What are we? I mean, who are we? Well, I know that, but I dont. We are humans. But, what are humans? Are we simply homo sapiens. But what does that even mean? We may also be curious bipeds with big brains and bigger questions, fumbling through existence on a cosmic speck, armed with opposable thumbs and an insatiable appetite for both knowledge and pizza. Is this a good enough description?
We are supposed to be the smartest creatures. The first ones in the whole planet to reach space. To put up satellites in space. That’s crazy when you think about it. But is there more? More to this species who spends their time earning colorful rectangles and shiny discs that magically transform effort into objects, fueling dreams and nightmares alike while serving as the ultimate global language of value and desire
These questions, as playful and silly as they seem, with equally eloquent answers, strike up a great thought in our mind. Who the fuck are we? Why the fuck are we? Where the fuck are we?
These three questions have been technically solved by science. Who we are? we are homo sapiens, the humans with big brains and complex social structures. We emerged around 3,00,000 years ago, so we had sufficient enough time to answer this query. Yet, why does this answer seem incomplete? Why does this answer not satisfy our questions. The second question is a much more provocative way of asking about the fundamental nature of human beings. It questions our very existence, which, according to science, is due to the big bang, but, again, it seems incomplete. The third question is again solved by science. We are in the Solar System, in the Milky way galaxy which comes under the Local group of galaxies. But like, it does not answer my question where are we? You see, when we ask ‘where are we?’ we expect a why we are here as an answer too, which has not been provided.
So basically, this could all just be a digital masquerade where reality plays dress-up, inviting us to question whether our own world is just an elaborate computer program run by bored cosmic programmers or mischievous future humans. We could also be the only beings in the entire Universe to be able to ask such questions. Hell, we could be the only beings in the entire Universe to exist. The opportunities are endless.
Plus, the fact that we can question our existence makes me feel that we are probably not in a simulation, but if we are, hats off to the person who coded us and shit, they did wonders. We are not content with merely surviving like other creatures on this planet, we force our brains to find answers on various topics. Our existence, God, our purpose, and what not. This asking questions mindset, has taken us from caves to skyscrapers, from tools to smartphones. I applaud my species for doing such wonders but we have not got the answer to my question.
What I think is, after deep pondering, and watching some YouTube videos on existentialism, (that definitely makes me an expert on the topic) maybe we don’t know the answer to these questions because our journey has not been completed. We are unable to answer the question ‘who the fuck are humans?’ purely because, we don’t know. We know what we have done, we have done a lot of things, but we don’t know what else we can do. Who knows, in 50 years from now we may be inhabiting Mars. But that doesn’t mean we don’t try to pursue the answer to this question. Who knows, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m rambling about stuff I have no idea about but sounding like an expert (confidence is key).
Maybe we will never know the answer to this question, but who says we cannot try. We may never know why we exist, but who says we cannot try. We may never know why we are on earth, but we can try. We have been gifted bigger brains with an equally bigger thirst for knowledge, we can do whatever the fuck we put our minds on.
end notes
I had loads of fun writing this. This was condensed into a smaller essay (because the original essay had 2000 words in it.) If you enjoyed it and have some more thoughts to add, do comment, I’d love to read your thoughts. If you liked what you read, you can read some more of my works and decide for yourself whether you want to subscribe… Id truly appreciate it.. Thank you for reading… This is Chris, signing off. <3
These questions have been haunting me since I was a small child so thank you for writing this 🫶
Why is this exactly my thought?! 😭 I swear I wonder the same thing every single day. But I’ve come to accept that we’re not as special as we think and "the universe isn’t obliged to make sense to us" (my favorite saying from neil degrasse tyson). Since there are so many questions we want to answer because of course, we’re curious creatures and that’s why we’ve evolved this far. But the truth is, there are simply no answers we could get in our lifetime. And I think that’s okay. I’m not religious but it’s obvious that religions were created to answer the questions we’ll never get answers to, for comfort, because we humans are afraid of the unknown. We have this huge ego that makes us want to know everything. Our brain is so annoying 😂
So yeah, there are some things that will never be answered but yeah I’m proud of us earthlings too haha. We have come this far. 🫶🏾
I LOVED this so much. It might be one of my favorites of yours. <3