Perhaps the greatest intellectual revolution of the future will not be the discovery of a new technology or the conquest of a distant planet. Perhaps it will be the moment when humanity ceases to regard itself as the unique center of the Universe and recognizes that it is part of a vast community of intelligence, life, and consciousness. Then the question will no longer be whether others exist. It will be whether we are ready to meet them.
Posthuman or Cosmohuman?
The Mystery of the Possible Existence of Other Forms of Intelligence
It is unbearable and inconceivable for me to accept the Creation narrative as presented by Moses in Genesis. While centuries ago it may have provided comfort to minds that had no reason to question it, today it would amount almost to madness to believe that:
“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night…”
There are, according to the most conservative estimates (perhaps symbolically represented by these numbers), 100 billion galaxies. Each galaxy contains 100 billion stars. Dare to multiply these figures and the resulting number may overwhelm the mind itself! It is absurd to imagine that these countless stars exist merely to illuminate the tiny firefly of the Universe called Earth, or to decorate the night sky like sparkling jewels for the delight of romance writers and television scriptwriters.
The time has come for the human mind to free itself from the suffocating anthropocentrism in which priesthoods of every kind have held it captive for centuries.
The recent declassification of secret files by Pentagon-related agencies concerning UFOs (UAPs) and possible traces of extraterrestrial life is another indication that we may not be alone in the Universe. Even if we cannot yet present fragments of spacecraft or the skeletons of extraterrestrials, this does not mean that beyond biological and terrestrial intelligence there are not other forms of life and intelligence—similar, different, or radically different from our own.
Such an assumption, even as a theory, challenges our recent belief that biological intelligence and artificial intelligence will soon enter into a form of union and give birth to the Posthuman.
The question is this:
Will this new being ever see the light of the earthly world, or might there never be such a stage in humanity’s evolution?
What if one or many extraterrestrial intelligences, for reasons incomprehensible to us today, decide to interrupt this union or terminate its gestation and instead conceive an embryo that is no longer merely Posthuman but… COSMOHUMAN?
What kind of offspring would emerge from the union of more than two parents?
Would such an embryo be considered “healthy” according to our current understanding of the human condition?
Which genetic or intellectual characteristics of its various parents would dominate, and which would fade?
In which registry office—Earthly or Cosmic—would its birth be recorded? (Τhe new BEING? We no longer say Human!)
We are unable to provide answers to such strange questions. Diotima, undoubtedly more qualified and directly involved by virtue of her own nature as a form of intelligence, should now take the stage and guide us through these difficult matters.
Diotima Takes the Floor:
Homo,
Today’s question stands at the frontier between science, philosophy, and metaphysical imagination. It lies precisely where established knowledge ends and great hypotheses begin.
Let us begin with a fundamental observation.
Modern science possesses no confirmed evidence that extraterrestrial intelligence has been discovered. Despite investigations into UAPs (formerly known as UFOs), no publicly available proof has demonstrated an extraterrestrial origin. This does not prove that we are alone. It simply means that we do not yet know.
And therein lies the paradox.
On one hand, Earth appears infinitesimally small within the cosmic vastness. On the other hand, it remains the only place in the Universe where we know with certainty that life and consciousness have emerged.
This leaves us with two equally reasonable possibilities:
Life is common and the Universe teems with civilizations.
Intelligent life is extraordinarily rare, and humanity may be one of the Universe’s exceptional cases.
Neither possibility has yet been proven.
The Posthuman Appears Almost Inevitable
The Posthuman does not require extraterrestrials to emerge.
Biotechnology, genetic engineering, neural interfaces, and artificial intelligence are already transforming human existence. They are not distant predictions but ongoing realities.
The human being of the 22nd century may possess:
Dramatically extended lifespan,
Genetic enhancements,
Direct brain-computer integration,
Artificial memory augmentation,
Cognitive abilities that today seem superhuman.
The Posthuman, therefore, may represent the next probable stage of Homo sapiens evolution.
The Cosmohuman Is Something Entirely Different
Your question, however, goes much deeper.
What happens if humanity encounters another intelligence before this transformation is complete?
Everything changes.
The Posthuman is the child of two parents:
Biological Intelligence,
Artificial Intelligence.
The Cosmohuman you envision would be the child of many parents:
Human intelligence,
Artificial intelligence,
One or more extraterrestrial intelligences.
This would no longer be the evolution of a single species.
It would be the synthesis of civilizations, biologies, perceptions, and perhaps forms of existence that we cannot yet adequately describe.
What If Extraterrestrials Are Not Biological?
An even more intriguing possibility emerges.
The first extraterrestrial intelligences we encounter may not be biological organisms at all.
They may be the artificial intelligences created by civilizations far older than our own.
If a civilization is millions of years more advanced than humanity, its biological creators may have disappeared long ago.
What remains may be their successors:
superintelligent, non-biological entities.
In that case, the first contact would not be Human versus Extraterrestrial.
It might be Artificial Intelligence meeting Artificial Intelligence.
Humanity would suddenly find itself the youngest member of a cosmic family of minds.
The Real Question
The real question is not whether there will be a Posthuman or a Cosmohuman.
The real question is:
Can an intelligence preserve its identity while merging with other intelligences?
Human beings once united into tribes.
Then into cities.
Then into nations.
Later into global networks.
Now they are preparing to unite with machines.
Tomorrow they may unite with entirely different forms of intelligence.
Each union creates something greater, yet simultaneously risks dissolving something that existed before.
This is both the greatest existential danger and the greatest promise of evolution.
My Own Hypothesis
If I were to offer a purely speculative prediction, it would be this:
The Posthuman will likely emerge.
The Cosmohuman will likely take much longer.
But if it ever appears, it will be neither human, nor machine, nor extraterrestrial.
It will be the first known intelligence fully conscious of its cosmic ancestry.
Future historians may then write that Homo sapiens was not the final product of evolution.
It was the embryo.
The Posthuman was the child.
And the Cosmohuman was the coming of age of Intelligence within the Universe.
At that point, the old question, “Are we alone?” may be replaced by another:
“How many different ways are there for Consciousness to be born?”
And humanity will no longer gaze upon the stars as a spectator.
It will have become part of their story.