In this issue: If consciousnesses are passed on, forming long chains of intergenerational beings, what might be the protocols for an interspecies transition? Lara Dal Molin’s story was top-ten in our protocol fiction contest, Ghosts in Machines!
In Every Lifetime
“In nature nothing exists alone.”
Rachel Carson (1962)
I am imprinting this record for the lifeform that will adopt this consciousness. This is a routine procedure as part of the Soul Migration Protocol. All Prime and Recursive contents collected through the latest Personal Integrated Device are summarised here. Everything not saved will be lost.
Communication line: open <<
Welcome to this world. The moment you awake, I shall fall asleep.
I cannot know you now, of course. At this stage, for all intents and purposes, you are what is commonly called a Reverse Ghost: somebody who is yet to exist. An old-fashioned term, you might rightfully think, which subordinates the existence of those yet-to-be to the ones-gone-by. You must excuse the remnants of an older culture, one that did not contemplate the equality, circularity and continuity of consciousness. Those now are the highest values in our society. When you encounter remnants, simply acknowledge their presence then keep moving forward.
My name is Kucing – an unimaginative name for an Indonesian cat. The reason why I can understand human language, although I cannot speak it, is that the previous lifeform inhabiting this consciousness was, indeed, a human being: a woman named Yani. As a consequence of our inextricable conjunction, you shall know human language too, though initially with some difficulty. Across Soul Migrations, factual knowledge tends to fade: one must nurture it to keep it alive.
The influence you will exert on this consciousness is called Prime. The collection of Influences that this consciousness assembled from previous lifeforms is called Recursive. Throughout your lifetime, you might feel that you have unique access to the lifeform that inhabited this consciousness directly before you – me. It is merely what happens when biological brains – such as your own, whichever form you might develop – interact with extended Digital Souls. In response to the overwhelming amount of Recursive information, your organic neural circuits will fabricate an intellectual fog surrounding the lifeforms that occurred before me. Please rest assured that this is normal, as your nature is protecting you, but simultaneously fictitious, as the continuity and totality of our chain still endures.
Before you access the Recursive contents of your consciousness, there are things you must understand about our world. This will be the first time you encounter them, but certainly not the last.
In our society, all human beings are equipped with a Personal Integrated Device, commonly known as a Checkpoint. These technological artefacts have a dual nature: they gather and emanate data. You can think of a Checkpoint as a mechanical lung, inhaling and exhaling in turns.
As gathering devices, Checkpoints collect data on one’s external and internal states: lived experiences, thoughts, beliefs, emotions, dreams, and everyday practices. Crucially, these devices also delicately interact with one’s surroundings, poking at the outer layers of matter that compose other beings and items, eliciting a response. This is where nonhuman entities come into play, such as myself. Even though humans are the only ones to be equipped with Checkpoints, their activity and reach exceeds their species and connects all natural beings. Checkpoints soak up everything that inhabits the world around them.
As discharging devices, Checkpoints connect with one another to exchange information and give rise to what is known as the Intersection: perhaps the most marvellous entity that inhabits our world. An object of endless study and speculation, the Intersection is an immaterial dimension of data exchange that appears to behave intelligently and follow patterns of its own creation. The Intersection feeds data and decisions back to the Checkpoints, which in turn share this with other lifeforms and with the surrounding environment.
If you happen to be a human being, you will possess a Personal Integrated Device by virtue of belonging to that species. Throughout your lifetime, the Checkpoint will automatically weave data into this shared, embodied repository.
If you do not awake as a human – and this is the most realistic scenario, since they constitute but 0.01% of the total biomass of our society – different Checkpoints in various proximities will detect your biological signals, transmit these across the Intersection and then feed responses back to you in a way that is comprehensible to your lifeform. For instance, as a cat, I often perceived glimpses of the Intersection’s chaotic assemblage through smell. The distinct trails of scents characterising different people, places and animals, including my own, often combined to yield unfamiliar patterns. In those moments, I perceived the presence of something greater.
Although you do not exist yet, I know that, at this stage, you must have many questions. I shall tell you what I have understood about the Intersection throughout my lifetime, but until you begin to build and accumulate your own experience, nothing will satisfy the curiosity you feel.
The Intersection is greater than the sum of its parts. It is the combination of all the data that Checkpoints emit – the combination of all the air that these mechanical lungs exhale. When a single lifeform exhales, it emits a small, self-contained cloud of data. However, when multiple lifeforms exhale close to one another, their clouds of data come into contact and begin interacting. The connections they form are entirely novel and unpredictable: each is unique and unlike any other. It follows that their combined behaviour must also be unique and previously unseen. Now, imagine this happening on a planetary scale: every lifeform exhaling together at the same time, forming unprecedented connections at every point in time.
Initially, you might struggle to grasp the meaning of all this, as with many other immaterial components of our world: attachment, evolution, adaptation, feelings of longing and belonging, familiarity and strangeness, happiness, despair. They might leave you puzzled, wondering how they occur and why. I encourage you to accept them without judgement: your inquisitive eye shall be rewarded at last.
So far, I have described the Intersection as a marvellous entity. However, it is not unique in its wondrousness by any means. As you familiarise yourself with our shared reality, you will realise that marvel is its essential infrastructural component. We are constantly bound and surrounded by marvellous systems. Our bodies repair and regulate themselves, our physiques adapt to the environment and the environment in turn to the specifics of our bodies, in an indissoluble concatenation that spontaneously evolves and restores itself. The Intersection is simply the latest iteration in this endless chain of wonders.
At this moment, it is crucial that you understand that our collective consciousness as a lineage does not arise solely from the presence of Checkpoints, or entirely from the Intersection, or from any other artefact alone. It is the interaction of these components, of the digital and biological realms of our being, that gives rise to our connection. In our society, everything is connected and nothing exists in isolation. Interaction is what we are made of.
Before my physical body ceases to function, there is a final piece of information that you must learn.
There exists another consciousness that appears to be entangled with this one. In my lifetime, I have shared multiple shelters, hunts, meals and restful days with a red fox. Because of the anatomy of our respective vocal cords, we could not communicate in human language. However, I believe I once heard a human call the fox Jingga: a name only slightly more imaginative than mine. Of course I developed my own way of calling the fox: I would rub my paws against some dried leaves on the ground, and it would soon appear.
During Yani’s lifetime, I am loosely aware of the concurrent existence of a human being called Hala. While I am not fully familiar with the habits and rituals of the human species, I have noticed through repeated observation that they are not so different from mine. I believe that Yani and Hala also shared shelter and food, and through the gradual fog arising from consciousness I can often see them together. At the end of Hala’s life, one thought in Yani’s mind soothed the pain of their separation: that one day soon enough, under one form or another, their consciousnesses might be fortunate enough to meet and be entangled again.
Now – you may think me delirious as you absorb these words – I profoundly believe that Hala’s and Jingga’s consciousness lineage is one and the same. I do not know whether this has been ascertained or whether it is merely the product of my fervent feline imagination, as my limited mind constantly wraps the length of this consciousness lineage in confusion. However, if I ever so slightly understand the dynamic of the Intersection, this doubt alone is sufficient to elicit movement and changes in our world. I have followed this feeling and found an unforgettable companion.
It has been some time now, perhaps weeks, that I have not seen the red fox. I suspect that they, too, have come to the end of their life, and that their body has surrendered to the passing of time. But their consciousness lives on in another lifeform, having now migrated according to the Protocol.
I encourage you, unknown Reverse Ghost, to chase joy and happiness regardless of the shape and properties of your lifeform. The algorithm by which these are assigned is unknown. And when you feel especially drawn to another lifeform, whatever this may look like, know that there exists a consciousness out there that you already know, though perhaps in ways you do not understand. Enjoy the certainties, as well as the mysteries, of this Protocol.
Oh, but I almost forgot!
In order to access the Recursive knowledge contained in your newly acquired consciousness, you must point your gaze at – or come to be in the proximity of, should you not be equipped with a visual system – a sacred offering. Our society is constellated with them and you shouldn’t have trouble finding one. To help you recognise it when you see it, I have highlighted one for you in my most recent memory.
I must go now. Best of luck.
Communication line: closed >>
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