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Non-Human Humans



Jeremy put together a masterful bit of speculation today about the notions of humanity, and the inter-species transmission of consciousness through the past, present and future:

[…] what if “humanity” isn’t defined by species? It doesn’t take much for life to survive. I like to think that even if our current concept of “humanity,” devolved from apes and primates, goes extinct via societal suicide, another species will become “human,” the consciousness of the Universe entering their physical bodies and trying again. Hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years from now, after even plastics and radioactive materials have mostly broken down, when the new humans begin to form societies of their own (maybe they’ll be insectoid, perhaps crustacean, who knows?), won’t they believe that they’re the only “human” society that’s ever existed? Won’t their scientists ignore evidence of much older “civilizations”?

Fucking nuts. This makes me think of a few other great questions like: if you could give your dog or cat the gift of consciousness, would you? What happens if after you did, they got mad at you and resented you for it? Would you be like the Judeo-Christian serpent, tempting them with the fruit of knowledge which then gets them kicked out of Paradise?







5 Reader Responses

  1. alistair Says:
    August 18th, 2005 at 5:07 pm

    maybe paradise is the ignorant bliss of not being aware. but then again who`s to say that cats and dogs aren`t just keeping quiet as to preserve a good thing. it seems to me that consciousness is somewhat overrated as a survival mechanism.if it is all that distinguishes us from let`s say ants or microbes or flamingos then conciousness and “humanness” has a poor track record for survival. ants seem to get along quite well in the hill, as do bees in the hive and birds in a flock and fish in schools in the ocean. it seemsthat consciousness can be a bit disruptive to the survival of the species angle.

  2. Dan Says:
    August 18th, 2005 at 9:07 pm

    Very interesting.

    But I think first, much attention should be focusesd on the underlying consciousness that various experiements with animals have already verified.

    Try Sheldrake’s dog experiments and Clive Backster’s experiments! (Backster’s experiments with plant consciousness are truly mindblowing) I actually just tried Googling for Backster’s experiments and there’s a lot of bullshit slander about him online. I read what I know from Derek Jensen’s “A Language Older than Words…”. Here’s what seems to be one decent page: http://www.ahpweb.org/pub/perspective/dec%202003/dec03review.html Backster seems to get the Wilhelm Reich treatment among other scientists and most others but theres a few good pages on him…

  3. alistair Says:
    August 18th, 2005 at 10:46 pm

    alex merklinger has interviewed cleve backster and so has hilly rose and i believe those interviews are available in archives still.
    my cat is conscious. he is sitting with me now doing his best disrupt my typing and get me to rub his head a bit. he is conscious of the fact that i provide him food, shelter and affection. he doesn`t seem to be philisophical about the arrangement, more pragmatic and self-assured. i am reminded, from time to time, that his forehead does end just above his eyebrows but he is good company, nontheless.

  4. scott rassbach Says:
    August 19th, 2005 at 10:37 am

    My dog would be PISSED. She’d not only be left alone, which she hates, but she’d know she was being left alone, and resent it.

    Erk. Don’t even want to think about it.

  5. Nathan Says:
    August 19th, 2005 at 1:00 pm

    At the University of Sheffield in England, a campus doctor treating a mathematics student for a minor ailment noticed the student’s head was a little larger than normal, and the doctor referred him to neurology professor Dr. John Lorber for further study. When Dr. Lorber performed a CAT-scan, he discovered that the student (who was academically bright, headed for graduation, and had an IQ of 126) had virtually no brain at all. Instead of two hemispheres filling the cranial cavity 4.5 centimeters deep, all he had was less than 1 millimeter of cerebral tissue covering the top of the spinal cord. Over the course of his career, Professor Lorber was able to identify hundreds of people, with at least average to normal intelligence, who were found to have significant missing brain mass, with some individuals descibed as having ‘no detectable brain’ at all.

    So it would appear that this thing we call “human” consciousness, whatever it is, or wherever it actually comes from, it apparently is perfectly capable of expressing itself through human beings without the presence of a normally structured and functioning brain in all of it’s supposed complexity. Perhaps this ‘intelligence’ channeling itself through homo sapiens is operating more out of habit than necessity; maybe what normally goes on is more of a guideline than a rule. If we all died out, or if the ‘intelligence’ just got sick and tired of dealing with us, perhaps it could rather easily make a shift, and start expressing itself through other brains and other species…who knows, maybe the shift has already begun.



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