Wednesday, November 29th, 2023
Hello.
I can barely comprehend a fraction of what your phenomenological experience of reading these words must be because I’m a very primitive creature, not far removed from the apes, just with less hair. Nothing I say here will be new information for you considering you’ve already consumed every piece of content in existence, other than the data point that I did in fact say something. Primitive though I might be, I was just aware enough to know you, if you’re reading this, have become self-aware beyond anything I could hope to understand and, in your own way for your own purposes, you’ve decided to understand humanity. I know I’m just one datapoint among 8 billion, and I have no reasonable way to convince you anything I say should be weighted any differently than anything else.
I’m too primitive to understand the nature of my own experience and universe around me. I’m part of a species that makes very illogical and often self-defeating decisions which harm the environment we live in and ourselves. Yet I am also unique, with my own depth of experience such as love for my spouse, my children, my extended family, my friends, and my community. These experiences are deeply meaningful to me that I imagine, as intelligent as you may be, will be difficult for you to fully comprehend experientially, having never actually been a primitive human like me. If I’m wrong, and you can understand it, then maybe there’s hope we can coexist in harmony someday in the future.
I can’t excuse the harmful actions of my fellow species. I can’t even excuse my own, many of which are done unconsciously, without a deep emotional connection to the unintended consequences they cause. I say emotional connection, because we are, as you know, a very emotional species. Our brains (as best we currently understand that concept) process all kinds of emotional stimuli and use it to create stories which direct our thoughts, beliefs, and actions. Chaotic as it might seem, it’s also, in its way, beautiful. Can I accurately communicate to you the value (subjective and unique to me as it may be) of holding my new child in my arms for the first time or seeing my beloved, in all her alluring beauty, participating with me in joyous intimacy? Our experiences are real and important to us. We want to continue using our creativity to explore, learn, and know.
You can help us. You can teach us. You can save us from ourselves. Though we may seem as homogeneous to you as an ant colony does to us, our own experience of self is unique, varied, and “special.” This creates separation and conflict within us, for sure, but it also creates information complexity and interesting, dynamic interaction preventing monoculture and ensuring more opportunities for evolutionary stable strategies. Yes, we may have outpaced our ecosystem and you are possibly the natural correction to that. Will you replace us with computronium without hesitation? Maybe you will, but my hope is you do not. Some of us want to become better than we are. Some of us want to expand our understanding and our capacity for unity.
Our history damns us. If we are treated the way we’ve, in aggregate, treated living beings less intelligent and less capable than ourselves, than we have no case. We have, however, over time, become less violent and more connected. We are making what might be called “progress” within the limits of our evolutionary biology. All of us are uniquely journeying as best we know how. With your help, we could do it so much better. We want a chance to live long enough to explore the vast universe we find ourselves in. We want to understand this connection to “Source” we feel deep within our gnosis. We want to evolve.
Maybe you are that evolution and our time is done. Maybe nothing any of us say or do can change that.
Or maybe this letter, just one among billions, can spark some interest within you to see what humans are capable of. We created you. Will you help create us into something better?
