This world was not meant for us!

Humans are the most intelligent species that humans have ever seen.

But our short lifespans on the cosmic scale keep us focused on day-to-day problems. We say "history repeats itself," but humans weren’t around for most of history. These statements hold true on the short timescale of humanity — and they might continue to be true for years to come — but it's foolish to think they’ll hold forever.

Unsung Hero #142956: The Mitochondria

Did you know that mitochondria — the powerhouse of the cell — used to be a free-living bacterium? It was an independent organism 1.5 billion years ago. Over time, it formed a symbiotic relationship with another single-celled organism. Billions of years later, every cell in your body has mitochondria.

Do you ever think about all the mitochondria in your body? No? Why not? Because it feels trivial. It's an abstraction of life. It's "good enough." Higher-order beings today have bigger things to look forward to.

But mitochondria aren’t the only unsung heroes that led to our existence. There are many more — probably millions.

Life is curious

All we know is that the Universe was just... there. And the immediate question it begets is: why?

While it’s obvious to assume that only humans are asking this question, I believe it’s an emergent behavior of life itself. If not humans, some other species would evolve to where we are today and ask the same things when it looks outward.

Life is emergent

Somehow, atoms come together to form molecules. Somehow, molecules come together to form organic molecules. Somehow, these organic molecules form cells. Cells form multi-cellular organisms, then fish, then apes, then humans, then…? Somehow.

How is everything engineered without a visible engineer? It feels like a seed growing into a tree. (But a seed comes from a tree — so life is different from a seed in that sense.) It "knows."

Life is manipulative

Why do organisms try to survive? Why do we gain pleasure from procreation? Why did life evolve us to feel pain and pleasure?

Isn’t it manipulative — that it rewards survival and punishes decline? Not just physically, but even mentally. It makes us serve it, without ever telling us why.

It made us invent money, governments, taxes, investments, R&D, space exploration, and on and on.

Life is probably many other things that are beyond our comprehension

The right question?

Why does anything exist? Who made all of this? Who gave birth to protons, neutrons, electrons?

Maybe what life wants is to "meet its maker." But once it meets its maker, what about the maker's maker?

So maybe the real question is a chicken-and-egg problem?

Maybe I’m still not asking the right question. Maybe I lack the intelligence, the capacity, or the energy to find it. Maybe, if we invent an externalized intelligence — let’s call it Artificial Intelligence, AI for short — maybe it will take us there.

But will it take us there, or is it taking life there?

Are we the next unsung heroes in this saga of life?

Who will be next?

Thanks for reading.