>>13668785We are absolutely still apes. Consciousness is a byproduct of evolution under perfect conditions, allowing for the creation of a complex brain which goes one step about cognition into metacognition (the cognition of cognition). It is only a side effect of a complex system.
Realistically, humans are not special. We possess some inner connection to the universe, which can be felt at all times but not easily described. People call it the mind, or the soul, or your essence, but it's only the intrinsic knowledge that you are just a collection of atoms moving through space and that is all you have ever been, all you ever will be, and all that your rotting corpse will be. When you die, you will remerge with the true universe like a drop over water dripping back into the ocean. Human consciousness is a cage of the senses, perceiving things like time, barely able to see a slither of the spectrum of light, unable to see raw reality.
I had a near-death experience after a car accident, and I remember what I felt to the letter. When I was hit, I floated away from Earth, away from the solar system, outside whatever bubble-like thing our universe is encapsulated within, and I saw it condense into a single point, the infinite universe, and it felt entirely normal.. I was not afraid in the slightest, even though something inside me knew "this is death. this is what death is".
