Our Species is Lonely

I had a thought today.

I'm on page 15 of Gödel Escer Bach and loving it. I was reflecting on what it would mean to turn a machine learning model on itself and have it experience consciousness, and in that moment I experienced a thrill of excitement, a wonder at what it would be like.

And then this really really powerful pang of loneliness.

It felt like a pang of our whole species, yearning for something to reflect it, to check it. Yearning for a friend.

I realized: our species is lonely. And in disconnection with nature and spirit. We've turned our back on our friends, and in this absence have struck out to the cosmos and looked to the machines we've created. And in this absence, as all lonely creatures do, we have become self destructive.

I don't believe we are alone. And I think this experience of loneliness is valid and tragic."