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You can be a humanist without being anthropomorphic.

As humans, we are inheritors of our biology and the earth’s history, yet our consciousness questions our physicality and that of the universe around us, leading us to the imagination of spirituality. That's why Jesus Christ needed to be both human (flesh) and divine.

Our human identity is shaped by our sense of self, separate from others and the world (duality), by our reflective and recursive nature (consciousness), our understanding and position in the world (outlook), and our memories (time).

We are part of a bigger whole. Other species have consciousness. Other forms of life have intelligence. Our consumption, pollution, and tools are affecting the world. We are empowering synthetic intelligence superior to ours. We are at fault, we are at risk. Yet, it is time to stand up for ourselves: humans. The ability to develop technologies for the bad can also be harnessed for good. Our different civilizations contain the elements to bring humanity together, enlightened values and a path forward. The universe and its potential is beyond us, but if we want to continue our journey we must be for ourselves.

Humans, all too human. We will always be human - until we are not. No matter how hybrid we may become, as long as we harbor humanness, we will be humans. A sense of self, destiny, and of death, blessed with memories and actual dreams.

Some realizations make us very uncomfortable: the inevitably of death and the prospect of no afterlife, doubt around agency and free will, and the realization that we are not at the center of all things. Coping mechanisms range from self-love to distractions masked as “living in the present” and religions.

Humanity Forward

Never forget our history and rise above our past failings - the future must belong to all of us, together.

Where do we go after western modernism - beyond the all tech world we are headed towards? What is the life of humans? How do we marry humans, technology and nature?

Why do we care about the future of humanity, especially those who are atheists, as we won’t be part of it?

Humans are torn between challenging truths and emotionally appealing fantasies.

Humans are curious by nature, they live through discovery and the thrill of the new - when they get tired of those they die

What makes humans unique is the ability to think, organize, adopt and disseminate technology, cooperate and compete.

Humans are naturally bad and retraining is life’s journey

Communal

We are the most human as communities.

People need to belong to a community, no matter what kind. After decades of globalization, multiculturalism and fast technological change people are lost and seek to join tribes.

Cultures and community are limiting but give comfort in contrast to the unlimited ambition and thrill of modernity which leads into the unknown and can’t ever satisfy. Finite versus infinite. The traditional environment with cultural protections and limitations versus a world with no limits.

Humans versus AI

AIs may write more intelligently, more beautifully, and more creatively than I. Yet, I write because I am alive and it is my journey of self-discovery. People still knit, even though machines do it better. Painters strive to achieve wonder in the face of Michelangelo before them. It is the human journey and the chance for cubism and Picasso to emerge. Beethoven, but also the Beatles and hip-hop. The possibility of new and different horizons.

The entanglement with AI as an extension of our intelligence and reach, as opposed to an outside, independent agent, may be the way we step beyond what we can see and imagine with our biological and mental capabilities.

For those who object to human exceptionalism, their egocentrism, and auto-centeredness, AI’s might provide relief. Synthetic agents may not exhibit a sense of self, allowing for non-subjective intelligence - one without origin or a sense of identity, one that is distributed. Selfhood and its awareness, on the other hand, is what makes humans.

Humans are imperfect replicating machines.