In the essay ‘The Critic as Artist’ (1891) the late Oscar Wilde wrote, that ‘to do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.’ Today we should perhaps more than ever remind ourselves of this.
Recently I took a break from the now all too familiar ‘busy schedule’ afflicting most of us lucky enough to have full time employment. Besides looking forward to the promise of freedom in my indolence, I was vaguely also hoping to prove the famous writer right, and perhaps even become more ‘masterful at the art of inactivity’.
Living on a small apple orchard in a remote part of South Island New Zealand for the last few months my self-induced truancy from things intellectual inevitably forced me to notice the liveliness often obscured by normal activity. Noticing the interconnections taking place between earth, trees and an array of creatures, all communicating within this colourful vibrancy we call live, became an unavoidable distraction from my hopeful intellectual inactivity. Complex physiology and horticulture aside, what clearly stands out — all living elements interconnect and for this they need reliable input as part of a dependable network, to develop and prosper. Not only as keys to growing apples or vital ingredients to harmonise normal cellular activity, but essential to foster dependable and meaningful communication networks. This network extending all the way up to complex human social groups. Be it running busy veterinary practices, hospitals or anything else, most of us interact and are part of a complex interconnected living web. Often so involved in fervently gathering knowledge or information merely to stay ahead of the game or for personal benefit only, we are untruthful not only to ourselves but to this interactive network. In its most neglected form we use knowledge merely to gain personal advantage or control over others. In my reflective idleness I have to now strongly disagree with this erroneous motive as insulting to the much more insightful ‘intellect’ of a perspicacious evolutionary process. This by design to progress and share reliable information and knowledge to the benefit an interconnected living web.
Clearly, observed in these moments of wisdom in quietude there are harmonized interactions based on trust between all living and non-living things. This concurrence demanding attention to be drawn to the trustworthy communication-methods and systems used to interconnect, science is only beginning to unravel many of these interconnections. Awareness of this not only make the world a less hostile place but also evoke a greater sense of responsibility. With this responsibility also come a strong motive to oppose any deceptive behaviour that may hurt this living network, we inescapably all belong to.
With most eyes today ambitiously turned to new developments in technology, and science undeniably assisted by its apparently boundless possibilities, more and more scientist are simultaneously realising the limitations of a fixed material world and unbendable theories. In quantum physics and the natural sciences, as our understanding about the natural world progress, so also do new complexities constantly pop up. Aware that there are too many people and too few jobs in a busy world facing climate change, and with growing concerns about the future, we seem to have less time to be idle. Besides the already addictive distractions of our 'smart' devices, we tend to overlook the hidden ‘gems’ inactivity can offer and explore the true potential value that new discoveries in the sciences and technology may offer. Conditioned to hurriedly skim through the bombardment of articles in search of topics of personal value it is easy to ignore what appears to be irrelevant to our own busy lives or maintain our careers.
Turning to a recent article in this strafing of information and to draw more attention to interactivity in this living web on a different level, it was revealed by immunologist Dr. Sarah Dimeloe and her team of investigators at the University of Basel, that the cell-specific effects of certain proteins we call cytokines (specifically TGF-β), may offer a potential new method for future therapies in the fight against cancer. These studies suggest that by zeroing in on the deleterious properties of this TGF-β immuno-protein, without erasing its general benefits, more ‘benign’ anti-cancer therapies may be developed.
This apparently ‘two-faced’ immunoglobulin (protein) TGF-β may seem far removed from apple trees, but it has the ability to both suppress and promote the growth of human tumour cells. Subject to age -old transgenerational genetic fine-tuning within in a progressive living web it now appears confused. Tested against an ageless and perspicacious evolutionary drive, dedicated to pragmatic outcomes to sustain a growing network of life, it appears that even our proteins now appear anxious and confused and more prone to deceptive behaviour. Could this perhaps be because of the abrupt bombardment (in evolutionary terms) by an array of complex novel chemicals?
Be that as it may, one of the key roles of the TGF-β protein is to control over-ambitious attacks by T-cells, a primary defence mechanisms staged by a healthy immune-system. It likewise then also suppresses the cancer-killing activities of these T cell defenders against aberrant invaders such as cancer cells. According to this new research by Dimeloe and her team, many tumour types produce TGF-β in large quantities and this is associated with metastasis of the cancer and poor patient prognosis, their work underscore the fact that, ‘tumor-promoting activities of the TGF-β protein include dysregulation of the cell cycle, increased extracellular matrix formation, angiogenesis (the recruiting of new blood vessels), and most importantly, inhibition of anti-tumor T cell immunity.’
We can now see how besides this already deleterious ability to inhibit T cell anti-tumour activity; this normally beneficial cytokine protein can also orchestrate anti-tumour capabilities singlehandedly and impair other facets of the body's anti-tumour defences. Dimeloe and her colleagues have found that TGF-β accomplishes this suppression by initiating signaling activity that divert our T- cells efforts to keep cancer cells at bay. Other TGF-β's tumour-driving methods include initiating the process of enlisting new vasculature (angiogenesis) and allow a tumour to tap into its host's blood supply from which the cancer cells then gather nutrients to enhance their growth and proliferation.
As renegade as TGF-β can be in assisting the progression of cancer, by design it communicates with the outside world (deranged DNA such as in cancer cells are foreign to the body) to protect the body. It is especially abundant in the kidneys, lungs, bones and placenta. Here TGF assist in transforming another cytokine, growth factor beta-1, a polypeptide, with a host of beneficial biological roles. These include cell differentiation and proliferation, as well as initiating apoptosis, or programmed cell death. TGF-β plays these beneficial roles throughout the body and is present in virtually all tissues—as a result of age-old 'harmonised' evolutionary consequences.
Be it already uncanny enough to perceive a protein, as an evolutionary product, with such confused interests and deleterious outcomes, it may be even more difficult to contemplate cancer cells exhibiting perceptive traits, such as deception. But the current research underway at the University of Basel, and collaborating laboratories, has revealed that TGF-β is not only a protein struggling with two conflicting concerns, but we can safely say here it has the ability to potentially perceive and sway outcomes, such as the fate of cancer cells. This is also where all focus is now heading to see how we can help the body’s own defences to fight off aggressive invaders such as cancer cells.
This ‘perceptive' molecular basis for evolution is in support of the concept proposed in my upcoming book release, Spheres of Perception (Jul 2020). It is here where sound decision-making methods free of deception are vital, not only to harmonise our physiological functions or perhaps one day cure cancer, but to progress functional future societies.
We can say that a ‘two-faced or confused’ TGF-β1 can create scope for a cancer to grow. By better understanding its ‘miscommunications’ we may potentially gain ground in our fight against this life-destructive element, causing so much suffering in humans and animals.
What can ‘idle wisdom’ then teach us here?
Be it a tree producing apples or a malicious cancer invading a body, we simply cannot ignore the value of living in harmony with our bodies, world and each other. This can only happen when we have reliable input in a principled and reflective society. All the way up the phylogenetic tree from apparent ‘lifeless’ molecules to humans. Life (us) is dependent on a progression of reliable information as interactive parts of an interdependent network, facing continuous uncertainty. In such a system there is no scope for confusion and the only place for intolerance is that directed against deception or greed.
Perhaps it is time for all of us to slow down a bit and idly reflect on how to harmonize ourselves with more reliability in this living web. Rather than attempting to control or poses it, maybe it is time we attempt to become better masters at the art of inactivity. Perhaps instead of fervently attempting to reduce life and matter to its smallest particles only, maybe we should more reliably and passively /interconnect within our living network, where even the smallest parts are vital for its overall function.
In the end it seems that the more we attempt to reduce complexity, the more complexity we create—how we evolve apperceptive beings. And as stated by the most recent Nobel prize winner in physics, Michel Mayor, 'the idea of humans living on another planet is 'completely crazy'. So with Earth inevitably our only home, and with all of us neighbours let’s make more of an effort to grow our understanding in how to better interact in trust in idle harmony,— for the health of us and our living planet.
Based on ideas and concepts from Spheres of Perception by Theodore Holtzhausen (Changemakers Books, July 2020)
Referenced for this article:
Science Signaling (2019). DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.aav3334
Journal information: Science Signaling
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