Statement 31

Existence as perceived in our psychologies indicates a state outside of zero, but what that not-zero is is not clear. Are we a thing, as Locke stated so clearly, “The Self is a thing”? Hardly – only in the fantasies of metaphysical narcissism, and yet so much of the Enlightenment tried to makes us one way or the other into things - things that could own land, possessions and bank accounts, things that can be categories by sex, race and ethnicities. We become fascinated by our duplications, in art, in AI, where the ghosted borders of ‘thing’ set up shop. But they give us no real insight into our status as ‘not-zero.’ For that we could have to ask the atoms, the genes and star dust.