This article might be a bit boring, but it has an important part to play. And if you’re still here, you probably want to find out just how boring boring is. That’s the spirit! 😁
😕Want some context? Check out the previous article here!
Language is one of our greatest assets. It enables us to exchange data between each other. But we’re also really good at interpreting data in wildly different ways.
That makes things tricky.
So treading carefully here, let’s start with some basic definitions of the title’s four words before we put them all together.
Conscious: aware of and responding to one’s surroundings.
Energy: the ability to do work*; categorised as either potential or kinetic energy. *(Work: measure of energy transferred)
Interacting: acting in such a way as to have an effect* *(Effect: a change which is a consequence of an action)
Entities: things with distinct and independent existence.
The first note is that consciousness is certainly not unique to humans. Discussions and research continue to explore the potential extent of awareness all the way ‘down’ to single cell prokaryotes. There’s even discussions of consciousness at atomic levels and quantum states.
It could feasibly be argued that we humans don’t even qualify as totally conscious as we are surrounded by ‘dark’ matter and energy and yet are not aware nor able to respond to them (as far as we know at this stage).
That then leaves us with a very broad ‘conscious’ spectrum from quarks to single cells, to us and possibly onto more complex structures that are beyond our perception and even our imagination.
Therefore I wish to add an additional component/filter to provide a more targeted interpretation of ‘conscious’. And that is the contemplation of past, present and future instances.
We demonstrate this through our abilities to observe, reflect, learn, dream, evaluate, imagine and create to list a few.
We’re still not limiting consciousness to humans but hopefully that provides more stable footing for the discussion.
Second up is energy. Under our current understanding there are 2 categories of energy. Potential energy includes chemical, mechanical, nuclear and gravitational energy. Kinetic energy includes electrical, radiant, sound, motion and thermal energy.
Could there be more that we are unaware of?
Possibly. In the same way that a single cell may not be ‘aware’ of nuclear or gravitational energy there is certainly the possibility that there are energy forms that elude our own senses and understanding. A handy example is dark energy which makes up (mathematically) about 70% of the universe, and we know SFA about it.
Keeping that in mind, let’s bring into focus the element of interacting with energy. Specifically, interacting with energy so as to intentionally make a change for a past, present or future instance.
From that perspective, as humans we interact with ‘our’ known forms of energy to varying degrees. Some interaction is only possible through collective efforts though.
For example, there is no individual I’m aware of that can intentionally shine radiant energy from anywhere nor suck the nuclear milk of an atom. (obviously excluding the likes of Captain Marvel, Thor and possibly Iron Man)
In that same thread of thinking, there is a range of species, or rather tangible entities here on earth that also interact with ‘our’ known forms of energy to varying degrees.
Now by entities we refer to: things with distinct and independent existence. Such things could be tangible or intangible.
Tangible entities can, for example, include an individual, a team, a car, a dolphin, a flock of birds or a vast mat of single-cell prokaryotes. Intangible entities may include a category, an order, an account or a logical domain.
Now, putting that all together we can formulate some language to define conscious, energy-interacting entities. And that is:
Tangible things with the awareness and abilities to contemplate past, present and future instances and intentionally act to effect change.*
Thus we have a category of entity that certainly includes humans and our ‘uniqueness’, but not necessarily limited to just humans.
Still there?
I know that looking at the above it does not appear to have made any major insight. The only subtle component that I feel is important is:
To decentralise us from the picture.
Thus adopting a perspective where our size, shape, colour, population, habitats, default functioning etc. are, while unique and interesting, inconsequential.
It leverages a familiar thought progression we’ve been making over recent millennia, i.e. from a flat earth, to a spherical earth at the centre of a system, to a system at the centre of a universe, to now an unfathomable number of stars and us residing nowhere in particular in an incredibly vast universe.
A perspective which sees us as being no-thing in particular in that universe other than one variation of conscious, energy-interacting entities.**
Why is this important and what purpose does it serve?
We have struggled for tens of thousands of years to overcome, or rather outgrow, our prejudices, biases, assumptions, classifications and adverse behaviours within our own species alone.
While much of our default functioning can be explained and understood from biological and psychological contexts, some of that functioning is limited in its usefulness. Just because it’s ‘natural’ doesn’t mean its value-adding.
Our current human brain version is close to 100,000 years old. It begs the question: should we be well beyond those limiting functions by now?
Imagine where we might be today as a species and civilisation if #acceptance, #equality #inclusionanddiversity or servant #leadership had been high on the agendar during the days of pharaohs 4000 years ago.
To extend that thinking into the future: will we default to the same unhelpful functions and prejudices if and when we encounter civilisations not from earth? That might be embarrassing😳.
So the purpose of decentralising us from the picture is to open us up. To step outside ourselves and broaden our perspective so that we can better understand our reality and the contributions we might make to it as just one variation of conscious energy-interacting entities.
Excitingly, it creates a foundation to explore our potential and the opportunities awaiting our choice.
And for me, one such opportunity is no better highlighted than through the lenses of the Fermi Paradox and The Great Filter.
Talk soon.
* That’s a first draft in any case and can likely be refined/improved.
** Which in due course will probably be #decentralised even further one day.