Alloneliness

"Memes treat compatible intelligences as the same species. If we eventually discover or are discovered by alien intelligences, there is no doubt in my mind that memes will cross between us and them, for good or ill." Greg Porter, writing as Mas Noonuy.

Our history is a process of becoming, in the inclusion and spirit of companionship that relieves us of loneliness, alone once again.

We can illustrate this in our present circumstances, wondering if we are alone in the universe. Us? Alone?

We, who have billions of companions in each other?

But what we search for is an Other. Not the Other that we can revile, mind you, but the Other that is not as familiar to us as we are to ourselves. Who is friend, but not family.

But what will we do when we encounter or make this non-human Other? We will do the same as has been done in the past, after we judged humans of the next tribe, of the next country, of the next ethnic group, to not be properly human.

We will, quickly or slowly, perceive this Other differently. We will perceive per to be no longer just a friend, but family, much as the next tribe was included in the auspice of the clan, on and on until now we talk of the whole human family.

You talk of a difference in genes to distinguish us, but to the extent that you can blur the physical boundaries with genetic and technological modification, you and the uplifted dolphin and the ETI are more on a single multi-axis chart than on separate scales.

Genes are irrelevant. We will, one way or another, make or simply decide them to be so, and then we once again will find ourselves wondering,  "Are we alone in the universe? Where else may we look to find an Other beside us?"