The Mountain in the Sea

by Ray Nayler

To be seen by others is the core of being. Perhaps this is why humans are driven to create minds besides our own: We want to be seen.

Communication is communion. When we communicate with others, we take something from them into ourselves, and give them something of ours. Perhaps it is this thought that makes us so nervous about the idea of encountering cultures outside the human. The thought that what it means to be human will shift—and we will lose our footing.

There is a “real” world, out there, but we do not perceive it directly. It is assembled by the sensory and nervous systems of each individual animal, and it is assembled differently by every one of them. What we perceive is a construct. Every animal’s perception of the world, constructed by its evolved sensory apparatus and nervous system to take best advantage of its environment, is subjective—there are no colors out there, as we perceive them, waiting for us. There is no sound—only waveforms. And perhaps the strangest fact of all: Outside our bodies, there is no pain. Pain is something we create.