We are located approximately here
Yes, through the Internet we have access to all the news, opinions, pictures, videos, movies, TV series, songs, books and art in the entire world. But when we start to really think for ourselves, this flood of information is not a pure joy. It overwhelms us and understanding what is actually going on worldwide can be like a kick in the balls.
As humans, we are still animals, albeit particularly smart animals. Like all living beings and plants on our planet, we are descended from single-celled organisms that have evolved over millions of years. That an almighty God created us is a very old origin myth, which people have been telling themselves for thousands of years. A kind of naive cosmology and in the version of the Old Testament no really good, nevertheless very momentous history, which we spun out in different variations further.
Only one element of the DNA of our ancestors mutated sometime and let our brain become even bigger, which would affect all forms of life on earth in the long run. But for millennia, we were initially still just hunter-gatherers, living in small groups and feeling loyalty, love and concern for each other. We lived in relative harmony with each other and with the environment. We shared what we had because we knew that our survival depended on the group. We did not value wealth beyond our needs, because possessions would only weigh us down as we wandered.
But we eventually learned how to grow food instead of hunting and gathering it. We settled down, moved into houses, established boundaries, and domesticated plants and animals.
During the ensuing wars over borders, land treasures, and various gods that justified us, modern civilization gradually emerged. But we cannot be called truly civilized in the face of continuing wars and environmental destruction.
We still burn too many fossil fuels. The temperature on earth and the sea level continue to rise, more and more plants and animal species are dying out. In short, we are ending the good old days in which we currently live. Our civilization could die before the end of this century. That is indeed how it looks.
What comes after the end? A resurrection? A posthuman continuation of life? In the universe? As transhuman cyborgs, as omnipresent superintelligences, as pure energies? We don’t know.
If we look to the stars, however, we can see that we are only a very small part of a galaxy of billions of stars, which itself is only a galaxy of billions. Even if we can flatter ourselves to have become a possible consciousness of the universe, on a cosmic scale we are no more than a fruit fly whose life lasts only one day.
First published on German on Valudis.
