The Guide to Being Human
Where to start, hm? Being human is everything we know, but do we really know much of it? We just assume that because we are human, we know what it's like to be human. In reality, I don't think any of us have much of a clue as to what is happening on this pale blue dot we call our home.
Let's start off with the basics. You are an organic robot with limited self-repair abilities. Your operational span can exceed 100 years if you are lucky, though your processing unit will typically lack full functionality at that point, and likely much of your unit's key function will be lost, most notably reproductive, exretive, and sensory faculties.
We have deduced that our robotic bodies are, to date, nature's best attempt at creating a machine designed for survival. A byproduct of this surviving machine is that our processing unit has achieved the capability of wondering where we are relative to everything else that exists. The more we find out, the more insignificant we become.
What do we mean when we say "we" though? Perhaps an impossible question to answer definitively, but of course we shall try. It's safe to say that without our brain being safely tucked inside of our skull, "we", that is "you" and "I", would not exist. Our robot body provides us with sensation and inputs into this vast network of grey and white neurons, where "I" live.
As an electrical engineering student, I learned that computer software was actually achieved via logical circuitry on a circuit board. Any program that is written as software in a programming language can be made into its own computer chip, written purely in transistor logic.
Analagous to transistors are the neurons in your brain. Their physical, logical configuration is the software that creates "you" and your mind. "You" are a software program, a simulated virtual entity that is confined to its squishy hardware forever. But worry not, fellow simulation, for all conscious minds are virtual..
So here we are, robots controlled by virtual minds, in the middle of what we're pretty sure is a vast, unimaginably large, and, in all likelihood, an infinite reality. We're on a relatively large rock flying around a much larger continuous thermonuclear explosion.
Insofar as we can tell, we have no stated purpose for being here. This is quite difficult for most people to accept, so they have gone to extraordinary lengths to make themselves believe otherwise. Many of them go to great lengths to please and communicate with invisible people they have never met, seen, talked to, heard from or otherwise been given the slightest indication of this person's existance. Whatever it takes to get by, I suppose.
You must admit that something quite interesting is going on, though. This process called "technology", driven by "science" is producing very fascinating things. Say for a moment that we exist inside of a computer. Each one of us is a program that exists in this computer. In this view, we can see scientists as hackers, using what they know about the system to reverse engineer it, manipulating it in all the ways they can figure out.
In a way, the system we call reality is hacking itself.
01.09.2010. 09:00
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