Chapter VII – How To Make Human Society Aware That She Is An Organism

One of the main things that differentiates us from other animals is the ability to be self-aware. That, and pizza. You are self-aware in the fact that you know that you are an organism, separate from other people, an organism that thinks stuff, that does stuff, that exists on this Earth, that would secretly kill people and eat them every morning with a side of cornflakes. And if you say “No” to that last part, that’s also because you are self-aware.

Self-awareness is an important factor in our ability define our lives. To determine where we want to go, what we want to achieve, what kind of shoes we like. It’s part of the bedrock from everything from our moral sense to our ambition to our fashion sense.

Self-awareness is part of the reason why you care about all parts of your body - from your toenails to you hairdo. Without self-awareness, we wouldn’t be able to recognize who the person in the mirror is, as most animals don’t, let alone do things like make rational decisions.

So what would be the effect if human society became selfaware? That is, what would happen if Y became consciously aware of the fact that Y am an organism? How would that change the way in which one part of human society treats the other? How would that change the actions, the thought processes, the future plans of human society? How would that change mY reproduction speed? Would the change amount to something as dramatic as the difference between an animal and a human being?

Clearly we are on to something, so how do we go about achieving it? Well, we’ve said in the last chapters that human society’s thoughts are made up of the popular works of art that us humans create and share with one another. So one way would be to make popular works of art that include this information throughout human society.

But although you may be reading this book, and are thinking “Oh my god, this book is amazing, I want to make sweet love to the author," let's face it: It’s highly unlikely that everyone around the world will read it. I mean, how many people do you know that read books nowadays, no matter how good they are? So, in keeping with our definition of consciousness in the other chapters, what this means is that with this book alone, the fact that human society is an organism will likely remain within its subconscious, in that this idea will not become common knowledge throughout human society.

So what’s there to do to make it common knowledge? Well, we can also make a documentary that illustrates the main points in the book (narrated by Samuel L. Jackson), and put it up on social media so that everyone can have access to it, and that would have the positive effect of reaching a great deal more people, so the idea that human society is an organism might slowly start to sip out of human society’s subconscious into its consciousness. And then say that we make rap songs about it, and video games about it, and paintings about it, and action movies with Tom Cruise about it - all of it would be tremendously useful in that it would help to spread the idea. It’s similar to how you would best perceive an idea created by your nervous cells when you not only have an initial thought about it, but after the thought you also visualize it, you imagine what it means, you talk about it…in other words, you recruit the various networks of brain cells to create thoughts that tie into the original idea in order to understand it better, and as you do the idea travels throughout your brain.

Having the idea of human society as an organism be embedded into popular works of art created by human beings everywhere would be an important first step in allowing the idea to surface into human society’s consciousness and also to understand it better. It might even make us all look at our collective selves and go…am Y really an organism?

But here comes the tricky part: It’s one thing to consider, and it’s another thing to believe. As a human, you don’t just consider that you are an organism, you truly believe that you are down to yer bones, it’s embedded in your psyche as deep as your love for cookies and your knowledge that if you board a train with oversize luggage, you can't expect it to be an extremely comfortable journey. It’s what makes self-awareness so powerful. And what did you do to become so sure of the fact that you are an organism? Well, not much, you were practically born with this deep-seated belief. It seems to have its origins somewhere during the billions of years of evolution through the process of natural selection that your ancestors went through. Human society doesn’t have this luxury of ancestors setting things up for herself, and so this idea of herself as an organism, as useful as it would be, would be merely considered even if it were to surface into her consciousness, not believed. And despite it being true, it would likely take a long time for the idea to settle to the point where everyone - from the flat-earthers to the white supremacists to the cheating housewives - believes it as much as everyone in the world believes in the existence of Coca-Cola. Even if the idea would be scribbled on the moon in font size 12,248, it might take a few generations of people for the idea to slowly seep in, and pardon my French, but in between the unpredictable things that can come from Earth and the unpredictable things that can come from space, human society’s future is…well, unpredictable, so we’a might’a not’a have’a that’a long’a time’a. It would be downright crazy to wait generations for something that could be so revolutionary in the evolution of multizoa life as self-awareness to take root. Not if we can help it. But can we help it?

Well, as hinted before, to say that human society is self-aware - that is, for her to fully believe that she is an organism - it would mean that the vast majority of human beings which make up her body believe that they are part of one organism, and for that belief to be reflected in human society’s mind. By human society’s mind, we mean the popular works of art created by people that travel through human society, like books, movies, songs, memes, videos, tattoos you got that one night when you were completely wasted, etc.

And how do people come to believe things? By reading? Meh, sometimes. By watching a documentary on the subject? Mmph. By talking to other people about it? Sure, that might happen. By listening to a good song about it? Depends on the type of drug used beforehand, but not really. In fact all of these examples are largely a hit-and-miss when it comes to inspiring belief, even when it’s about believing something that is entirely true but that you didn’t consider, especially if believing it might have a profound effect on how you see the world.

And when you believe that human society is an organism, and I mean deep to your core, it can’t help but have a profound effect. From morality, to purpose in life, to what you share with friends, it has an effect. Even the way you look at pizza can forever change - I mean, you may come to see it as a work of art created and perfected by the hands and minds of the countless people that have been part of this organism before it reached your hands, instead of just pizza. And anything that influences pizza views better have some damn good reasoning backing it up before you’ll ever believe it.

So what is the best way that we people come to believe the existence of something? It’s when we can touch it, play around with it, fondle it…ahem, I mean experience it ourselves with our senses. And perhaps it’s most of all when we see it, because, wait for it, waaiiiit for it….The following statement may be the most cliché thing contained in this book…drumrolll…..Seeing is believing! Thank you, thank you. But it’s true though. So how does this play into our quest to get human society not only to consider the fact that she is an organism, but to believe it?

To answer that question, we shall turn to Duck Dodgers....and all of the other astronauts that went into space and turned around to take a look at our planet.

There is a common effect that astronauts describe when they first reach space and turn around to see our human planet from afar, and that is a deep sense of awe at the sight of our blue planet floating in the immense void of the universe, being all fragile with nothing but a thin sheet of atmosphere to coat it.

Astronauts often report feelings of empathy towards the world as a whole following this profound reaction, a renewed sense of social purpose, and acquiring the intuitive understanding that we are all connected, that there aren't really any state borders - you can't see them when in space, after all - and that all that we people have is really each other, standing on this small, fragile blue ball drifting into the vast emptiness of the cosmos.

Here are a few quotes about this sense of awe from the astronauts themselves:

It’s hard to explain how amazing and magical this experience is. First of all, there’s the astounding beauty and diversity of the planet itself, scrolling across your view at what appears to be a smooth, stately pace . . . I’m happy to report that no amount of prior study or training can fully prepare anybody for the awe and wonder this inspires. (NASA Astronaut Kathryn D., as cited in Robinson et al., 2013, p. 81)

I had another feeling, that the earth is like a vibrant living thing. The vessels we’ve clearly seen on it looked like the blood and veins of human beings. I said to myself: this is the place we live, it’s really magical. (Chinese Space Program Astronaut Yang Liu, as cited in Chen, 2012, p. 288)

I had another feeling, that the earth is like a vibrant living thing. The vessels we’ve clearly seen on it looked like the blood and veins of human beings. I said to myself: this is the place we live, it’s really magical. (Chinese Space Program Astronaut Yang Liu, as cited in Chen, 2012, p. 288)

You . . . say to yourself, ‘That’s humanity, love, feeling, and thought.’ You don’t see the barriers of color and religion and politics that divide this world.” (NASA Astronaut Gene Cernan, as cited in White, 1987, p. 37)

You identify with Houston and then you identify with Los Angeles and Phoenix and New Orleans . . . and that whole process of what it is you identify with begins to shift when you go around the Earth . . . you look down and see the surface of that globe you’ve lived on all this time, and you know all those people down there and they are like you, they are you—and somehow you represent them. You are up there as the sensing element, that point out on the end . . . you recognize that you’re a piece of this total life. (NASA Astronaut Rusty Schweikart, as cited in White, 1987, p. 12)

Before I flew I was already aware how small and vulnerable our planet is; but only when I saw it from space, in all its ineffable beauty and fragility, did I realize that humankind’s most urgent task is to cherish and preserve it for future generations. (German Cosmonaut Sigmund Jahn, as cited in Hassard & Weisberg, 1999, p. 40)

The feeling of unity is not simply an observation. With it comes a strong sense of compassion and concern for the state of our planet and the effect humans are having on it. It isn’t important in which sea or lake you observe a slick of pollution or in the forests of which country a fire breaks out, or on which continent a hurricane arises. You are standing guard over the whole of our Earth. (Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Artyushkin, as cited in Jaffe, 2011, p. 9)

From space I saw Earth—indescribably beautiful with the scars of national boundaries gone. (Syrian Astronaut Muhammad Ahmad Faris, as cited in Hassard & Weisberg, 1999, p. 1)

You’ve seen pictures and you’ve heard people talk about it. But nothing can prepare you for what it actually looks like. The Earth is dramatically beautiful when you see it from orbit, more beautiful than any picture you’ve ever seen. It’s an emotional experience because you’re removed from the Earth but at the same time you feel this incredible connection to the Earth like nothing I’d ever felt before. (NASA Astronaut Sam Durrance, as cited in Redfern, 1996, p. 1)

“And now this planet is hereby claimed for the Earth in the name of DUCK DODGERS IN THE 24 1/2TH CENTURY!” (Duck Dodgers, 24 1/2th Century CE)

All of these quotes are collated in the wonderful paper on the subject entitled The Overview Effect: Awe and Self-Transcendent Experience in Space Flight, by Yaden and colleagues (2016).

This shift in perception that astronauts have experienced has been called a few things: the overview effect, the orbital perspective…I like to call it seeing yo mama from space effect, or symfse for short, and sometimes, the synoptic perspective. We'll go with the first one, but whatever the name, quite a few astronauts have reported what it describes - of which there haven't been very many, mind you. Under 600 people have flown into space in recorded history.¹ That's under 600 astronauts that have seen the world from that angle first hand. This also means that under 600 people that had the chance to drink floating milk, the lucky bastards.

Now if you're thinking that the overview effect was something that only the astronauts could experience due to some part of their training, think again: though they were trained in many things, including in how to use a space toilet, this was a completely unintended experience. As quoted, some of the astronauts were overwhelmed with the unexpected feelings that bubbled in their chest to the point of tears.

So the question then is: If the astronauts experienced the overview effect, why not average people that would just go for a ride in the near future on the latest civilian rocket KissMyBum 200, for a cheap, reliable trip into Earth's outer orbit? No reason why they shouldn't.

And if at that point the idea that human society is an organism would be common knowledge, they would most likely immediately come to believe it. Why? Because they could SEE the evidence with their eyes. Here it is, human society rooted on the surface of Earth, a planet among countless others floating on the endless plains of space. We humans are very visual creatures. It would be the theoretical foundation that would make sense of the experience. Seeing leads to feeling. Feeling leads to believing. Believing leads to fondling.

The overview effect might just be what could tip the scale from human society just considering that she is an organism to human society believing that she is.

And the more humans would be able to make the trip, from absolutely all walks of life, the more human society will likely become fully self-aware through the experience, because most if not everyone that would see our human society from that perspective would increase their understanding of our place in the universe.

I believe that’s what NASA astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell wanted to say, albeit in a more colorful tone, when he stated that when seeing our planet from space you “…develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch."

Call me a romantic, but I don’t think any person would need to be dragged, no matter our diverse backgrounds that shaped us. I think we all want to have this experience of our planet from space, and if that experience will make us more people oriented and empathetic due to the truth that will be staring us in the face, I think that all of us will welcome it. Except people who are afraid of flying. We will probably have to club them over the back of the neck with a hard object and drag their fainted, possibly convulsive bodies inside one of the KissMyBum 200’s, only to have them wake up in low earth orbit with two aspirins and a glass of water next to them for the headache. Hey, we’re not monsters!

So, to conclude, this chapter proposes a two-step approach to making human society self-aware:

Step 1: Infuse the idea that human society is an organism into the popular works of art that travel throughout human society, so that Y will consciously consider the fact that Y am an organism.

Step 2: Technologically develop a cheap, affordable, entirely safe way for humans to travel into outer space, then have them look at Earth to experience the overview effect.

Step 3: Profit! - Just kidding!

There are already different teams of people that are working on putting commercially flying civilian passengers into low earth orbit, from Elon Musk’s SpaceX to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to NASA, and the process by which they will be able to achieve this goal can be encouraged and possibly sped up by making these and other ventures as popular to talk about in our culture as sliced bread, so as to funnel human creativity and resources into them - after all, why else would we be aware that human society has a very resourceful consciousness as we outlined in the last chapter, if not to use that info for the betterment of us all?

Incidentally, achieving the second point - cheap, commonly available low Earth orbit flights - would be a first good baby step in developing our society’s ability to one day colonize other planets, and thus having human society reproduce. Isn’t that an interesting coincidence? A very promising lead for achieving human society’s self-awareness is also a first step in the process leading to the reproduction of human society on another planet, and spreading multizoa life. It’s like nature is slowly luring us out to get out of our Earthbound comfort zone, so that we may one day populate the universe. It’s basically saying “C’mon kids, c’mon out of your shell. Heeeere, little chick chick.” Which brings us to the next chapter: Bionic space chickens.