130. The Human Project

Every human being contributes something to the whole of humanity. We each have projects we have chosen for ourselves. Sometimes these projects are shared with others, like when we raise a family or work for an organization, and sometimes they are largely individual efforts where we help others indirectly. We each have particular goals we want to achieve and we do this through dedication to our projects.

The combination of all of our projects together has brought humanity to its present point. Most of our efforts never aimed at this specific point, and yet this is where we find ourselves because our individual contributions have built on each other. From an objective standpoint, it might seem like humanity is merely expanding its reach and understanding for no reason other than because it can.

But we are not limited to objectivity. We each exist in the world as a living subjectivity, a being that experiences itself and the world. The richness of our individual experiences today is the result of the efforts of all those who came before us, just as our efforts will ensure even richer lives for future generations. Each of us contributes to this shared project of expanding human experience, of changing the scope and scale of what a human being is and can be.

Our shared human project does not have a final outcome or goal. It is simply not that kind of project. Its purpose is instead found in its very dynamism. For as we change, the possibilities of the human project change with us. We are always becoming more than we previously could have thought possible. We have new experiences that were unimaginable for our ancestors. We are continually transcending ourselves and transforming into something new.

It is this process of transformation itself that is valuable. That our project has no known goal does not detract from its importance. We create humanity anew in each generation, and in doing so, we create the means for even more radically creative generations to follow.