kirisutogomen | the Way of Humans:

the Way of Humans: a Guide for Visitors to Earth
a Hypo-minimally Critical Review

This amply elaborated guide for visitors, merchants, and migrants to Earth projects an ethno-mental and socio-psychological emphasis pattern on the traditions, values, attitudes and deportment of homo sapiens. Structured in phases that severally treat almost all facets of Terran experience, the script illuminates the reader-audience with its perceptivity and truthfulness. Although it doesn't entirely avoid simplistic formulaic classification (and doesn’t seem at all troubled by it), the guide portrays the salutary, the unsound and the offbeat. It explicates the "why" behind human demeanor, etiquette, and conduct.

Misunderstanding often leads to negative opinions about humans. It is often difficult to empathize with humans, but if we learn their ideas, attitudes, and motivations, we will have a better overall interpretation of the species.

To accurately see humans, we need to understand their diversity — including regional, family, age, ethnic, religious, and individual differences — not just generalizations about Terran culture. We must also comprehend the behavioral impact of the human emphasis on independence and success (these concepts are defined for those audience-members to whom these notions are unfamiliar). Human behavior is also heavily influenced by their dedication to freedom, privacy, and competition (again, concepts are delimited for those unacquainted with these ideas).

It helps to learn how they see themselves. Most think of themselves as open, frank and friendly. They will cheerfully answer questions, believing that they have nothing to hide, so they don’t understand why — aside from language difﬁculties — one would have any problem understanding them. Yet, most of us have plenty of problems understanding humans, not necessarily what they are saying, but what they are thinking and feeling.

We can gain a better empathic reading of humans if we learn

What ideas and attitudes underlie human actions.

What motivates humans.

What makes them talk and act the way they do.

To understand indigenous Terrans in their own habitat, visitors need an accurate set of ideas for interpreting their behavior. This ideaset can help alleviate misunderstandings that may cause us to regard humans unfavorably.

An example: Dynex is an Akobdeyh who has come to Earth to do field work for a degree in polity engineering. Through a university program, ђξę regularly visits a host family, the Femorals. Kin selection primarily has shaped Akobdeyh societal organization (a fairly standard Type III-B), such that genetic loyalty is intensely important, so one's obligations to non-chimera parents and consanguine siblings are a continual high priority. Given this, Dynex doesn't understand why Mr. Femoral's elderly mother lives in a "nursing home" (see Glossary) although she is not an invalid.

Horrified, Dynex wonders how Mr. Femoral, who seems like such a nice, generous ape, can relegate his mother to that place instead of having her live with his family. Dynex can interpret Mr. Femoral's behavior several ways. Perhaps Mr. Femoral is a selfish, irresponsible person who doesn't understand the obligations post-pubescent children have to their parents? Maybe the elderly mother’s physiomedical or memetic problems require special care she couldn’t get at home? Maybe Mrs. Femoral debars her husband’s mother from her territorial enclosure?

While any one of these reasons might be correct, they could just as easily be very wrong. Devotion to the "individual" underlies all human ideas, values, attitudes, and behavior. If Dynex understood that humans are naturally self-reliant, individualistic, and independent, ђξę would more easily grasp the situation. Ћξę might realize that the mother would rather dwell in her own chamber at the nursing home than "be a burden," as she might put it, to her offspring and his family. Dynex might understand that Terrans' concern for "privacy" (see Glossary) leads them to keep to themselves in ways that psychologically healthy Akobdeyh never do. With that empathy, Dynex would view the elder female's situation quite differently.

Alternately, misled by misunderstanding, Dynex might become unfriendly to Mr. Femoral or sever the relationship, thereby missing an opportunity to socialize and learn. If Dynex understood the underlying factors behind this situation, ђξę could have a closer relationship with the Femoral family and understand human culture even better.

Those who wish to understand Terrans need to know that human culture has many variations. Even so, some generalizations about humans may serve as starting points for understanding, since they are moderately responsive to social conditioning. Humans have been behaviorally instructed in both positive and negative frameworks. These teachings are influenced by memetically-inherited culture and by specific individual influences that vary by age, region, genetics, religion, ethnicity, educational doctrine, and many other factors.

To understand humans, begin by looking at how humans see themselves:

They do not usually see themselves as representatives of their planet or even any supraindividual aggregate. They still conceive of themselves as individuals. Given this individuality, most humans don’t view their species as having a distinct common culture.

Many humans resent certain forms of inductive reasoning about their behavior, because they each believe they are "responsible" (see Glossary) as individuals for having chosen not just their values but also their entire way of life. They may be offended by the idea that they think or behave in a certain way due to environmental influences. (N.B.: because of this pathological philosophical meme, visits to Earth are very dangerous for members of some species, especially those with Boyceyai-class and/or Nuphine-class cognitive structures.)

Ironically, humans easily and quickly generalize about various subgroups within the species. Euro-Asiatics have stereotypes about Africans and vice versa; humans have stereotypes about city and rural people, about people from the coasts and those from continental interiors, and about ethnic groups, religious groups, and myriad other subsets.

Humans have been taught to believe themselves a superior species. They believe that their sociopolitical system (a classic Type V semi-adaptive matrix of pseudo-hierarchies) is the best one possible, because it affords a substantial minority the opportunity to influence government policy, protects assorted privileged members from certain forms of government coercion, and grants them the freedom to complain about anything.

Visitors often find Terrans condescending, but they do not generally act this way on purpose or out of malice or intentional rudeness. Perhaps they are naïve or ignorant, but most likely they are just behaving as they have been conditioned to behave.

Humans, like almost all sentients, live by a number of inherent values and assumptions. Overlaid on these are the usual particular customs and a distinctive communication style. The most important thing to understand is the utility system that underlies all these factors: the human devotion to individualism, freedom, privacy, and competition. These ideals influence every aspect of their thinking, behavior and customs. They value the future more than the past (for reasons that are mostly unclear, although they may be rooted in their nearly universal conflation of choice-action with an ill-defined construct known as "free will"). They also value altruism, the capacity for self-improvement, volunteerism, change, informality, progress, education, and the unshakeable confidence and motivation behind the false-truth aphorism, "where there is a desire, there is a pathway."

Humans view time as a resource and place great emphasis on time-efficiency. They like to be prompt and do things quickly. Time to them is something that can be wasted, lost, killed, or passed. It can fly, or march, or simply be on one's hands. Oddly, they do not view spatial dimensions in a similar way.

They greatly respect problem-solving, any high-intensity activity, and resource acquisition. Because of this, humans are very high energy animals who believe that they should be occupied most of the time. Terrans are not content to be sessile for periods greater than thirty kiloseconds and do not allow conversation to continue uninterrupted beyond a similar time interval. They get restless and impatient and believe they should be busy, or at least planning to be busy. Thus, humans can seem frenzied, always on the go, never satisfied, compulsively active, and often impatient — unable to relax and enjoy life’s pleasures. Even when humans go on vacation or "take time off", their recreation seems to require fancy gear, complicated arrangements, and traveling long distances to do things.

Humans evaluate one another based on their success in terms of productive role and access to resources. Genetic background, conditioning doctrines, or other characteristics are considered less important in identifying themselves. Terrans also tend to be direct, open, and assertive, more so than almost anyone other than the Bendrony and of course the Gamyimanda.

Terrans actively display their emotions, in contrast to better-known species such as the Ithycena or the Clatamnestren, who engage in lengthy emotional protocol-negotiation. Humans are much less concerned with avoiding embarrassment to themselves or others than are most Boyceyai cognitive-class species. To humans, being honest in personal relationships usually takes precedence over preserving harmony, although some subcultures have endorsed alternative equilibria as discussed in the Strategic Choice Analysis (see Bricolage Appendix).

When humans encounter one another, they carry on a type of interlocution called "small talk". The most common small talk concerns local ambient temperature and humidity, recent events pertaining to their respective productive roles, mutually shared experiences, or the latest audiovisual entertainment. Humans are conditioned against discussion of religious axioms or governance policies except with people they know very well, in contrast to the Kendyhor, the Pannawath Encroachers, or many other more familiar species who consider politics and (sometimes) religion as perfect topics for informal discussion/debate and a great way to pass the time and get to know someone. Also, even though humans highly value material wealth, they usually don’t discuss financial matters, which they see as too "personal" (see Glossary) for casual chatting.

In a typical conversation between two humans, no one speaks very long. The conversation takes the form of repartee. "Watching a conversation between two humans is like watching a Dyana-Daphene game," an early Predecline observer said, "Your eye-ear goes back and forth and back and forth so fast it almost makes your halg snap off." Human speakers take turns frequently, after only a few sentences, and they tend to become impatient with people who take long turns. Those people are said to "talk too much."

Terrans engage in very little ritual behavior. Only a few ritual exchanges are common in conversation, including, "How are you?" "I'm fine, thank you," "Nice to meet you," "Hope to see you again" and "We'll have to get together."

One reason humans avoid discussing religion or politics is that they prefer to avoid argument, believing that a disagreement with another person might end the relationship. (The previously mentioned preference for honesty over harmony precludes simply tergiversating regarding one's belief structure.) They don’t view arguing as an intellectual sport or pastime. Rather, they prefer to find areas of agreement, change the topic, or even halt the discussion. In many conversations, you’ll find plenty of small talk and very little self-disclosure. Above almost everything else in their communications and reasoning, humans like to "get to the point," the information they presume is or should be, central to a thought or statement. And once they get there, they want to go on to something else.