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THE LIVING

Stable phenomenon over billions of years on a planet, which constructs and animates interdependent living beings in matter, to which human being belongs.

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Being by nature

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The Living is made of matter and uses its inert (non-living) properties in a perfectly controlled manner to build and animate living beings : from the probabilistic behavior of matter at the quantum scale with electromagnetic interactions, up to gravitation and physical material interactions at our macroscopic scale.

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Living beings are built in a given physical context (liquid, solid, gas medium; pressure; temperature; gravitation; ...) and chemical (chemical composition of the ambient medium, respiration, autotrophic food, ...) and cannot survive in contexts that are too much different.

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If we make a very macroscopic assessment of the constitutive nature of living beings:

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- its elementary definition seems to be based on an common structure: the cell (without nucleus prokaryote, with nucleus eukaryote), with the almost universal genetic program at the center (correspondence between DNA, RNA, amino acids, proteins almost identical for the whole living on Earth) which seems to play the role of management of the construction information of the living beings (archiving, evolutions, corrections).

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- its construction and its evolution seems to operate around three mechanisms:

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  • digestion:

    • autotroph: able to build its own organic matter from “inert” matter and energy (light): gas, water, minerals;

    • heterotrophic: feeds on organic matter produced by other living beings; digestion of other living beings (prey-predator), digestion of organic matter produced by other living beings (principle of coevolution: commensalism, mutualism, antagonism, parasitism and symbiosis).

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  • cell division: identical replication of a cell (mitosis), exists up to the macroscopic scales with the existence of parthenogenesis for some species,

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  • cell fusion: a cell dividing into two "half cells" (cell meiosis giving two gametes), which merge with a gamete of another cell, to give a new cell (fertilization); it is sexual reproduction present at all scales (desire, seduction, construction of family ties).

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- finally, its construction capabilities could be summarized as follows:

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  • ability to construct in matter a physical barrier between an interior and an exterior (cell membran at the microscopic scale, skin at the macroscopic scale - topological separation),

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  • ability to construct a biological identity: recognition of self and non-self (immune system); recognition of its similar/breeding group of individuals (species); recognition of prey/predators (place in the food chain).

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  • ability to build advanced functions for:

    • perception of the environment (the senses: sight, hearing, etc.)

    • operational information processing (nervous system, brain, etc.)

    • mobility (limbs, fins, wings, etc.)

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This cellular definition of the living leads to separations between groups of living beings who are able to reproduce among themselves (species), groups of individuals having a place in the food chain (heterotrophic diet) and being the actor of the balance of a biosphere (set of coexisting living beings, the existence of one depends on that of the others). The human species seems to be today at the end of the food chain, as it has (practically) no predator during its lifetime, and which therefore depends on the good balance of all the chains of the living that feed it.

1-Living / 2-Nature / 1

Living profusion in a profusion of interactions

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In order not to freeze too much our representations of the functioning of the Living around this elementary cells mechanics, which could lead to the crystallization of exclusive and uncompromising heterosexual cultures, we must realize that the Living creates and animates living beings in an infinite profusion of interactions at all scales.

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Consequently, the existence of a univocal and exclusive definition of what is "to be a living being" may not be possible.

 

Life builds and animates living beings in such a moving and interacting matter that it seems completely consistent that there is an infinite diversity of expression of all the living beings intensities (statistically, a "normal distribution" of the population around means for each trait of character should be very likely).

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Example of to REPRODUCE

Sexuality

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For instance, it seems consistent that the expression of the sexual vital function spans the whole range of possibilities (heterosexual, bisexual, asexual, homosexual,... transsexual):

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with different level of intensities that may be variable during our lifetime, from almost no sexual activity to an everyday one needed:

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​​CAUTION: these two curves above have been drawn by hand from approximative data. They may give a good overview for these questions and could be precised by the World Health Organization for instance.

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The idea behind such curves is to describe reality, to describe the existing human species biodiversity. It is not about reading them or using them backwards with an intention to normalize reality. This kind of description should allow us to avoid the elaboration of dogmatic rules which would be contrary to our nature (for example, we are not free to choose our sexual character nor its intensity: the fact that we are homosexual, heterosexual, etc... is a reality of nature). These descriptions could for instance evolve in time and space according to the contexts of each environment where life will build its path.

By trying to "step outside the framework of morals" in order to describe in the most possible objective way the sexual reality of the human species, perhaps by correlating the analysis with the sexual behavior of the entire family of mammals, or even of the all living beings, an analysis of the needs and behaviors of men/women, homo/hetero/bi/...sexual, could in particular be pushed to allow a better understanding of our living natures.

 

For example for sexual desire (libido):
 

  • for women, the curve above could have monthly variations in intensity due to the menstrual cycle; it could also be modified during the pregnancy and breastfeeding phases.

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  • ​for men, the curve above could have the continuous drawn behavior.

 

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For the choice of partners:

 

  • The woman producing a single gamete per month and carrying within herself the growth of the new living being to come for 9 months, would have a more "selective" behavior by nature to find the "best match", the "most suitable" father for the needs of the context, in “nature” and “culture”.

 

  • If the selection of the "best match" would also be present for men (finding a "most suitable" mother for the needs in "nature" and "culture" of the context), men continuously producing millions of gametes would have a behavior by nature more "diffusive" (such as many species going so far as to disseminate their gametes, their seeds, in the wind, the currents,... perpetuating life in all corners of the planet).

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By nature, for average heterosexuality, there would be an asymmetry of expectations and behaviors : a man would by default feel flattered deep inside to receive an advance from a woman and would have difficulty saying no; a woman would by default say no to an advance and would need to establish real confidence to consider responding positively to this advance.

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Like eating and breathing, the sexual function seems central for all living beings, expression of our capacity to reproduce life, to guarantee the perenniality of the phenomenon to which we belong. This function being at the heart of the construction of all living beings, it therefore seems very consistent that this function is both one of the most powerful interaction (attraction, desire, love) and at the same time one of the most intimate and sensitive interactions (in other words, the "choice" of the people with whom a sexual relationship can take place would be an exclusively private decision, and would have no justification to give if the consent of the people involved in the realization of this relationship was real).

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It therefore seems very relevant to say that “the heart has its reasons that reason does not know” (Blaise Pascal, Les Pensées, 1670). Love, feelings would be an interaction of the living in the ontological sense (what the living is in itself), and not a set of hypotheses that can be reasoned/discussed... or even framed by a set of rules.

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It seems also very consistent that the Living got constructed making the outcome of this interaction the most intense feeling of satisfaction that we know (pleasure, orgasm), and at the opposite, the most terrible suffering when this interaction fails, or when it is abused.

1-Living / 2-Nature / 2

Living beings vital functions

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In accordance with the above original cellular mechanisms, living beings have vital functions, intrinsic capacities, enabling them to remain alive, to reproduce and to protect their biosphere (the living environment in which they evolve).

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Without going into the details of the functioning of living beings (biology, medicine), to summarize this first level cellular reality of the living beings nature in simpler and more concrete terms for our daily lives as human beings, these vital functions could be grouped into three categories :

  • Protect:

    • At the level of the organism: immune system,

    • At the level of the individual and the group, the self-defense capacities for one's own survival (prey : the living is food for the living) pass in particular by:

      • the right to construct a strictly private place where to live (home, territory)

      • access to knowledge of the world so that these capacities are in adequacy with the world in which the living being exists,

  • Feed: have access to food adapted to one's body (heterotrophic for the human species) and diversified in the context of the individual's life, allowing the continuity of the construction of the living.

  • Reproduce:

    • to be able to live one's gendered sexual character the most completely, while respecting the desires and limits of the partners,

    • to be able to welcome a newborn in a protective home gradually opening up to the whole known reality of the world (loops back to Protect).

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If, pushed to the extreme, one of these three components (protect, feed, reproduce) is lacking or is in danger due to an unfavorable context, then "the intensity of the living", this "source of life" at the origin of the construction and animation of the living which has sole authority, can amplify and manifest itself in the form of a "rage to live", "nature taking back its rights", the famous "grapes of wrath" (John Steinbeck, 1939) to cite just one example , who might want to destroy the aggressor, the identified enemy.

 

Put simply, at both extremes, we are able to kill to defend what is essential to us, just as we can die to see what is essential to us disappear definitively.

 

This natural reaction of living beings pushed the human species many times in its history to go to war to destroy its enemy, which sometimes appeared to be the established order (divine absolute power for instance).

 

For the human species especially, the living seems to have linked this self-defense capacity to a vital pulse, a heart resonance, a constant tension between :

  • never see one's POWER decrease (preserve what is acquired),

  • an almighty will for JUSTICE,

  • the HOPE of being on the right path.

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​Tension for which we may remain vigilant, challenging it regularly by crossing our borders and accepting feedbacks from outside, so that it does not lock itself on a large scale into blind stubbornness (fanaticism, radicalization).

1-Living / 2-Nature / 3

“Mankind woud not be an animal?” Well yes, it is precisely by nature a living being included in the biodiversity of the living. It would not be the capacities of the human species to sort and analyze information, to deduce a description of the world with its certainties (knowledge) and mysteries, to express its awareness of existence, which would make it in nature different from other living beings.

 

As explained in the page "The Living origin", whether or not we have knowledge of the principle at the origin of the living, the fact remains that we belong to an homogeneous, stable and phenomenally robust phenomenon over billions of years on a planet.

 

For people deciding to live according to lifestyles that would undermine one of these primary components of the intensity of life (Protect/Feed/Reproduce), for example the vows of chastity in certain religions, it is then essential to make this decision in all knowledge of the facts and knowing well, before making this choice, the nature of his own sexual character and its intensity (hetero, homo, asexual, bisexual… knowing that an asexual character will obviously facilitate such a choice).

If the frame of a religion can make it possible to channel the energy of these vital capacities to guide them in the inner search for the source of life, this decision could also lead to real suffering if it is done in the denial of a reality of nature, a suffering that could make the lives of these people a real hell, whereas this quest consisted precisely in bringing them to a state of inner peace.

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This homogeneity of nature therefore seems to be the center of all living beings, giving to all living beings an energy of life (in the physical sense of the term: capacity to be animated, to set matter in motion) and a set of natural capacities that demand respect at all times...

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