Were the words “Here we are” the first humans’ conscious thoughts?
I imagine our primordial ancestors, huddled in their caves, gazing up at the starry night and wrestling with the first conscious existential questions. Questions like, ‘Why are we here? ‘, ‘What is our purpose? ‘, and ‘What lies beyond the stars?’ These were the unspoken ‘Here we are ‘words, encapsulating their profound curiosity about their place in this magnificent, magical, mundane, and horrific world. A world teeming with life and death, beauty and brutality, wonder and terror.
Do we know much more than our ancestors knew? Are we smarter?
Somewhat, we are more intelligent. After all, cavemen did not send rockets to outer space. They could explore stars only in their imagination. One of the proofs is the cave paintings of the Pleiades in the French Lascaux caves. Still, somehow, I feel we still know as little as cavemen did. After all, we can also think, ‘Here we are,’ without knowing how, why and for what purpose we appeared on Earth. Of course, there are spectacular science theories, with Darwin’s evolutions at the forefront, that explain many issues. Still, science theories have one disadvantage. They can be undermined by new scientific theories.
I feel the more questions we answer, the more solutions we bring, the more complex problems we solve, and the further we are moving away from knowing the ultimate and universal truth. Why?
Because with each problem solved, hundreds of further questions and doubts arise. That’s human nature – our innate curiosity and drive to understand the world around us. Human civilization will be learning until our mass extinction. Even if we conquer Mars, we will still want more and more to explore, develop, and know. One of the most characteristic of our nature is that we have limited powers to know and understand all the processes occurring in the Universe. That’s why I feel nothing has changed that much since our primordial ancestors looked at the stars and said in their primitive language, ‘Here we are.’ I also tell myself while walking, doing street photography, and enjoying everything I see in front of my eyes:
Well, here I am.
