Although the large brain with its developed consciousness is the jewel in the crown, it has its downside: the mind that arises from it is vulnerable. Subject to the often hostile forces of nature in an universe indifferent to the sensitivities of the mind and its sophisticated psychology, the chances of such a delicate instrument being damaged from the sheer brutality of experience are high. Like this humans are candles in the wind.

Yet slowly the intelligence innate to the large brain starts to overcome the perils of its environment. It organises shelter from the elements and provides adequate provision for food when nature by itself fails. It contrives social conventions for protection and kinship. It establishes laws and rules to live by. It gradually produces technology to help with the perennial problems of survival.

But even with all these benefits, deeply entrenched troubles persist. The genetic inheritance of hundreds of generations of damaged individuals steeped in deficiency is passed on. Even where the challenges of subsistence have been addressed, where there is plenty of security, food to eat, money to spend, leisure pursuits to be indulged, luxuries to be enjoyed, there are still deep flaws in the emotional brain inherited from the ancestral past.

Can this be fixed? I think it probably can be by turning the intelligence to discovering the requisite conditions for good psychology. If possible, such knowledge would be the philosophical tablet of stone. Finding and applying it would avoid much further damage and over future generations start to heal the wounds from the heritage. I think it is the most pressing task for the emancipation of the human race.