Meta sapiens overview

Despite the individual self-aware sense of body/mind/consciousness which seems to separate humans from the rest of the animal kingdom, functional entities can be observed in living systems throughout the natural world that are themselves comprised of many individual organisms yet behave as a collective being. Think of ant colonies, beehives, sponges, corals, flocks of birds, and schools of fish. All of these behave and communicate in some ways as a large organism with many component parts. On a larger scale, think of Monarch butterflies, who migrate across a continent twice a year, through several life cycles of eggs-to-adult generations, and returning each winter to the exact same mountain slopes in Mexico their great-grandparents left the previous spring. On the other end of the scale, consider micro-organisms such as viruses, bacteria and fungi that invade a host and derail or take over its bodily functions or actions, such as the liver fluke that invades the ant brain and 'causes' the ant to climb grass blades where they are eaten by sheep, completing the fluke's life cycle by producing eggs in the feces that infect more ants in the field. This book takes the reader on a journey supported by natural scientific evidence, which explores these organized behaviors and connects the dots between what science can prove, what religion would have us believe, and where the real truth may be found.

The storyline cycles between factual essays on natural systems, interwoven with a fantastic journey of discovery by fictional characters, as they experience unique situations and begin to see the deeper set of truths in the world around him. In essence, they discover that sentient beings are not restricted to singular physical organisms, and humans are the only life form on earth that do not grasp this concept. In religious terms, our departure from the Garden of Eden was the point at which we became self-aware, abandoning the collective intelligence of the natural world (meta sapiens) for the unitary awareness of individual existence (homo sapiens).

The beginning thesis of the story explores the concept of cognition as a self-organizing life force that can operate on vast scales. Cognition manifests in the human brain as a tiny, concentrated flare of individual self-awareness, but cognition is also on display in the natural world as a diffuse glow connecting the individuals of each colony or species, and this cognition can seemingly span entire oceans and continents. Within homo sapiens, cognition rides the electro-chemical currents of the brain and nervous system, on the billions of neurons and trillions of synapses that make up each individual. In nature, cognition rides the air and water currents that carry the chemical and electrical communications between physical organisms, connecting each species together into sentient living beings that may cover vast areas of land or water. Just as a single nerve cell in the human brain requires the larger being to experience thought and derive sustenance in order to provide its tiny contribution to the collective intelligence of the brain mass, so too does the army ant require the larger colony to provide purpose, sustenance and protection that makes each ant's specific tasks relevant to the colony. In both cases there is a self-awareness generated from the collective. 

The elements of conflict come into focus as the main characters realize these deeper truths, and begin to understand the scale at which these truths are playing out. Actual scientific evidence is used to show how organized, sentient beings can form across a distributed set of organisms, on the surface of the earth, under water, and deep underground. Each of these primary ecosystems has its own set of life forms that prosper in wide ranging extremes of heat, cold and pressure; some in aerobic conditions, and others in anaerobic environments. Throughout eons of earth’s history, the proportions and diversities of those ecosystems have fluctuated, with early earth history dominated by the anaerobes, who retreated underground as the earth cooled and water appeared on the surface, enabling the aerobes to take over with their oxygen- and water-based life cycles. The core conflict arises when the anaerobic entities, with their desire to get the surface back, begin using humans as clueless pawns in their plan to heat the atmosphere, poison the waters and exterminate aerobic life. Our disconnect from the communal existence prevents us from sensing this conflict, and that we are becoming the agents of our own destruction.

When examined objectively, the perfection of our natural world is undeniable.  Our air and water are both naturally transparent, for eyes to develop that can clearly observe the world, its inhabitants and even the universe in which it exists. Flowering plants spring forth from the ground in abundant varieties, providing sustenance as well as oxygen for breathing. The atmosphere above us, and the magnetic field around us, protect surface life from most solar radiation and space debris. The water required for life constantly cleanses itself through evaporation and precipitation. Death and disease exist, but in the larger sense these serve to sustain the cycles of renewal and redesign necessary for perfect adaptation.  

The religious elements of the story postulate the heaven we expect in the afterlife is actually the world in which we live today. The hell we fear is indeed deep within the earth, populated by sentient beings that are malicious and incompatible with life on the surface, living near the "lake of fire".   Beneath the earth's surface, there are materials and processes we are only just beginning to understand. Crude oil comes forth from unknown sources deep within the earth, with different 'flavors' in different regions. Natural gas is found in ever-larger quantities as extraction systems improve. Blocks of methane hydrate line the floors of the deep oceans. These hydrocarbon energy sources, sequestered over eons, are being relentlessly harvested and burned by humans with little regard for the damage being caused. Release of these hydrocarbon stores is beginning to overrun the aerobe's ability to contain their effects. Once the tipping point is reached, there may be no way to turn it around. 

Homo sapiens have already exterminated many of the surface-dwelling meta sapiens, and those remaining are beginning to fight back... against humans as the pawns in this titanic battle to own the surface of the Earth.

meta sapiens develops and explores these concepts across a trilogy of books: Cognition, Control and Conquest