Future Complex

As I have intellectually progressed through my life, I have always had a nagging voice at the back of my head that has been constantly reminding me of all of the things that I do not know, and the things that I do not know that I do not know. At first, this voice pushed me to excel at schoolwork, absorb as much as possible. I fought against the voice, successfully at first, arrogantly believing that I could learn everything thrown at me. I now stand in awe in front of the monolith of the sum of the known and unknown, only sure that I will never conquer it. Although this may seem like a pessimistic view, it is realistic. Knowledge is not, and never will be, limited to the world of academia. While a Nobel-prize-winning laureate might be able to tell you the exact chemical composition of aquaporins, a bassist knows exactly how hard to press, how much vibrato to use. A child in a sweat shop knows how much work it truly takes to sew that seam, an animator knows how many keyframes to use. A Vatican archivist might know Church secrets coveted for centuries, a biologist the reason the archivist is about to have a seizure. Our current knowledge base is so massive, so complex, that we have, and need people from every walk of life to keep our civilization running. I once was taught, in a humbling moment, by an AP Chemistry teacher, that we know that we don’t know more than 90% of chemistry as a whole. Pushing the boundary towards the known is the job of the next generation of chemists. We, as humans, exist as a Complex, interconnected in various ways yet separate in mind and knowledge. As the population grows, so will the force of the Complex, pyramiding with baser elements of society as the bread of the food pyramid, supporting and necessary, with intense intellectuals as the sugars and fats, what the human race needs and wants more of, pushing the boundary of the unknown. The Complex has already begun to manifest itself in today’s day and age as a conglomeration of knowledge, an integral part of the modern world, the ever-inter-connected internet. The manifestation of the Complex has shown itself for eons, as the ability to communicate and share knowledge was developed with fervor. All humans are part of the web of the Complex, purposefully shoving the race forward. Look at whatever your passion is, and know that it will eventually, by some strand of the web, lead to the progress of the human race. Homo Sapiens Sapiens will, in my opinion, culminate with the perfect union of race knowledge, the final manifestation of the Complex. We will then cease to exist as Homo Sapien Sapiens, for we will have reached the next level of evolution. This is our method of evolution, of anti-stagnation, of change, and our reason for existence.