The Double Helix of DNA which controls our form, is also a symbol of respect and awe which we can learn from.
I don’t see humanity as explorers of a future universe. I see humanity as fellow leaders and teachers of an infinite Cosmos.
When I was about nine or ten years old. I was living in Illinois. It was a forested town called Equestrian Estates. We had trees everywhere and all the families had large back yards which was very different from what I was used to when I lived in Irvine, California. Most notably, the grasses in our back yard would grow so fast, you’d have to mow the lawn regularly just to maintain a sense of order. Sometimes, my brother and father would skip a week of mowing and the grasses would grow tall. Tall enough to have a texture unlike anything I’d felt before, and felt since.
Around this time of year, the wind would become warm. The trees would begin to change the color in their leaves. And the ground was dry enough to rest upon, yet moist enough to cushion the weight of a young boy.
I was frustrated that day. I’m not sure why, but I had learned things in school, I had gone on adventures in our neighborhood with friends…but I had no idea what my purpose was in life.
The air in our house felt confining, so I went outside. And although I knew I was completely alone in every direction for at least a mile…I fell to my knees, felt the grass with my hands, and asked, “Why am I here?”
There was no response. There was no sound, nor movement of flora or fauna. Yet I felt satisfied. It was as if the question itself was enough.
That night, while I slept, I had a dream of sorts. I saw strange bluish-metallic shapes and filaments flashing before my vision. The images made me feel at peace. And I wished when I woke up, that I could have stayed in that dream longer.
After a few weeks, once school resumed, I continued my studies and enjoyed daily life, but the dream never left me. It was almost an anchor, I’d try to understand the dream whenever I got bored or while waiting for the bus.
Eventually, after learning about crystalline structures and magnetism in science class. I realized the images I saw had structure, they were beautiful filaments which had shaped and orientations which resembled electron microscope depictions of microscopic latticeworks. I was in awe of the tiny world and I saw its beauty. I felt that the crystalline latticework and perfection which I saw in the dream was actually my true form. I felt my physical bio-organic self was a clunky substitute for something else.
As a teenager, I learned about how through technology, anything is possible. I actually wanted to manifest enough wealth and knowledge to change my body into a new form. A form which resembled what I saw in the dream. Knowing how strange the idea was, I kept the concept to myself for the most part. And everything was going according to plan until I first attempted college.
At UC Santa Barbara, I placed into Calculus. I knew that if I wanted to change my form, I’d need to learn how to program computers. And since I loved computer games and games seemed to be a viable way to make money, taking a Math course seemed like the most logical course of action. To my serious dismay, I was in no way disciplined enough or mentally prepared to take a university-level math class. I withdrew from the class and entered a multi-year depression. My failure to achieve my dreams seemed inevitable and my personal relationships suffered throughout my 20’s because of it.
But in my late 20’s I took classes at San Francisco State University. There I had to retake several of the GE courses and also electives in order to prepare for graduation. In doing so, I saw the inter-relationships between chemistry, biology, geometry, social constructs, emotion and many other connections.
Finally, during a Biology class. Our professor drew a strange-looking doughnut on the chalkboard which looked disfigured. He said, “This…is you.”
He pointed out how human beings take input and then our life-processes affect and interact with that input. Some things are brought into our bodily systems and other things are excreted as wastes. But in affect, we are simply things which subject stimuli to our “functions.”
The clouds began to part in my mind.
Over the next few years, I learned about crystalline latticeworks and the similarity between how they form with how plants grow. Also, I saw similarities between plants and animals. Eventually, I realized that crystalline latticeworks could very easily be interpreted as a form of life-form. And the biological systems which I thought were so crude, upon closer introspection were just geometric latticeworks of more diversity than a crystalline latticework. Instead of having fractal recursion like a crystal, human beings have diverse ecosystems of life within each organ system.
It didn’t take me long during my early 30’s to realize that I was already a crystalline life-form, just of a different sort. From a biological perspective, the DNA in each cell acts as the conductors for an orchestra of movement and growth. This is similar to how the geometric configuration of crystalline latticeworks create the blueprints for the shapes they will eventually grow into…once they obtain enough water, nutrient minerals and vitamins, as well as sunlight and or darkness, and of course…pressure and time.
This Double Helix of information has value. Its latticework is a living testimony of those who have come before us and also a blueprint for finding new life which may allude us as we progress beyond the boundaries of our world and solar system.
Diversity of thought, diversity of form and the ability to create a conglomerate of intricate social, economic, spiritual and philosophical systems is our greatest strength as a people.
Through our technology, we will soon be able to build a vast armada filled with highly capable and skilled individuals, working together in concert with each other to achieve unimaginable goals.
But without a firm philosophical anchor, we will drift in space like wandering children…afraid of the forest of the unknown, and afraid of the dark.
Yet we have an anchor. We see it when we look at the patterns of stars and leaves. We feel it when we open a window to let the cool breeze take away our pain. We know it when a new child is born in our community. And we understand it when a precious loved one leaves us.
Whatever form our future takes, let it be known, our people, our band of teachers, thinkers, soldiers, explorers, and artists will ascend any danger from without and from within. This conglomerate of souls and technology, this Helixian Armadulate is more than the sum of its parts. It is a system of systems, it is us…and we will prevail.
-Tyler Stansfield Jaggers
August 2nd, 2012
