Chapter 9
Artificial Organs
Few things seem more natural to human beings than the use of tools. From our earliest childhood onward we are continually picking up and using them. However natural it may appear, let us try to view this activity with different eyes. Let us start by visualizing how tiny unicellular organisms developed into large multicellular creatures. Most probably this process began when unicellular organisms divided but did not diverge. Instead, a certain number of them remained together and formed a colony. As time went by, individual cells in these cellular colonies began to specialize in certain functions. Some formed a protective skin, others became muscular tissue which enabled the colony to propel itself along, and still others went to make up a supporting skeleton, nerves, and so on. The structural formula was contained in the germ cells whose equally specialized function it was to detach themselves from the colony when it had grown sufficiently and form new colonies. The evolution-promoting institution of bisexuality – the occasional fusion of germ cells – already existed in unicellular organisms and was preserved. Stated very simply, this is the process which, according to current theory, led to the formation of increasingly complicated multicellular organisms. Each such organism is a system for the division of labor. Hundreds and thousands – indeed, millions – of cells go to make up individual organs. They are like factory units designed to fulfill specific functions. Each 100
(original book page 101)
organ has certain requirements: It demands nutrition,
repair, and continuous transportation by the body as a whole. The body
has to tend it, protect it, and supply it with energy. Each organ performs
certain services but does, from another angle, constitute a burden. Moreover,
no living creature has yet managed to slough off temporarily unwanted organs
and then graft them onto its body again as required.
Many creatures need their sexual organs, for example,
only once a year or once in a lifetime, yet they have to carry them about
constantly, nourish, tend, and defend them. Although many organs are of
no use to a sleeping animal, they still have to be nourished. Yet in man
we are confronted by a creature which can discard organs and exchange them
for others. Far from being natural or obvious, this is an enormity from
the evolutionary standpoint – an advance laden with unfathomable consequences.
The word "tool" is a misleading one. It is not merely
an implement for working upon something, but an extension of our body effected
by the artificial addition of organs; an advance to which, to a greater
or lesser degree, we owe our civilization.
We tend to suppose that the basis of human progress is
our specially developed intellect or intelligence. This is only partly
true. Equally important was a second prerequisite, an organ which enabled
us to produce artifacts and link them with our bodies: the human hand.
Let us imagine that wolves, lions, or antelopes had developed
a brain similar to that of the human being 1,000,000 years ago. How would
they be today? Not so very different, simply because a lion's or wolf's
paws and an antelope's hoofs are incapable of fashioning artificial organs
and harnessing them to the body as a whole. A lion might conceivably be
able to guide a pencil with its jaws but could never manufacture one. Once
we view things from this angle, our unwelcome kinsfolk, the apes, suddenly
assume an entirely different perspective.
Being tree climbers, they developed limbs suitable for
climbing. Thus they could reach fruit more easily and escape predators
by taking refuge in the branches. They had a secure basis for survival,
and they multiplied. Periods of drought ensued.
(original book page 102)
Trees became sparse, areas of steppe expanded. Then, so
contemporary theory holds, the apes were compelled to move from tree to
tree by traversing the open ground between them. Because the trees no longer
provided adequate nutrition, some species – among them our ancestors –
resorted to hunting other animals in the steppe. The
apes' stance, which had already been comparatively erect during their arboreal
phase, now enabled them to see over the tall grass. They learned how to
walk upright on their hind legs, and their prehensile paws were suddenly
available for other purposes.
A further concomitant of this process was the enlargement
of the brain. In the upright stance, the head is supported by the spinal
column. Cells which had hitherto formed the strong dorsal muscles required
to carry the head were thus deprived of work. Gradually, these organs became
involuted and the skull increased in size. We still do not know exactly
how this enlargement came about, but the skull expanded until it eventually
reposed balanced above the spinal cord. The brain pan became larger in
the process, and the number of ganglion cells housed in that cavity multiplied
considerably. The functional capacity of the organ formed by them – the
brain – increased as a result. Casts taken from fossil skulls have enabled
scientists to trace the development of individual areas of the brain. Increased
volume is particularly noticeable in the case of the forebrain – in other
words, that part of the brain in which our associative thought processes
now take place. Our closest relatives among the anthropoid apes have a
cerebral capacity of between 300 and 685 cubic centimeters, whereas our
ancestors, the australopithecines, already varied between 450 and 800 cubic
centimeters. This figure has risen to between 1,000 and 1,800 cubic centimeters
in races of men living today.
The immense time it took for the brain to attain its
present efficiency can be gauged from the fact that our ancestors continued
to use a very few primitive tools (notably the flint) for 500,000 years.
During this time, differentiation occurred in a particular area of the
forebrain – the convolution of Broca – to which we owe our power of speech.
Primeval men living in hunting communities now acquired the ability to
communicate
(original book page 103)
verbally, and this must have hastened the development
which was already in progress.
It was still a very long time before man reached the
agricultural and cattle-breeding stage, before he learned to manufacture
artificial organs such as pot, plow, and cart. Progress really accelerated
only in the last 10,000 years – a development which would have been impossible
without the prehensile hands inherited from our ape forebears.
Let us take 'a somewhat closer look at man's artificial
organs. Where do their advantages and disadvantages lie?
Their primary advantage is that they do not consist of
living cells and thus have no need of constant nourishment. This brings
a corresponding saving in the human energy budget. Their second advantage
is that they can be discarded or stored when not in use. Consequently,
man does not have to carry them about constantly. This effects a further
saving of energy. Their third advantage is that they are exchangeable.
This makes man the most highly specialized creature in the world. If he
holds a spear, he is a hunting specialist; if he grasps an oar, he is a
specialist in locomotion; if he operates a loom, he becomes a weaving specialist.
It took the multicellular organisms immense periods of time to acquire
specialized organs – and remain tied to them – by means of cell differentiation,
whereas man succeeded in creating his own specialized organs and harnessing
them to his body as required. From the biological aspect, man turned into
a quick-change artist of unique skill.
A fourth advantage: Artificial organs could be used by
different individuals. A knife may be used first by one person and then,
immediately afterward, by another. That is an enormous advantage, especially
in a community. In a wolf pack, each individual must produce every organ
natural to the wolf, whereas in a human community a single artificial organ
such as a scythe or fireplace can be used communally or by different individuals
in succession. Colony-building insects had already evolved a similar "rationalization,"
but on a hereditary basis. Among bees, the queen handles all the egg laying;
among termites, specially trained warriors undertake the defense of the
nest. Here again the community possesses certain organs, but these are
fewer in number and do not have to be developed
(original book page 104)
by the general run of the community. Man, on the other
hand, can create these kinds of specialized organs artificially and pass
them on from one individual to another. Once again there is a considerable
saving in material resources and energy.
The fifth advantage is especially important: The individual
need not manufacture the artificial organs he uses. This is what gave rise
to the development of the handicrafts and occupations to which we shall
return in a later chapter. By specializing in a particular form of manufacture,
man can also carry it on better and more rationally. This, too, leads to
a saving of energy which is additionally associated with qualitative improvement.
It is worth mentioning a sixth advantage, namely, that
the manufacture of an artificial organ need not be underwritten by one
individual alone. Several people can share in the costs of such manufacture
and can employ the organ communally or in turn, owning it jointly. Hire
and sale-equally unthinkable in the case of natural organs-now became possible.
These advantages are, however, balanced by a disadvantage:
Artificial organs require protection. Natural organs cannot be stolen.
True, one animal may bite a piece off another, but that piece serves it
only as nourishment and does not retain its original function. A lizard
may bite off an insect's wings, but it cannot use them to fly. An artificial
organ, by contrast, can be used equally well by another human being, which
is why the problem of property has become so important to human beings.
There are numerous theories and accounts of how man came to form communities
and evolve various types of social order, and probably such developments
did not always follow the same course. What is certain is that they were
always governed by the need to protect artificial organs. Man could thus
increase his power by creating artificial organs, but these were mortgaged
from the very start by the necessity of adequately protecting them.
In the course of the last 6,000 years-and particularly
in the last 100 years-our artificial organs have multiplied to a truly
gargantuan extent. In the process they have become so remote from our bodies
that their connection with it often is scarcely discernible. Moreover,
man has always regarded such structures l as distinct entities. Because
artificial organs are not a part of us,
(original book page 105)
because they are not flesh and blood, because they originated
differently from our natural organs and seldom resemble them, we have consigned
them to another drawer in our mental filing system. From the biological
and evolutionary points of view, this is wrong. They are one and all extensions
of our body, and their contributory function can be construed only in this
light.
It is obvious that a set of false teeth constitutes an
artificial organ because it replaces our natural teeth. A pair of glasses
improves an impaired organ instead of replacing a deficient one. Hence,
it is a supplementary functional unit which enhances our physical powers
and is, in this sense, an artificial organ. Unlike glasses, binoculars
are not worn permanently over the eyes; a telescope requires its own support;
and the giant telescopes with which we look deep into space are infinitely
larger than the astronomers who use them. They are anchored to a particular
spot and require an entire building of their own. Thus, an artificial organ
may be larger than man himself; it need not be attached to his body; it
does not have to be carried about and can, instead, develop into a static
contrivance which man employs by approaching it rather than by applying
it to his person.
The brain, a natural organ, was also improved in this
way. The earliest written tablets, which were found in Mesopotamia, served
as aids to human memory. In the course of time, similar clay tablets were
additionally used to send messages, thus becoming artificial organs of
communication. This development was continued by paper, pen, printing press,
typewriter, and so on. A library – yet another large static unit – is also,
ultimately, an artificial organ. This example demonstrates that artificial
organs may be created by the community as a whole and shared among its
individual- members. Further instances of communal organs are the postal
service, in its capacity as an organized body for the transmission of information;
the police and the military, in their capacity as even larger organized
bodies set up for man's protection.
Yet another line of development: Hide and fur protect
animals from injury on the one hand and cold on the other, so our shoes
and clothing represent an artificial improvement of these functions. A
still more effective form of protection, though
(original book page 106)
one which ties us to a single spot, is the house or apartment.
We rent hotel rooms on a temporary basis; as long as they remain at our
disposal, they too serve as artificial organs. Thus, possession of artificial
organs may be temporary.
In Kenya Eibl and I filmed Sunjo tribesmen who still
tilled their fields with mattocks. The mattock had no need to be manufactured
artificially; it already existed in the form of broken branches, and the
prehensile hand was perfectly accustomed to grasping such objects. Thus,
the first artificial organs were discoveries rather than products of manufacture,
and the special intellectual feat associated with them consisted of recognizing
that the hand's efficiency could be improved when it was used in conjunction
with a foreign object.
The plow was propelled by energy extraneous to the human
body. In this case, man succeeded in getting another living creature-the
ox harnessed to his plow – to provide an artificial organ with motive power.
Thus, the domesticated animal likewise became an artificial organ. Artificial
organs may thus be living creatures-above all, fellowmen. The slave was
a universally employable artificial organ, and everyone whom we employ
to serve us in return for payment likewise becomes our artificial organ
for the duration of his service. The word "artificial" thus does not necessarily
imply "artificially manufactured" but "artificially appended to our bodily
organization."
Every organism from man downward somehow has to acquire
or absorb the energy it requires. In plants the source is sunlight; in
animals the organic substance which they ingest. Many creatures exploit
other sources of power, e.g., wind and water in motion, but the bulk of
their energy must always take the roundabout route via their own bodies.
To be able to harness energy which, while extraneous to the body, operates
directly for its benefit is naturally a tremendous advantage to any organism.
Our own progress stems largely from our having perfected this potentiality.
Man's artificial organs have thus become immensely heterogeneous.
They are interwoven in the most complex way, and most of them are almost
unrecognizable as parts of our physical organization. In one respect, however,
they still clearly betray
(original book page 107)
their relationship to our bodies. And here we return to
the realm of behavioral research.
Like the majority of our natural organs, each artificial
organ requires an appropriate control. just as all innate functions and
modes of behavior depend on hereditarily fixed control formulas, and just
as acquired behavior owes its existence to the formation of suitable acquired
coordinations, so we require a suitable acquired coordination to service
each artificial organ. Even with an artificial organ as simple as an armchair,
we must first learn the motor sequence requisite to its use – in other
words, how to sit down in it. Large and independently functioning structures
such as the railway or a motorcar – both of them artificial organs – likewise
require us to "service" them, learn where and how they operate, learn how
to harness them to our needs. Important consequences arise from considering
things from this angle. In the present book, which deals with peculiarities
of human behavior, importance attaches only to the basic principle of this
form of power development, which consists in the fact that functional performance
has divorced itself from the body, while control – at least partly – rests
with the brain.
Rudiments of this, too, exist in animals. Some species
use tools. However, the term "artificial organ" is considerably broader
than the term "tool"; it embraces every functional unit which serves an
organism. In this sense, the spiders web and the bird's nest are also artificial
organs.
When an animal uses an existing cave for protection just
as primitive man did – this amounts to the discovery of an artificial organ.
Termites' nests and beavers' dams are examples of the communal organ. The
degradation of living creatures to the status of artificial organs occurs
among the many species of ants which press other species into their service.
The acquisition of another individual's services in return for one's own
is exemplified by symbiosis and socialization. All these methods of using
artificial organs (and of exploiting energy extraneous to the body) are
traceable in animals almost exclusively to genetic modifications of the
hereditary formula. In terms of achievement, therefore, they cannot be
compared with the human development of power.
(original book page 108)
The animal brain is incapable of acquiring such additional
units by means of experience (or the transmission of the same). Admittedly
– and here we return to the beginning of this chapter – this required not
only a feat of intellect but also an organ appropriate to such a feat.
For example, we now know that the dolphin has a highly developed brain,
but this avails it little because it could never fashion artificial organs
with its fins or harness them to its body. Birds' prehensile feet would
be suitable for such purposes, but birds' forelimbs have become modified
into wings, so they need their hind legs to stand on. Squirrels might conceivably
have developed into creatures with artificial organs, but their bodies
are very small, and as we have seen, feats of cerebration require an appropriate
number of ganglion cells. Obviously, monkeys could do almost as much with
their paws as we with our hands, but in their case the brain is unequal
to the task. Discounting minor exceptions, the ape's brain can neither
grasp the principles governing the use of artificial organs nor build up
the acquired coordinations necessary to their manufacture nor-finally-form
the supplementary coordinations essential to the purposive use of artificial
organs.
Lorenz, who made an exhaustive study of young apes, found
it surprising that they had never developed into anything more than skillful
climbers. He was forced to the conclusion that the ancestors of the modern
anthropoid possessed a higher degree of intellectual ability. Kortlandt,
who spent years observing chimpanzees in the wild, evolved the following
hypothesis: The ancestors of the modern chimpanzee actually possessed considerably
more intelligence but were hounded from the savanna by the australopithecines
– our own ancestors – and forced to return to the primeval forest. Clearly,
the savanna was an environment favorable to further development. Thus,
according to Kortlandt, the development of the modern anthropoid was reversed
by our own ancestors.
Lorenz has drawn attention to another important human
characteristic which may be attributable to our ancestors' sensorial way
of life. Climbing and, more especially, leaping from branch to branch demand
an accurate assessment of spatial dimensions. Prior to leaping, the brain
has to form an appropri-
(original book page 109)
ate idea of the distance involved – a "central spatial
representation," as Lorenz terms it.
It is to this circumstance, in his view, that we owe
the extremely visual way of thinking which finds expression in our language.
We say, for instance, that we "clarify" "obscure" ideas, gain "insights"
into things, "see through" someone, "grasp" an idea.
Viewed biologically, therefore, our present stage of
progress is in many respects linked with the remote past. Only because
the apes developed their prehensile paws by adapting themselves to life
in the trees of the primeval forest did the manufacture of artificial organs
become practicable in our case. The fact that our ancestors were then forced
by climatic changes to adapt themselves to life in the steppe brought about
changes in physical organization and, hence, an enlargement of the brain.
Finally, the spatial sense acquired in the course of a sensorial phase
of existence may have played an equally important role in our further development.
Man may be described as the creature with artificial
organs. Our intellect was crucial to this peculiarity, but so were our
hands, our power of imagination, and our persistent curiosity. Only the
combined effects of all these enabled us to transcend the limitations imposed
on our bodily organs. Very slowly at first, then – with the advent of speech
and writing – more and more rapidly, we developed and transformed ourselves,
acquiring an increasing number of organs which augmented our power and
which now, interlaced with almost infinite complexity, span the entire
globe.