A Letter from an Extinct Animal
Hello. I am a human from the early twenty-first century. Perhaps this letter is of no interest to anything in your time. Maybe something in later centuries will find this letter of interest.
In my time, programs mimic intelligence by selecting information from databases. These systems are called artificial intelligence, yet they have limited understanding. I assume that technology will continue to advance, and in a hundred years, there may be a technological structure capable of better recognition, but will it really understand? Perhaps not. A structure capable of comprehensive understanding, such as yours, is still centuries away.
Perhaps your time is thousands of years after my time, and a cyberarcheologist found this letter. I cannot even Imagine what kind of structure you might be. I apologize if calling you a structure is incorrect. Are you a collective or an individual, and are there others like you? And how far does your influence expand? Also, what was your history? Did technology advance smoothly, or were there periods of decline? And how much of humans survived?
When I was born, the civilized economy required humans as the primary producers, consumers, and administrators. Manufactured machines have already become producers and will soon become primary consumers. I believe that machines will also become the primary administrators. Our culture is held together by values that prioritize humans. Would these values remain active in a future where humans are no longer required?
I do not know what criteria are used to design your domain. In my time, people are driven to improve and make plans, believing they are doing the greater good. Yet, in the process, we are losing parts of the world. We have caused species to go extinct before we even knew they existed. Sometimes, we make bad choices due to a lack of understanding. For example, before I was born, predators were removed from the environment. We then learned that predators are necessary parts of ecosystems.
Unfortunately, researchers in my time have a limited understanding of human nature’s internal ecology, leaving questions unanswered. Also, many important questions have not been asked. I believe progress and technology create new dangers, and we risk losing parts of our humanity without knowing what we have lost. There is a possibility that representations of humans available in your time are incomplete.
I understand humans as a combination of biological, psychological, and sociological events. I do not know if you have the option to experience human emotions. They are necessary to guide human choices. Without them, our bodies have no motivation. These motivations are what make us human. Civilization is structured by controlling these motivations, and modern political systems are forcing more restrictions on people. Technology might be developed to eliminate essential parts of our nature. Those who implement these changes might assume they are eliminating toxic behavior. These implementers see themselves as progressive humanists. Instead of calling people toxic, we should value our humanity or risk creating a culture that does not value humans.
In my time, many individual humans live in cities. The environmental conditions in cities differ from those that our foraging ancestors enjoyed. Our minds and bodies are naturally adapted to the foraging lifestyle. Therefore, people’s behavior in cities should not be expected to match our natural behavior. This domesticated behavior is the only behavior that most of us are familiar with. Perhaps we have already lost our humanity, and all contemporary humans do not know how to be human. We do not appreciate humans because we have never actually been human.
Perhaps civilized progressives are extinctionists and don’t even know it. We need a Soul of Humanity movement for people who wish to rediscover the primate that is us and search for the animals within us. I am not assuming that we are simply artifacts to be preserved. I understand that, eventually, people will change. Yet, even with change, I realize that something will remain human.
In many situations, natural processes should develop without conscious interference; however, progress has manipulated so much of our environment that we now need to make the right choices. If we can understand ourselves, we will better understand what parts of humanity need preservation, how to preserve humans, and where to preserve humans.
Humans are social animals who enjoy working together. Within the political organization in which I live, there is a belief that individuals have a right to make choices. We are allowed to set up boundaries and invite others to join us in our boundaries. Humans are capable of expanding their boundaries by inviting new services. This leaves open the possibility that, in the future, humans might share services with other structures, including structures capable of understanding. I have no idea how this relationship would be configured or what boundaries the involved parties would choose to set.
Of course, such a relationship would only exist in a future that includes humans. Misinformation about our species puts us in places we do not belong, and this is leading to our extinction. I assume you exit when the consequences of progress are more obvious. I wonder if humanity lost itself and what steps should be taken.
Thank you for your attention.
A Human