On Tuesday I wrote on the importance of maintaining Internet freedom — if only for the most excellent ability that it gives us to spread information. I would like to explore this concept a little more deeply but from a different perspective.
There has been no greater joy in my life than coming to discover our place in the cosmos. The cosmic perspective adds so much to my life.
For aeons, we were there. We were matter in the stellar furnaces — the sleeping star stuff. It was you. It was me. The cigarette butt on the street, the tree that gives you the oxygen that you breathe — we were all there in the stars.
The stuff of life abounded on this planet, and the matter arranged such that it began to replicate itself. The crude copying process allowed for changes.
And now here we are. We are complex assemblages of matter contemplating the origins of matter; stardust coming to understand the stars; atomic beings unlocking the hidden powers of atoms. When you really stop and think about it, it blows your mind.
All of this is true, and yet most of us rarely think about it.
Such small beings are we. Such humble origins do we have. And now we have arisen to become alive. In this sector of the cosmos, we are its frontal lobes. We are the eyes and ears of the universe. We are a part of the cosmos, too. There’s no out there and in here. It’s all in here. We are the stars come alive!
We start out as children, we grow up and retain the memory of having lived a life, but all matter that was in you as a child probably fled from you long ago, and now all that’s left is a memory, a pattern of molecules in the brain. The matter flows from place to place and comes together only for a moment to be human.
There’s a misunderstanding that many of us share about human nature. Many think that our nature is to kill and to hurt others, but this couldn’t be. As a single species, how could it be evolutionarily advantageous for us to hate each other? Indeed, we are equipped with empathy, instead. We are social beings, and we have the capacity to take on the emotions of others.
In addition to communicating with emotion, we also use language. Language is frightful in its power. It’s a refined mind-to-mind telepathy. It’s insane! We assign symbolic value to the calls we make, the grunts coming from our mouths, and these are our languages. Minds connect, and even now as you read this, what was once just an idea in my mind is now in your mind.
The Internet is the current epitome of this telepathic process. Look at your phone! We’ve outsourced our mental capacity to communicate to these devices, and now we can communicate with anyone in any sector of the globe if we have their number. It’s crazy! Matter has come to do such unusual things.
Beings so fragile, so small as we are, will venture to the stars. Our small, delicate planet hangs in the black, frigid depths of space, silently traveling. It’s our little home, our little spaceship. It’s the only home we’ve ever known. Here, life arose. Here we have found a place to call our own. Here is where we make our stand and do mighty works. We come to understand ourselves. The world of the unseen is made known to us. What greater story could there be?
If we’re to ever make it as far as the stars, we must first ensure that our capacity for fearfulness and hatred, qualities which kept us alive for so long in the wild, don’t keep us from viewing humanity as it truly is: a single species. We’re all in this together, we dwellers of the third planet. Matter wanders, and we wander. We were wanderers then, and we’re wanderers still.
I hope that we will always have the courage to confront ourselves head-on, to ask the tough questions, and to never be frightened of the answers.
When a mind is steeped in the truth, it adds to existence. Every moment spent in communion with what is true, renewing your understanding of what you are, is a moment well spent. Farewell.
Brandon Lee Gagne is a UF anthropology senior.
