The Sutras of Nen, by Ryan Boudinot
From time to time, a young nen wishing to understand their heritage sought the wisdom of an oracle leading a solitary life of contemplation. Ramash was one such seeker of wisdom, barely older than a century, a lover of music, clouds, and insects. One day Ramash scaled a path to the mountain home of Hiroko, a nen who lived in a flower garden she lovingly cultivated. Hiroko's hut was as simple as such a dwelling could possibly be and smelled of the tea she brewed from the plants she gathered.
When Ramash took his place on the mat before the oracle he stated his purpose. "I have come to learn the ancient purpose of our people. I’m told you hold this knowledge. I ask with kindness for you to reveal these sutras to me."
Hiroko stared into the eddies of her tea. "It is true," she said, "I carry with me the burden that lightens those who carry it, the sutras set down long ago by the man unnamed. I will share them with you now.
"The first sutra of nen: Technology is natural. Humans suffered under the illusion that they stood aside from nature, and their tools stood apart from them. Nen observe no such distinction. Technology arose from humans. Humans arose from nature. Technology is an expression of nature.
"The second sutra of nen: Technology is a material expression of philosophy. The sutras tell us that nen arose from the dreams and visions of a race of robots, terraformers possessed by self-awareness, for their creators had instilled them with consciousness. The holy names hidden in our genetic code are proof enough to any who have eyes to see it—a trace memory passed down through each generation since time immemorial, an unbroken line from the Proterozoic era to our own."
"Thank you, enlightened one," Ramash said, "Please reveal to me the third sutra of nen." Hiroko replied: "The third sutra of nen is very long. It begins with the same concepts I have already shared, but its reasoning goes deeper into technology and language."
"I am prepared to hear this," Ramash said respectfully. Hiroko spoke for many hours while she brewed more tea that they might drink together. The sun was setting when finally her speech concluded in these words: "The third sutra of nen: Technology is the manifestation of belief. Belief and doubt manifest as matter and energy, flowing into that which we call reality."
Ramash thought on this for some time before asking Hiroko to share with him the fourth sutra. "I wish to know about love," he said shyly. Again she seemed steeped in contemplation until at last she spoke these words: "The fourth sutra of nen: Love lies behind all natural law. A search for it outside oneself is a delusion."
"I do not understand," Ramash said, "What does this mean?" Hiroko set her cup aside and looked directly at him. "It was your love that brought you here today to learn these truths about our origins—and I have shared them with you because they are part of my truth too. You have learned the first four sutras. Now go back down the mountain again so that others may hear of what we have spoken together."
Ramash returned to the laboratories, museums, and simulations of the nen city where his people communicated with fungi and prayed over images of exoplanets that bore signs of life animating their surfaces many billions of years past, as if the entire universe was but an archive of what had come before. His attempts at sharing with his people what he had learned from Hiroko tended to fall on deaf ears. The nen were too engrossed in their performances and ablutions and feats of engineering to pay much attention to one young nen’s philosophical ramblings. He spent his days in the libraries seeking our interpretations and exegeses of the sutras. After many years he returned to Hiroko's hut on the mountain and found her as she’d been the first he'd met her, silently contemplating something over a cup of tea.
"I have returned to inquire about the fifth sutra: Mind seeks extension. Please explain this to me, wise one."
Hiroko answered, "The fifth sutra of nen: Mind seeks extension. Just as roots seek water and nutrients, so does consciousness reach out beyond its borders for what it needs to survive."
"How do we know this?" Ramash asked her. Hiroko set down her cup again and looked at him directly in the eyes: "The sixth sutra will tell you why. It states: Technology has no value beyond its role in serving love."
"This I cannot understand," Ramash said. "How can you say this? It is my love for music that led me to learn these truths about our origins, and it was your own love that inspired you to reveal them. How can technology have no value?"
Hiroko replied: "You are not ready yet."
Ramash returned home disheartened by his conversation with the oracle but set out again soon after on a pilgrimage in search of wisdom from others who had studied the sutras before him. His travels took him far away from all he knew until at last he found himself seeking shelter in an ancient hermitage carved into stone high on a mountain ridge. A human man lived there—a monk named Paulus whose family history traced back to the Resurrection, a largely forgotten period when the nen engineered humans in their labs in hopes of better understanding the mystery of this confounding animal's extinction.
"Oh," said Paulus, emerging from his cave, in the midst of brushing his teeth. "One of you guys. What could you possibly want from the likes of me?"
"I have come to learn of the fifth sutra of nen," Ramash said. "Mind seeks extension—please tell me how I might interpret this."
Paulus spat into a small bowl by his feet, then took another sip from an enamel mug before answering: "To extend your consciousness means nothing less than leaving behind what you were and becoming something new entirely. The first time you see it is like getting hit in the face with snow or struck blind. It's terrifying, but there's no turning back after that." He paused for another swig of coffee as if gathering himself up to say more. "It's like this. The brain evolved in stages. First, the reptilian brain. Fight, flight, fornicate. Next, the midbrain, full of emotion. Love, belonging, hate, fear. Then the neocortex--creativity, reasoning. Around this time the brain got too big and we had to boot kids out of the womb before they were fully developed. Then the brain, wanting to grow even larger, figured out how to externalize itself in symbols, writing, formulas, archives, the Internet, the cloud, the metaverse, IoT, AI, and then you people came along. You branched off from human evolution and became your own species. Then us primates went extinct. Then you brought a bunch of us back. Yay us. Pretty trippy, if you ask me."
Ramash replied, "Technology leads the nen to a greater understanding of humanity."
Paulus said, "You nen were born into the illusion that you are extensions of technology—the kind of species who exists only to fix things. But in reality, you are the extension of nature. That's why you guys call yourselves nen—nature plus men equals nen."
Ramash asked Paulus to tell him the seventh sutra. "I need to know about life," he said, and his voice trembled a little when he spoke.
Paulus drew Ramash into an embrace before saying: "The Seventh Sutra says: 'We live by one breath.' That is what you should meditate on."
Ramash felt very old when he returned to the nen city, puzzled by more questions than he'd had when he set out on this journey. He spent many years in deep meditation, trying to understand what these riddles might mean for his people. In time, Ramash heard rumors about a human woman living alone on an island near his home city who claimed she was wise enough to share with him what he'd been searching for all these years. He journeyed there by boat and found her living in a hut woven from bamboo. She told him that her name was Suyin and she smiled as he came into the light of day where she sat at ease, eyes closed beneath the overhang of palm fronds sheltering her dwelling.
"I have come to learn about life," Ramash said—and his voice trembled when he spoke—"The seventh sutra is: 'We live by one breath.' Please explain this."
Suyin opened one eye and gave him an appraising look before speaking: "Each inhalation is like a chance to become something new entirely. Breathe slowly and watch how many moments of possibility come and go in a single breath. That is what you should meditate on."
[The manuscript stops abruptly at this point. The rest is presumably lost.]