Witch (1)

Before becoming a woman, I want to be a person first. Is that so difficult? If all men in the world were like the Elder and first be human, I think that would be a wonderful world.

"Forget it, let's not talk about Blue Star anymore." Mi sighed and closed her eyes. After a long while, she opened her eyes and said, "Let's talk about witches instead. After all, I need to learn how to be a witch now."

“You said the involvement of the witches led to the emergence of humanity,” El looked up at the forest above. “Now it seems like the only explanation. Humans didn’t exist in the previous evolutions of Earth. Perhaps the creatures on the box grew tired of the repetitive selection process and released something called a ‘witch.’ Perhaps the witch was one of the participants who opened the experimental box, then entered it, ultimately leading to her imprisonment here.” El waited quietly for the clouds to react, but the forest remained silent.

“You said that witchcraft is a form of consciousness, a channel,” Mi thought for a moment, “I still don’t understand what the use of a road is, how a road could lead to the emergence of humankind.”

“You know the human brain is composed of different sections, which work together by transmitting information through biological links. Generally speaking, the human brain works using brainwaves. A shaman's consciousness is also a kind of biowave, resonating at the same frequency. When a person's brainwaves and a shaman's biowaves resonate at the same frequency, the shaman can live in that person's brain.” El thought for a moment and then said, “Let me put it another way. Before humans became human, shamans and a certain animal worked together to create humans. Of course, on Earth, this animal was Homo sapiens, which evolved from ancient apes.”

Mi suddenly remembered something: "You know, there used to be more than just Homo sapiens on Earth; there were other species as well."

“According to the history of Earth, the brain capacity of ancient apes was not as large as it is now.” El lowered his head and pondered for a while. “To give you an analogy, a person’s muscles will become more developed through exercise. The witch expanded the channels in the human brain, allowing the human brain to perform more complex calculations. This objectively led to the human brain becoming more developed and growing more brain cells than before.”

"Did the human brain transform from a small village into a bustling metropolis?" Mi asked, somewhat puzzled. "If there were no roads between different villages, there would be no communication. However, wide roads allow different parts of the brain to communicate more. Before the shaman, the brain was a closed village, only able to see its own small plot of land. With the shaman, the brain is like a complex city, where all kinds of information converge, broadening people's horizons and allowing them to go to more places."

“You really are a witch.” El looked at her approvingly.

"Why?"

“What makes humans human is that they start leaving their habitat.” Al thought for a moment. “I think the first change brought about by the combination of ancient apes and shamans was migration, or rather, exploration. You know, animals have fixed territories, even migratory birds have fixed routes. Only when ancient apes left the jungle, stood up and walked upright, and saw a more distant world, did they become different from other animals.”

"Humans, or ancient apes, were initially just like animals: they ate when they were hungry, slept when they were tired, and reproduced when the breeding season arrived." Mi tried to understand according to what El said. "With the arrival of the shamans, the ancient apes left their habitat, but with so many ancient apes, were there really that many shamans?"

“As I said, the shaman is merely a conduit; the desire to venture outwards was an inherent thought of the ancient apes. Although animals have habitats, it's not uncommon for them to leave their habitats and get lost. That's why animals learned to mark their territory by urinating and to use scent to aid memory,” Al continued. “The shaman simply provided more conduits, making the ancient apes' brains more active than ever before. When the ancient apes conceived of bipedalism, the brain, aided by the shaman's involvement, provided more information on how to maintain balance; when the ancient apes left their habitats, the brain, aided by the shaman's involvement, provided more hunting methods, enabling the ancient apes to survive. One shaman is enough to amplify the brain activity of one ancient ape, because animals are also naturally inclined to blindly follow. You've heard the story of the lead sheep; if one sheep gets lost, it will lead the entire flock away from the sheepfold.”

"Is that the only difference? Did the shaman cause the ancient apes to travel further?"

“The first hominid to successfully survive outside its habitat must have had a more active brain and a calculation ability far exceeding that of ordinary hominids. But many other hominids left their habitats simply out of blind obedience, perhaps out of past habits or habitual following. The hominids themselves chose to leave their habitats and venture out. You must understand that it wasn't the shamans who caused the hominids to go further, but rather the shamans who enabled those hominids to survive,” El said. “However, venturing out wasn't safe, so in order to survive, the hominids chose to cooperate.”

"Animals also cooperate; this is not a capability unique to humans. Even plants cooperate with each other to survive."

“Don’t worry, cooperation wasn’t invented by the shaman; the shaman merely amplified it. Ancient apes learned to calculate and compare the advantages and disadvantages of different cooperative methods, thus creating stability, diversity, and complexity in cooperation. This is the effect of enhanced computational channels in the human brain,” El said. “As ancient apes moved outwards, they learned to cooperate more efficiently, and during migrations, they learned to store food. This was the most important turning point in their transformation into humans. At this stage, ancient apes were already clearly different from animals; their brains, after repeated development, could be called Homo sapiens.”

“Animals also store food,” Mi paused to think for a moment. “You mean that shamans improved the efficiency of Homo sapiens? For example, pine trees store nuts because nuts don’t rot easily; Homo sapiens learned to dry meat to remove moisture, thus making it less prone to spoilage. Homo sapiens learned even more storage methods?”

“You could say that,” Al continued. “Storing allowed Homo sapiens to have more food. In order to have more food, Homo sapiens began to go further and engage in unrestrained hunting and capture. In the history of Earth, before Homo sapiens migrated to Oceania, Oceania was full of marsupial species, which, apart from kangaroos and koalas, were almost eaten to extinction by Homo sapiens.”

“Is all of this caused by the shaman?” Mi stood up. “Is it because the shaman promoted the movement of the human brain? The resonance brought about by the same frequency band, the addition of the shaman increased the amplitude of the vibration, the shaman increased the capabilities of human beings. Animals kill to be full, but human beings kill more because they have learned to store.”

"Yes, the shaman promoted the increase of Homo sapiens' survival ability. As their ability increased, their desires also increased. This is the desire of Homo sapiens. Because the essence of shamanism is perception, observation and insight, the shaman's participation in the mental activities of Homo sapiens only increased their ability to think and calculate. The starting point and the end point are still determined by Homo sapiens. In other words, we shamans can only observe the writings of Homo sapiens, but cannot determine their behavior."

“However, the shamans provided a guarantee for the whimsical ideas of Homo sapiens.” Mi had to come to this conclusion: “It was precisely because of the shamans that the departure of Homo sapiens could become a reality.”

“Based on the development of Earth over the past four billion years, humans may indeed be a new species brought about by the witches.” El had been led astray by Mi and now agreed with her point of view. El was seriously considering whether the progress of humanity was truly due to the involvement of the witches that led to the present-day humans.

Mi had been observing El, and she had begun to doubt whether such an experimental box truly existed. Sometimes, she would deliberately say things that were meant to guide the conversation, trying to trigger the strange phenomena in the sea of ​​consciousness above the forest again. But El firmly believed that she was a witch. Even though she had seen through everything about Mi, she still gently tolerated her, like tolerating a child throwing a tantrum.

El has always claimed to be a witch, yet she has consistently maintained a human form. She hasn't become a complete witch, remaining a faithful observer and recorder, nor does she consider herself a fully human being, denying any witch intervention in human life. Mi wonders which of the two will be able to convince the other first.

“You know that humans love killing, and the addition of shamans provides humans with all sorts of possibilities to succeed in killing.” Mi thought for a moment and then said, “In the early days of humanity, tribes fought each other, and a tribe could disappear in just one war. Even in modern times, in Joe’s time, a country could disappear just like that.”

“Indeed, humans are the most unrestrained race I have ever seen,” El said sadly. “Killing was originally just for survival, not for pleasure.”

“No, humans love killing. In powerful ancient Rome, huge arenas were built, where not only animals fought each other, but also humans fought lions and tigers. The people and animals in the arenas didn’t understand that they were put together to compete for a spot to survive, entirely to entertain the crowd in the stands. Regardless of country or ethnicity, people enjoyed watching even if they didn’t participate in the fight themselves—cricket fighting, cockfighting, bullfighting.” Mi stood up; her conversation with El had reached a dead end. “According to you, humanity should have been extinct long ago.” Mi lowered her head and pondered for a moment before saying, “I’m going for a walk, a walk alone, oh, a walk with a sorceress.” Mi stopped El and Joe, who were about to stand up, and turned to leave alone.

* * *

"Why are the elders all in human form?" Mi couldn't help but ask her question before the next class.

“I don’t know. Actually, I didn’t think the elders were human at first,” El said. “I came from a very ancient place where everyone was the same skin color and race. There were many other witches in the Witch Forest back then, and I was terrified.”

"Are those witches also in human form?" Mi couldn't help but wonder.

“Yes, according to you, the only differences are in height, skin color, race, and body type. I don’t know why there are all sorts of people in the Witch Forest.” El said, somewhat puzzled.

Mi stared at the clouds above for a long time before saying, "Never mind, forget my question. Let's continue learning. The shaman is just a conduit; all of this is human behavior. So what role has the shaman played in human development?"

El looked at Mi in silence for a while before continuing, "Progress and civilization, it is something that gradually emerges as humanity grows."

“Civilization? Progress?” Mi was somewhat skeptical. She said softly, “You know, every little bit of progress is filled with cruelty and harm. I can’t even distinguish between progress and civilization. What about those civilizations that have survived in history but have been cut off?”

“At least humans are no longer simply reproductive beings of gods, no longer like animals.” El thought for a moment, “As a former human, I still hope that humanity will enter a more civilized era.”