualization level.

There was a thought that when enough people would self-actualize, we would create something more than ourselves. Maybe we are creating another race above. Maybe after the human experiment is done, there is another being waiting to be born -- those who are able to self actualize from the very begining and to be more than what humans are in general.

The main thought is whether there is something interesting if we map the heirarchy of needs into our evolutionary past. Is there a direct mapping? If we get to the top of the hierarchiy of needs, is there something beyond ? All of our choices and habits will define what humans are 1000 years from now. This is also partly contructivism. We are not just recipients of sensory information from the universe; we also change the universe itself. The choices we make today -- we cannot make blindly. We have to be smart about the information we take in and we have to be smart about what we give back to the world. Sure, things are hard, but we can take those problems, turn it into a challenge, find a solution, and change the world around us.