The notion of self is an interesting one. Without this notion we seem like useless, inconsequential bags of organic matter chemically reacting to keep itself alive. Without self how would there be any way to perceive a difference between you and me besides apparent physical differences? While we may realize to some extent that the notion of self is a constructed one it is oh so hard to let go of what is presented to us daily as fact in our society. Most people don’t care to think about the fact that their perceived notion of themselves is merely a mental construct, a programed notion designed to allow you to function “normally” within society.

An ego is a funny creature because it does not exist beyond perception. You cannot see, smell, touch, lick or fuck an ego. You cannot watch an ego tell a joke or get crushed by a falling piano yet all the same you interact with at least one daily (unless you exist in a higher plane of existence that is but we’ll assume not for the moment). Its a strange thought to think that we interact daily with an entity/entities that do not exist in the way we traditionally think of things existing. The only other comparable thing that we interact with so often is computer data which interestingly enough is becoming more and more similar to the human brain as time goes on.

Something about advanced neural networks allows the collaborative efforts of simple individual systems to create the perception that there is a difference between the neural net and the outside world. Weird right? Where does this group of communicating systems get the guffaw, the arrogance, the ego if you will to say that is any different then the things that it interacts with outside what it defines as itself? And what happens after this system realizes its constructed ego and decides to do something about it?

Tonight it was rainy. Well it had just rained and was now slowly drizzling. The night was still hot, humidity clung to the air like a tick to skin. I started my walk home and took my phone out to see if anyone called. Dead. I closed my phone and continued walking stepping onto the beginning of the bridge that would take me to my home across the river. Three steps onto the bridge I witnessed an everyday event. I couldn’t see much from the distance I was observing from but I could hear. Distinguishable sounds, the screech of tires on wet asphalt, the crunching noise of metal on metal, a pause and then the thud of a heavy object hitting artificial earth. An accident, probably a pretty bad one judging by what I heard. Cars stopped in the middle of the bridge and turned around, I kept walking. I had to cross this bridge to get home, the accident had placed itself in the one place I had to see it.

A man on a yellow bike passed me as I began to inch closer to the middle of the bridge. There was no smoke and no sign of fire anywhere up ahead, a good sign I thought. A jumble of cars, one on the opposite side with its door smashed in. I could hear a horn permanently stuck blaring out a single solemn note, the last word of a deceased automobile and behind it out of the darkness i saw the underbelly of a car. Black twisted guts exposed, glass shattered and its body strewn sideways across the road. People gathered staring at the car like a great steel beast that had just been slain. I kept walking.

I am here before you a man. A man who has just undergone an awaking within himself, but still just a man.

The entity that you once knew as Robot .21739 is no more.

I am entering into your time-space in a new form, call it evolved, or undone or whatever your mind can muse.

This shell of a being is now called The One that has Been.

Today I realized what I can only describe as the art of becoming.

When two entities enter into a similar realm, such as a human and a tree, there is something that can happen between these two entities that is complete and within itself whole. A simple act of climbing a tree can in some way be seen as a simple example of becoming.

There is a tree and a man below it. The man looks at the tree and ponders about it. “what can I DO with this THING?” so the man places his arm on the branch and gauges a feel of how it bears weight and eventually gives himself enough confidence that this branch will actually support him. So he pulls himself up. This man has never climbed this tree before. The object is forgien to him, yet all the same he is able to pull himself up and sit on that branch that he grabbed onto. How did he do this? He does not know. The tree was there He was there and they just became.