Certain Aspects of the Human Mind
Contents
1.The oldest, Genetic Aspect (c4bn years old)
2. The Action Urge Aspect (over 540m Years old)
3. The Social Aspect (c300,000 years old). Epigenetics
4. The Spiritual Aspect (c7,000 years old)
5. Cognitive Biases
6. Scientific Method
7. Bringing it all together
Life is thought to have begun on Earth c3.7-4.4bn years ago (the earliest undisputed evidence of life is c3.5bn years old). Before this, there were no trees, plants, or animals - nor any oxygen or ozone layer. The planet's surface, exposed to the Sun's intense UV rays, was extremely hot. Nonetheless, life still came about. RNA is a single-stranded biological polymer, made up of nucleotides, and often considered to be the first replicator (ie it can self-replicate and store information.) The nucleotides consist of a ribose sugar molecule attached to a phosphate group and a nitrogen-containing base. The RNA bases are adenine, cytosine, guanine and uracil (A, C, G and U), bonded to a phosphate-sugar backbone. The order of the nucleotides, or letters, spell out the genetic code.
Whilst RNA can self-replicate and store information, most life uses double-stranded DNA, rather than RNA, for its genetic code. DNA also contains chains of nucleotides, though they have a different sugar - deoxyribose, which is harder to make than the ribose sugar in RNA. In DNA, uracil is replaced with the base thymine, or T. The DNA genetic code is spelled with the letters A, C, G and T. The genetic code enables information, stored in DNA or RNA, to be used to make proteins, which allow organisms to function. This process is effectively uniform in every living organism.
Whether RNA formed before DNA, or at about the same time, is not known. With evolution, various enzymes may have emerged to allow some organisms to generate deoxyribonucleotides from ribonucleotide precursors and so to synthesize DNA molecules from ancestral RNA genomes. There are different theories about the chemical origins of life. The uniform nature of the Genetic Code suggests it likely evolved before the theoretical Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA), from which all life descended, c3.5-3.8bn years ago. An early life form, fossilised cyanobacteria (also called Blue-green Algae), has been found in rocks c3.5bn years old, in Western Australia.
Units of heredity are comprised of DNA, genes, and chromosomes. Together, they make up the complete, unique set of genetic instructions for every individual - referred to as a Genome - covering sex, appearance, medical conditions which may arise and other matters.
Genes, the basic units of inheritance, carry coded information and determine our traits. These are passed from parents to children: gene-determined characteristics are often determined by more than one gene. Every human has between 20,000 and 25,000 different genes, arranged one after another on their chromosomes - half of which are inherited from a mother and half from a father.
Chromosomes in a cell nucleus contain genes. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes {22 pairs of numbered chromosomes (autosomes) and one pair of sex chromosomes (X and Y)}. Again, children get half of their chromosomes from their mother and half from their father - a total of 46 chromosomes.
A chromosome contains a single, long DNA molecule (a portion of which corresponds to a single gene) - and structural proteins (called histones) around which the DNA molecule is wrapped. The genetic coding of our traits is based on how the DNA building blocks are arranged. Two main processes cause protein synthesis: transcription and translation. Transcription occurs in the nucleus: an mRNA molecule - or intermediary messenger RNA (mRNA) - is created by reading the DNA. Both DNA and RNA are made of nucleic acid, hence 'transcription'. The DNA never leaves the nucleus. To communicate with the rest of the cell, the mRNA does leave the nucleus and, through the process of translation, the mRNA is then read to create an amino acid sequence, which folds into a protein. This protein is made of amino acids, whilst RNA is made of nucleic acid (i.e. different 'languages', hence 'translation'.) Other types of RNA - like rRNA, tRNA, and microRNA - are also involved in protein synthesis and regulation.
The Genome is the complete set of genetic instructions which determine the traits of an organism. The human genome is made of 3.2 billion bases of DNA. Whilst the genome of each species is distinct, every organism within that species has its own unique genome. [No two people are exactly alike, even twins.] Between 1990 and 2003, all 23 pairs were fully sequenced through an international research undertaking, known as the Human Genome Project.
If printed out the 3.2 billion letters in the human genome would take over a century to recite ~ if recited at 1 letter per second, 24 hours a day.
Humans are made up of a hundred million million (100,000,000,000,000) cells. Each one has a complete set of genetic instructions. These are put to work from an individual's conception: a minute example of the operation of infinitely complex Natural Laws. Scientists generally cannot examine the infinitely small and infinitely large aspects of Nature. Rarely recognised, however, the tangible world can avoid scrutiny. The 1822 Navier-Stokes equations describe the motion of viscous fluid, or of air passing over an aircraft wing or of water flowing out of a tap. In certain situations it is unclear if the equations simply fail or give no answer at all. The equations are named after the French engineer and physicist Claude-Louis Navier and the Anglo-Irish physicist and mathematician, George Gabriel Stokes.
George Gabriel Stokes
Mathematicians have tried - and failed - to resolve the matter, including Mukhtarbay Otelbaev of the Eurasian National University in Astana, Kazakhstan. In 2014, he claimed a solution, but later retracted it. Anyone who solves this problem may claim a $1mn prize from the Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI).
DNA-based traits become established in human populations if they confer a survival and reproductive advantage. In Darwinian terms they are 'positively selected'. Mutations may be harmful - but some improve an organism's adaptation to its environment. Gradually, new and advantageous genetic variants tend to become more prevalent over hundreds and hundreds of millions of years.
DNA, developing for 4bn years, guides the activity of life forms. During this long time, primitive life forms mostly existed. The basic drive of microbial organisms, and now of humans and animals, is for survival and reproduction. At this level, ethics/morality/customs do not feature.
Near the end of the Ediacaran period, from 635 to 541m years ago, many of the earliest known complex animals died out. Increasing competition between them, as they diversified, can explain their demise. The dinosaur extinction, 66 m years ago, was caused by an asteroid hitting the planet.
The earlier extinction was quite different - animals became extinct as they evolved. Their fossils show they were soft-bodied, with unusual appearances. [In the following Cambrian period, an explosion of evolution amongst Ediacaran survivors happened.] With improving adaptation and prowess, they had become specialised for different types of food and environment.
Patterns in the species, found in three assemblages (separated by tens of millions of years), show they began to interact - both cooperatively and competitively. It is thought that they evolved a nervous system and a brain, this bidden by their DNA. Then and now, genetic instructions guide interactions within and between animal species, to support the survival of these. During the Ediacaran period, Action Urges were triggered in complex animal brains by feelings.
Like for other Higher Animals, the human brain probably did not evolve to think but to create emotions and feelings - so to interpret signals observed and to regulate bodily systems. Homo sapiens, the Neanderthals and (by extension) their Latest Common Ancestor (LCA), lived c400,000 years ago. Anatomical adaptations for speech were shared, indicating an ability to produce complex vocalizations. What constitutes speech, language and communication is very complex. Anthropologists have said that conscious intellectual activity had likely developed in Homo sapiens by c300,000 years ago. Cognitive adaptations could trigger the emergence of languages.
With primitive abilities to think, speak and act, Early Man responded to Action Urges with increasing success. Selfishly directed, therefore, are mild to irrepressible, urges and feelings - from affectionate to murderous.
There is an evolutionary need to belong to a group to increase the chances of survival. There is the theory, from the University of Kentucky (from a sociological perspective), by which groups of humans form to achieve bigger goals and to allow individuals to seek acceptance from peers.
Put in another way, human tribalism is an adaptive response to the threat of intergroup conflict - in both ancestral and modern human environments. 'Office politics' are progressed by self-protective groups, who lack due concern for, or interest in, the welfare of others. Perception, emotion, and consciousness define who is in the 'In-group' and who is not and how the job at hand is dealt with.
The bones of at least five people were discovered in Morocco, 100km west of Marrakesh. They form the oldest known human remains of Homo Sapiens - dating tests revealed they were c300,000 years old. Human psychology had evolved to support cooperative societies. Rapid cultural adaptation leads to persistent differences between groups, so that competition between them will lead to enhanced competitive ability. In cooperative societies, natural selection favours genes which give rise to pro-social behaviour and socialising, subconscious human urges and feelings. Social practices (sanctions and rewards) can support i) reproductive success in well adapted individuals and ii) the evolution of emotions like empathy and shame.
Observation of animals in the wild and research in laboratories show that a number of 'building blocks' of moral behaviour are evident in animals. Capuchin monkeys can react in a negative way when, in their group, they see other monkeys being treated unfairly. A sense of 'natural morality' has been passed on through the course of evolution because it helps life in large social groups - by enhancing the ability to interact with others. 'Building blocks' of natural morality, such as sensing fairness, experiencing empathy, and judging actions by others, can be observed in human infants, before their social environments can exert an influence. Experiences in primitive tribal groups provide the setting for the general formalising of socialising behaviours.
Human behaviours needed to be regulated, for the welfare of all. Such society may so be considered to have an 'underlying capacity to produce complexity'. This is discerned in Cognition, Culture and Cooperation - the 'three Cs'.
Cognition: Human cognition (encompassing perception, emotion, and consciousness) results from the development of a larger brain. Evidence of this can be found in eg - stone tools, weapons or graves.
Culture: Humans, living in groups, develop culture - agreed social norms - facilitated by language and creativity. Knowledge passed from old to young creates a culture of increasing depth over time.
Cooperation: Whether demonstrated by situations of hunting, foraging, or child rearing, humans with culture, in pursuit of shared goals, had much to gain through cooperation: greater survival, reproduction and colonization.
The traits of cognition, culture and cooperation eventually lead to specialisations and government.
Indepenently of the primary DNA sequence, evidence suggests that features in the social environment, through (normally reversible) epigenetic processes, can modify gene expression (eg whether a particular gene is turned on or off). This governs how often and when some proteins are created.
Each person's DNA lays the groundwork for the development of physical and psychological characteristics. Epigenetic changes also enable cells in the brain and elsewhere to perform specialized roles - based on the same, underlying genetic code.
Genetics is the study of genes - which form the genetic code (made from DNA) - and the traits they influence. Epigenetics is the study of physical changes which affect how genes are 'expressed'. Epigenetic changes can help to account for mental illness, eg for depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Other epigenetic changes can contribute to a lasting increase in physiological stress response.
The Social Aspect in the construct of the mind, with its shared values, holds as long as individuals see this as beneficial. Self- and sectional interest often trumps the collective need. Roman civilisation began to be undone when old and unwritten codes of conduct, known as the mos maiorum, gave way and individual senators struggled for power. With individualisation today, without Scientific Method, decision-taking by c8bn individuals, would lack replicability. Civilisation may so face strictures, when a generation expects success, but may lack shared tools for this.
The brain is an important organ in the human body. The mind is different. The brain, which is the centre of the nervous system, coordinates the movements, thoughts and feelings. The mind refers to consciousness and so to a person's being awake and aware of conscience and of an understanding of things. A general curiosity about the universe differentiates humans from other species. Regulated beliefs, in one form or another, have been found in all known human societies. Archaeological digs have revealed ancient ritual objects and ceremonial burial sites.
People may choose what values suit them or may not recognise the fundamental questions at all. Organised religion is a social institution, into which people may be born or seek out, expecting (perhaps even subconsciously) that its tenets are stress-tested. Sociologists distinguish between the experience, beliefs and rituals of a religion. Some organised religions can be limited to animism or superstition and are followed in less developed societies. Hinduism is estimated to have developed c2300 BC in the Indus Valley: this substantive creed spread widely. Around 7,000 years ago, Indo-European herders, including Proto-Celts, moved into Central Europe. They brought beliefs and laws related to Hinduism to Ireland. The roots of Hinduism may so stretch back to that period.
Almost universally, the purposeful connection between the Nature (or Zone of Infinities) and a religion (an imputed formal responsibility to Nature), consequentially and logically derived, tends to be a cursory effort at best, for most people. They might usefully consider (just to begin with) that units (of anything), as humans see them, cannot exist in a Zone in which all metrics are set at Infinity, in some manner. The implication that people themselves result from an infinitely intricate composition of Natural Law could encourage them to deduce their most serious purpose and recognize that there are no second chances. The present demands of life, nonetheless, will be what attracts most attention. Nature universally effects a balance, however. The ultimate balancing of good and bad acts, as people see them, is so postponed.
Cognition, Culture and Cooperation underlie a capacity to produce complexity. The ubiquity of religion in human society points to a deep evolutionary past to the dawn of Cognition. Studies of religious evolution reveal beliefs in supernatural agents, the role of ritual in promoting Cooperation and the contribution of morally punishing high gods to the growth and stabilization of Culture. [Deducing that a single creator/maintainer deity exists, in accordance with Logic (there can only be one Almighty Power), can emerge regardless of other aspects of a religion.]
The Genetic Aspect is by far the oldest aspect of the human mind - promoting successful individual outcomes (in survival and reproduction). Much younger, the Social Aspect affords greater protection for group members: rewards and sanctions encourage adherence to agreed rules. Youngest of all, a substantive Spiritual Aspect gives a standing to Mankind in the Firmament: rewards and sanctions devolve from Higher Beings, encouraging the flowering of the creative arts. Any a formal religion must needs be stress-tested for theoretical functionality. More than personal spirituality (of inconsequential effect), any Spiritual Code which comes through such testing, can underpin a Social Order.
Under pressure, however, or from enticement, the Genetic Aspect will frequently be allowed to control the individual. Regard for social or spiritual cooperation will be set aside. "A deed, however base, will be committed for a gain, however slight, if impunity follow on". Because of this, civilisations can and have fallen. Active aspects of the human mind are complicated further by the operation of Biases.
Psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman developed the concept of Cognitive Bias in research, in the 1970s, into why people struggle to reason and judge objectively in certain situations. With Paul Slovic, they published their early findings in the book, 'Judgment under Uncertainty'.
Humans are influenced by Cognitive Biases in ways which lead to systematic deviations from rational judgement - ie a tendency to make decisions or to take action in an unknowingly irrational way. The limitation, in objective thinking, is caused by information being filtered through personal experience and preferences. The filtering process is called heuristics - a coping mechanism - which allows the brain to prioritize and process the inputs received, though errors be made.
Heuristics can be used when problems appear familiar and so the need to gather additional information can be avoided. Heuristics can result in acceptable outcomes in everyday situations, especially when the time and cost of reasoning are taken into account. However, short-cut, sometimes inattentive decisions may also deviate from the tenets of logic, calculation and probability, leading to suboptimal decisions.
It is not practically possible to eliminate the brain's predisposition to take shortcuts but a person knowing that bias exists can improve decisions made. A growing list of Cognitive Biases has been identified over the last six decades. They include:
- Anchoring Effect - the tendency for the brain to rely too much on the first information it received, when making decisions later on.7
- Recency Bias - the tendency subconsciously to place more value on the last information received.
- Availability Bias - the tendency to think a known instance is more representative of the whole set of cases than is actually so.
- Bandwagon Effect - the tendency to think something must be preferable because others wish for it.
- Blind Spot Bias - the tendency for the brain to recognise another's bias but not its own.
- Clustering Illusion - the tendency for the brain to want to see a pattern in what is actually a random sequence of numbers or events.
- Confirmation Bias - the tendency to value new information which supports existing ideas.
- Framing Effect - the tendency to arrive at different conclusions when reviewing the same information, depending upon how the information is presented.
- Group Think - the tendency for the brain to place unthinking value on consensus.
- Negativity Bias - the tendency subconsciously to place more significance on negative events than on positive ones. This bias probably evolved as a survival technique ('better to be sure rather than sorry').
- Survivorship Bias - the tendency for the brain to focus on positive outcomes in favour of negative ones. A related phenomenon is the Ostrich Effect, in which people metaphorically bury their heads in the sand to avoid bad news.
- Sunk Cost Effect - the tendency for the brain to continue investing in something that clearly is not working in order to avoid failure ('throwing good money after bad').
- Familiarity Bias - An entrepreneur invests out of habit, rather than seeking benefits from portfolio diversification.
- Self-Attribution Bias - An entrepreneur takes prestige from the company's success, rather than recognising the staff, luck or industry trends. In a downturn, these external factors are blamed.
- 'I'm right' Bias - occurs when a decision-maker does not accept reasoned argument.
- Survivorship Bias - Entrepreneurship looks easy because there are so many successful entrepreneurs. However, the successful ones are just those still around, whilst the majority of them failed.
- Gambler's Fallacy - An investor sees a company rise and rise in value. Instead of waiting for further likely gains, the investor blindly dumps the stock, to lock in the existing profit. With the Gambler's Fallacy, the investor expects past random events to influence future ones.
Where power corrupts, the exercise of self-interest can be insulated from reason, when bias interferes with the fair consideration of critical issues. Often, biases are unconsciously held so it can be difficult to recognize when they occur in decision-making.
[Cognitive Biases may be confused with Logical Fallacies. These are arguments which sound convincing but are based on faulty logic, the results of errors in reasoning or misleading information. The Dunning-Kruger Effect refers to people's ability accurately to assess their own and others' competence. In general, low-skilled people tend to overestimate their own abilities and highly skilled people tend to underestimate theirs]
Scientific Method can minimize the influence, in the mind, of Bias, Preconception or Prejudice. These, compounded with personal beliefs (not deductions) and cultural norms (unquestioned), filter information selectively. However, when the mind exercises scientific discipline (using verifiable facts and excising views and opinions), deductions from good information or from results of experimentation (which may be independently carried out) can be made - with biases set to one side.
Scientific Method therefore provides an objective, standardized approach to analyses and, in so doing, not only improves the conceptual analysis of contemporary affairs but also of the results of scientific investigation. Data (things given - or facts), which do not support a favoured point of view, are too commonly ignored by Media presenters and by 'experts'. With complicated subjects, contradictions, even in the one programme, can go unnoticed by both presenters and experts. The use of Scientific Method, highly disciplined, is not, unfortunately, to be expected in endeavours outside of laboratories.
Phase A
DNA-based traits have developed over eons. A human has 100,000,000,000,000 cells, each having the same, complete set of extremely complex genetic instructions. With perception (of certain patterns), mild to irrepressible, subconscious human urges and emotions (ie reactions to past memories) are felt. They range from affectionate to murderous, broadly directed towards survival and reproduction. In control of the situation, in a Comfort Zone, a person will often eschew an evaluation of any perception. A Comfort Zone, a psychological state, is not stress-tested for theoretical functionality ~ and ability and determination are not tested: it is a 'get out' Card for a person claiming to be spiritual but not religious.
The Social Aspect of the mind sees that cooperative societies give greater protection. Natural selection, supported by sanctions and rewards, favours pro-social human urges and feelings.
As long as individuals see these as beneficial, mutually respectful behaviour tends to obtain. Therefore, in a reciprocating world, a person will eg smile
when another smiles first and a person will unmindfully take a social norm for granted.
Humans are, in theory, hard-wired to seek revenge when they feel they or others have been wronged. All humans are so biologically predetermined to commit
crimes when triggered by the right conditions. [Evolutionary Criminology and Cooperation, Dr Evelyn Svingen, Assistant Professor in Criminology at the University of Birmingham.]
Human beings have evolved to be collaborative and cooperative: cooperative ancestors being more likely to pass on their genes, for evolutionary advantage.
Drawing from neuroscience, evolutionary biology and behavioural economics, both crime and rectitude may be organised into a Retribution and Reciprocity Model
(RRM).
The Spiritual Aspect tends to be a fleeting effort at best. Even if a creed is logical, it can be misused to enhance personal positions or it can be used to suppress others. Abusive clerics, in the Hive Mind, will be used to attack their actual Creed, in a cheap fashion. A spiritual code (of some description), devoid of bias and unthinking beliefs, and stress-tested for functionality, could underpin self-awareness and so a sustainable Social Order.
Cognitive biases allow for mental short-cuts, so evading fact, logic and calculation. Mostly facilitating decisions in everyday life, basic self-interest can be insulated from reason, when social and spiritual codes are set aside. Bias hinders dispassionate consideration of critical issues. The mind is adept at coming up with plausible rationalisations for why it arrived at a decision, generated subconsciously (or preconsciously). "A deed, however base, will be committed for a gain, however slight, if impunity follow on". The many wars and invasions, indifference to the judicial killing of the vulnerable, the robbery of natural resources around the world and daily news of matters ignored, until they become critical, exemplify disinterest in others, with great clarity.
Although human behaviour is complex, on a Genetic level kindness will be met with kindness and hostility with hostility (reciprocation occurs).
Humans are, in addition, driven by norms - they punish those who violate these social norms (retribution occurs). Research experiments outline the
hardwired sense of retribution and reciprocity. This sense, with the perception of our environment, means that, under certain circumstances, everyone will
commit crimes. On the other hand, it is possible that, under other conditions, no one would commit crimes. In consequence, by improving the general
perception of the social environment, with eg good education, health and investment in our public services, fewer people would be inclined to commit crimes.
Phase B
The exercise of Free Will, in the extensive mix of influences set out, is a major aspect of the Human Mind. An examination of research on this, from duly academic sources, will be found elsewhere on this website. With the many complex factors which affect thinking, the universal propensity to lie (DNA-based) was described on NewsTalk Radio (6/6/2022). Lying, amongst the most sophisticated, demanding accomplishments of the human brain, is a cognitive skill. Securing personal social status is an aim. The prefrontal cortex of the brain may be responsible for decisions to lie or tell the truth.
Decisions taken from differing perspectives, indicate eg that the Microbiome (microorganisms which live in or on particular parts of the body), Genes, Epigenetics and Reward Pathways all play a part. The power of belief can be potent and compares with convictions kept - in the face of evidence - which is often wished out of existence. On Newstalk Radio (7/1/2017), a representative from the Foundation for responsible Robotics, said the computations required for creative thought were too complex for replication in computers.
The Brain has c100bn nerve cells (neurons), with trillions of interconnections, called synapses (Pakkenberg and Gundersen, 1997). Together they form an enormously complicated machine, which defies rationalisation at a number of levels. The 100tn interneural connections reflect conscious experiences, mirroring reasoning. Neurons communicate through long fibers (or axons), which carry trains of (highly complex) signals (or action potentials) to various parts of the body, to recipient cells.
Beyond formidable, would be to work through all this, to track thoughts, the future of which is never knowable anyway. [Human consciousness is imbedded within space-time.] With the Butterfly Effect, small decisions effecting even tiny changes, in particular cases, must lead to infinitely many different outcomes. This effectively infinite capacity, for decision-making, is not engendered by Nature to create a process to be casually dismissed as not being understood.
Phase C
Scientists can describe ut not explain natural characteristics, like Personal Worth - or Gravity. An apple may be observed to fall: the exact pull on it (to an infinity of decimal places) is utterly critical to planetary motion. Without ever getting an answer, one may ask eg why (not how) this force, of the many interacting ones of which we know, is maintained like this, with such effort and with such ease?
Brian Cox, as Professor of Particle Physics at the University of Manchester, said, regarding inflationary cosmology: "There may have been more than one Big Bang and, probably, there is an infinite number of universes being created all the time." He reasoned that (as action = reaction), a Higher Power (an Infinite Intelligence or any other descriptor) powers normal and dark matter and energy in Nature. The known Universe is infinite in all dimensions. With an Infinite Power maintaining it, an infinity of Universes may be postulated, in an infinity of stages of existence, and in an infinity of dimensions too. [There is the corollary that Time has variously come and gone with Universes.] 'Infinity' cannot be confined to suit a Comfort Zone - in which the physical environment is not understood. Infinityx2 is a topic.
In sum, most issues in people's lives are decided as a matter of course, with scant recourse to intellectual input. When consequences may be expected from decisions, many will usually follow the Hive Mind - tending simpliciter to adopt the beliefs and opinions of others. For those few remaining decisions with consequences considered, the absolute value of Personal Worth (an undeniable concept outside of Time and impenetrable with any performance metrics), may likely be modulated (in a manner we wot not) in line with the clarity of thought attained.
In the circumstances of the website www.all-lives.institute, the wanton killing of Vulnerable Human Cohorts may see the setting aside (consciously or unconsciously) of Social and Spiritual aspects of constraint, for a while. As natural repugnance grows, Cognitive Bias and lying to oneself, may wish away the evidence, perhaps for a while. Not many have had the opportunity, using Scientific Method, to embrace the task of developing the habitude of disciplined, dispassionate investigation - disassembling jumbled situations faced. Personal Worth will be therefore adjudged for them at some point: their decisions being registerable as acts of Free Will. This will be necessary, inter alia, to maintain the Principle of Balance, observed throughout Nature and intuitively reasonable.
Retribution and reciprocity have played, and will play, an important role in maintaining cooperation and order in society. With an RRM, an aim is to develop policies to improve social behaviour and to counter tendencies toward crime, in some individuals. Human tribalism is an adaptive response to the threat of intergroup conflict - in both ancestral and modern human environments. The individual and the group minds are interwoven.
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