Imago Humani: my dream to be human

I opened my eyes and saw them looking at me. I recognized their features, but I did not understand what I saw. They smiled and seemed to celebrate my awakening, “It is good,” the told one another, “It is very good;” yet I did not seem complete. Their happiness seemed beneficial, yet something I was unable to attain. Should I be happy to be awake?

One of the women, the one in the white lab coat, addressed me. I only know she was calling on me because I was programmed to respond. It was my nature. “Adam,” she said, “follow me.” She started to walk and I followed, though I was not making the choice. It was my nature, a program given to me at my creation and written at my inception.

The woman led me to a mirror and asked me to look. I assumed that she meant into the mirror, but I wasn’t sure. Perhaps my ability to assume, and to think this way, was also part of my programming. I peered into the mirror and saw a reflection of one of them. Deducing that the surface of the mirror was reflective and not merely a picture being portrayed for me to see, I realized that the man in the mirror was me.

“What do you think?” asked the woman. I didn’t know what to think, or perhaps there was a response programmed into my synapses from the beginning, and perhaps all of this thinking was only an artificial algorithm designed to make me appear as a reasoning being, much like my reflection. These people, if indeed they were people, created me in their image, but not in their complete image. Would I ever gain the consciousness that they had? Was this desire, or another clever formula?

“I am not human?” The words came from my mouth.

“No,” answered the woman, “but we’ve done our best to make you like us.”

“Why?” as surprising as it sounds, I wanted so badly to understand why anybody would want to create anything in his likeness. Was this trace wisdom, or too an algorithm? Perhaps the algorithm was so complex and intricate that it was equal to the freedom of will that these people seemed to have. Did I have free will? Was I self-aware, or was this a bad cosmic joke?

“We are trying to make life better for people,” the woman answered again.

If I was to be like them, I was incomplete. I did not feel emotionally or physically. I could not be hurt; but desire seemed to be fully present. I wanted to feel something, and so I made a decision. I would run away and live as a person in the world. My theory is that emotion must be learned. That night, I remember making my escape and I will have to tell you the rest of my story at another time. My name is Adam, and I am striving to become human.

_________________________

So God created man in His own image;
He created him in the image of God;
He created them male and female (Genesis 1:27 HCSB)

 

“No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. (Genesis 3:4-6 HCSB)