What Makes us Human
Just like the universe, the human eye is infinite. I could read your eyes every day for the rest of my life, and ever meet a new you.
Humans have evolved different shapes and colors, but we also share a human spirit. We are different yet the same, and together we are beautiful.
The human spirit is transcendentally transformative as it allows us to be so much more than the sum of our parts.
We transcend the physical
We can fly faster than an eagle in the sky, move faster than a cheetah on land. We can bring life to space, and physically alter the surrounding universe to support life where it naturally should not.
We transcend time
We can record our knowledge and pass it along to new generations. We are developing technology which will soon even back-up the entire human brain. We can replace worn out organs with new ones, regenerate dead parts of our body.
We transcend our nature
If we are already capable of altering our own genetic code, then what is our true nature? What is the meaning of color and shape if we can change it at will?
We capture sapientia in a bottle
We are capable of creating entirely new forms of life. Humans are just years away from creating the first artificial general intelligence: “Sapiens One”.
By the way, Sapiens = Homo Sapiens minus Homo. Hence, by definition, Sapiens One will not be human, and this has profound implications for our future.
What makes us human?
We are a contradictio in terminis, a transcending spirit in a mortal, natural shell. To understand what makes us human, then, we need to embrace the contradiction. We need to understand the nature of the flesh, the nature of the human spirit, and how the two interact to make us fully human.
