Level 7/Danger zone

The Danger Zone (DZ) is that part of a population who fall in the middle part of a bell curve. Generally it corresponds to that segment of the population who are intelligent enough to understand a concept, but not intelligent enough to understand it completely or correctly. It can also refer to those who are unwilling to do something because they cannot get a satisfactory answer as to why they should do it.

Here is a little story that may help you understand the concept of DZ.

I found myself running. Just like that. First I couldn't remember anything (it was as if I were an animal and unconscious), and then my neo-cortex sort of turned on and I became self-aware and I found myself running.

Then after that brief period of self-analysis, I started to become aware of my surroundings. There were others in front of me running. And to my left and right. And behind me as well. I looked into the faces of my fellow runners and there seemed to be a glazed look in their eyes, as if they were in a trance. Then I realized that I had been just like them only a few moments before.

As I studied the runners around me, suddenly one of them turned his head and looked around him. As our eyes locked onto each other's, we both saw bewilderment in the other. But we kept running, not knowing why. I noticed that a few others had snapped out of it too. We looked at each other questioningly but all we could do was shrug our shoulders.

Then I asked myself, "Why are we running? What are we all running from?" I could see nothing behind us, no monsters or demons chasing us. "Where are we running to?" I could see nothing of importance up ahead. "For how long have we been running?" I had no idea. "Why are we still running?" I could find no satisfactory answers to my questions.

Then I saw one of them slow down. As my eyes followed him, he came to a stop and was quickly lost in the sea of people behind me. Not seeing the point of it either, I slowed to a stop too. The runners around me kept going. But those who had snapped out of their trance saw what I was doing and stopped too.

Soon there was a lot of people who had stopped. Not being distracted by the running anymore, we paid more attention to our surroundings. It was a nice day with mild sunshine and patches of cloud here and there. Up ahead in the distance were some stunningly beautiful mountains. There was a little brook that bubbled merrily. There were fruit trees here and there, and animals resting in the shade. I plucked an apple and found it to be absolutely delicious. I saw a few of those who had stopped try to "wake up" those who were still running as they ran past.

We spent quite a considerable amount of time just enjoying ourselves. As I bit into a mango with one hand and patted a deer head with the other, I noticed one man sit bolt upright with a look of what seemed like shock on his face. It seemed like he had just realized something. He then said "OH SHIT!", stood up, and started running in the same direction (as we were all running before) as fast as he could as if hell itself were going to open up behind him and swallow him up.

I wondered at this and felt a bit of unease. After thinking about it for a while, realization suddenly dawned on me. In a flash all the questions I had asked myself earlier were suddenly answered. Just like the man who I had observed earlier, I too got to my feet as quickly as possible, and started running too.

The story starts with people running. They are running even though they are not self-aware or conscious. This is how animals are. Animals have a lot of evolutionary programming within themselves in the form of DNA. Animals have internal programming (their organs are programmed to do various tasks by themselves) and external programming, ie. look for food, have sex, give birth to offspring, etc. They carry out their programming without being conscious of the fact. To understand an animal's thought processes you must have a high Empathy. If you are unable to understand what it is like to be an animal, then your Empathy is low.

To understand what it feels like to be an animal, I want you to think far back to when you were about 1 year old. What did it feel like? That's similar to what an animal feels like. When you were 1 year old, you were an animal. After a year or so, your memories started to take shape. This is where sentience starts to kick in. Note that there is no sharp boundary between When you "woke up", that is when your first memories started to take shape,