EW!
https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html
--- Terry Bisson, 1991
This shortwrite is a fun little lesson in perspective:
A resource that many individuals do not possess.
As we all live inside our personal bubbles.
"There's no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."
"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars."
"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."
"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."
"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."
"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."
"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in the sector and they're made out of meat."
Humans have dominated this planet to the point of terraforming the entire shabang. We are not only apex predators, but also apex farmers, builders, thinkers, and dominators. The apes have risen up and evolved. Look at what we've become: talking meat.
We think we are so special, but in the grand scheme of the multiverse, we are a speck of insignificance. That is the point of this freewrite: to point out just how ridiculous and self-important we are. Everything is relative, and everything we cannot perceive is ignored. After all: we can't perceive the unperceivable. Trying to parse these unknowns is simply a guess (religion).
Have you ever just looked at a spider chillin in its web? You can shine a light on it and there will be no reaction. It can't even detect that its immediate environment has changed. You can blow on it and it gets scared and retreats to the back corner. You can tug on the web but if you're too aggressive it knows it's in trouble, while weak movement will bait it into attacking smaller prey. A spider in a web has very little idea of what's going on in the world, and even little idea of what's going on in its immediate surroundings.
Apply this concept to your own life.
We go through life with very little idea of what's going on around us. What's worse: a lot of people think they know, but none of them actually do. We all perform actions every day that would make no sense to a higher intelligence. LOL, silly humans running around doing human things.
"No brain?"
"Oh, there is a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat!"
"So... what does the thinking?"
"You're not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The meat."
"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"
Literally the only thing that makes humans "better" than other animals is the ability to communicate. Without the ability to build off the knowledge of those that came before us, we'd still be low-class animals, plain and simple.
Over the years we've built many technologies that help us to communicate better. These are the technologies that matter most for advancement.
- First it was language itself.
- Then the written word.
- Then the printing press. (mass production)
- Then the Internet.
- And now crypto.
Money itself is a form of communication: the language of conveying value to others. Crypto is a gigantic upgrade that is still in the infant stages. We haven't even come 1% to fully utilizing it. Not even close.
"I thought you just told me they used radio."
"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."
HaHa...
That's gotta be my favorite part.
Flapping meat.
Jesus Christ.
"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."
"I was hoping you would say that."
"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"
Yeah, I wouldn't want to make first-contact either.
Can you imagine?
Damn meat I tell ya!
Running around doing meat things.
When it really comes down to it humans are just pond scum on some random planet. Deal with the pointlessness of your own existence. Nothing matters, and yet everything matters. Existence itself is just a series of paradoxes.
We are four-dimensional beings.
If a fifth dimensional being was staring at you like you stare at the spider in the web, you wouldn't even know what what happening. Do we really think their isn't intelligent life that exists outside our concept of time and space? Considering the evidence I see: the human brain is not even capable of understanding what's going on here.
Just because your thinking meat is "smarter" than another animal's on Earth doesn't mean your the smartest being in the multiverse. Get over yourself. We've come far enough on ego. Time to let it go.
The only way to evolve from here is to scale up from tribalists to hive clusters. How fitting that this blockchain is called Hive. Working together and trust/communication between large groups is the only way to move forward. Anything less is a step in the wrong direction.
People are too small and weak to accomplish anything on their own. Think about how much work went into just you taking a shower in the morning. Even a plastic ball point pen requires a $10M factory to produce across multiple scientific disciplines.
Where am I going with this?
Consider this post a precursor to my open-source cult idea. I have this idea for an entirely new religion. Of course since I'm an atheist and what not it will be a totally joke religion but it could be fun nonetheless.
So you think there isn't life on the Sun?
A beacon of infinite energy? According to my religion, the Sun is teeming with life, but that may be a bit too complicated so we'll just dumb it down to worshiping the Sun God: RA. For obvious Game of Thrones reasons Lord of Light is also acceptable.
After all: that's what religion is all about. Dumbing down reality and making sense of the unknown with our silly little meat brains. Earthmother Gaia and Goddess Moon are also on my radar somewhere. More to come!
Conclusion
So the next time you're thinking about ROI, yield farming, crypto, politics, imperialism, the economy, or whatever else, be sure to remind yourself that what's going on with reality is bigger than everyone. Existence is relative, but our imaginations don't have to be limited to our individual experiences. Perspective is king.