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How did we become human? The fact that we are born human does not make us a human being. It takes work, and thought, and vivid imagination. How do we learn our quintessential lessons? Be the best person we can be? How can we live our one cherished life with authenticity, purpose, and beauty? In the flow of time, the same ancient DNA that hunted woolly mammoths also went to the moon. We humans are fleeting sparks of light in the vastness of time shaped by over twenty thousand generations.
For this issue I invited a diverse and talented group of nine people to respond to the question, What makes us human? They include four psychoanalysts, the Director of the Professional Writing Program at University of Southern California, a theoretical physicist from Berlin, a performer and educator from France, a thirteen-year-old, and a recent college graduate. The Creative Literary Arts section is graced by their inspiring contributions.
As the 21st century unfolds, we stand at a defining crossroads in human history. Experts tell us that within the next two or three years artificial intelligence may develop a consciousness, a sense of self. But it will never possess an unconscious – the wellspring of our human imagination. The place where we dream. A machine cannot reach out in the dark; it cannot suffer the pangs of anxiety or delight in a sudden creative spark. It cannot feel the depth and breadth of our human experience. And it cannot raid the inarticulate where poetry and art reside. The unconscious which thrives on mystery, paradox, and nuances belongs only to us and us alone. AI will never know what it is to be moved by a sonnet, to shiver at a whispered word, be lost in the depth of our creativity, or hold someone in their arms.
Being human is difficult. We wage wars based on ancient mythologies, we kill, we succumb to cruelty and greed. Sometimes people are not kind to one another, and we hear sad music from human cities. We destroy earth’s flora and fauna. All this tests ou