Proposal for ongoing research.

The big questions

What makes us human? What are the various ways of defining the state of "human"? Has this definition changed over time? How much longer will classic, morphological/genetic definitions be relevant? When did we first become human? At what point will we stop being human? If being human is a transient or passing characteristic, are humans aware of this (consciously or unconsciously)? Does this affect human behavior? If recent rapid changes in technology, media, language, race, faith, and psychology are causing an increase in the distortion of what defined a human being even as little as a century ago, are we charging headlong toward oblivion as a species? Or are we transforming into something else altogether? Is the definition of "human" becoming less that of a state and more that of a trajectory? Or has this always been the case?

Case studies

1. Are our self-destructive habits an expression of our refusal to diminish the joy of the moment (or to be bothered by inconvenience), or do our habits exemplify our fear of time passing and death? Is it reasonable to expect humanity to come to its senses and stop killing the planet? Is there any possibility of an optimistic result to this line of inquiry?

2. Is the instinct to collect/hoard/possess, common especially among the wealthy and in wealthy societies, similarly based in the happiness that such possession brings, or is this behavior an attempt to fill the emptiness that lies between an individual and the inevitability of death?

3. Is the resistance to digital media supplanting ephemeral printed matter (cheap books, magazines, newspapers) rational? Cheap printing has existed in any real sense for only a few centuries -- before this, anything printed (or hand lettered) and bound was an artifact intended to be cherished and to endure. It seems likely that digital technology will only usurp the role of the most recent (and most wasteful) forms of print, and the remaining forms will improve in quality as the drive for cheapness in print diminishes. Are we nostalgic for a bygone era, or has printed ephemera somehow become inseparable from the evolved paradigm of "human"?

More to follow...

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