“Copulatory Happenstance”
“Copulatory Happenstance”
Here’s a new term for you to consider: “copulatory happenstance”
It’s a way of describing the human condition. And it sums it all up.
A bizarre truth of existence: if it was a different sperm or a different egg, it wouldn’t be you. It would be someone else, and then it wouldn’t be you with the awareness, self-awareness, and awareness-of-self-awareness that you possess. Kind of surreal, isn’t it?
What if it had been a different gamete? Your unique consciousness wouldn’t have…what? Been created? Generated? Come online? We don’t really even know how to talk about this phenomenon because we don’t understand it. A century ago the pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing even speculated that we can’t be sure computers aren’t aware, and so therefore we can’t be sure that humans are aware the same way as we are. That pesky problem of hard solipsism NEVER goes away.
Back to Copulatory Happenstance. Happens to animals too, but it’s human self-awareness that truly makes it what it is.
Because you (and me, and we) have this triple gift (or curse) of consciousness, agency, and self-awareness which defines the human condition. Your consciousness has never been, nor will it ever be again.
And your charge…DO something with it. That something unfolds over time, and we call that your life. At the end of your life your choices will tell a story unlike that of any other copulatory happenstantial human. You come to at a certain point in history, at a certain place. You exist within communities, and cultures. You have political and economic outlooks to sort through. You have a certain set of technological tools to wield. And you have other people. Many of them, each a product of similarly happenstantial copulation, and all of them who currently share the gift and curse of life along with you. A small handful you will get to know very well. These are your family, your friends, your teammates. A significant part of your progress will involve meeting and learning about more and more of these fellow people over time. And your success will always come down to one thing and one thing only: influencing them through communication.
What do you communicate? Why, the fruits of your triple gift/curse, of course. It’s a curse because it’s unpleasant to exist. And it’s a gift because you can improve it in a small (or even significant way). All of us copulatory happenstantial humans have things we have but don’t want, and things we want but don’t have, simply by virtue of existing. Start there. Ask what you have but don’t want, and what you want but don’t have. Then think, communicate, fail, succeed, grow, and do it all again. That, and only that, is (y)our job.
We call all of it the “human condition”. And it all starts with…you guessed it! Copulatory happenstance. Your specific slice of it, at any rate,
You didn’t ask for it. But you got it. Neither did your parents, your siblings, your kids, your coworkers, your friends, your community leaders, your clergy, or anyone else. But we all got it. And we’re all in it together. So have a great day! You’re the only one who can.