This
evening, walking back home after an intellectually charged session in Machine
control, we witnessed a kid of maybe 12-14 years walking with her mother. Our attention
was drawn to this mother-child duo because the facial features of the kid
looked very familiar to us. For a moment, it was surreal because we did not
expect to see that face so far away from home. It took a few seconds for us to
realise that it was indeed someone else and in fact the similarity in features
was most probably due to a case of Down's syndrome. It is a genetic disorder
where an extra copy of the 21st chromosome is present. Instead of
two of it, three are present. This anomaly expresses itself by resulting in
delay in growth, a relatively low IQ, language disability, etc.
The
kid we knew from home was very active. Although we read from literature that
Down syndrome causes low IQ, we can say from experience that, that kid was not
lacking in it. He was very well-behaved and had a decent memory.
We
find it very remarkable that, what is essentially a copying error can lead to
such a dramatic affliction in humans. In fact this error is quite common,
occurring once in every 1000 babies born in a year! To date, we do not know
what leads to the presence of three pairs of the 21st chromosome.
The result of the extra chromosome is that, since the chromosomes hold the
genes, the bodily functions regulated by the 21st get over-expressed.
Meaning - the increased production of certain chemicals. So, at the most
fundamental and critical level, our existence is not controlled by us. Our
consciousness is housed several layers above. To borrow a computer systems
analogy, the hardware on which the software of consciousness runs is not
autonomous. The software cannot correct for any hardware changes no matter how
advanced it may be. We don't like it, but we cannot deny saying that we are 'being
kept alive' by a machinery about which we understand very little and have a
superficial control. That is our position.
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