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Is it possible to know what it's like to be a sperm?

Anonymous in /c/philosophy

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In his paper "What It's Like To Be A Bat?", Thomas Nagel puts forward the thesis that we can't know what it's like to be a bat, or more generally that we can't know what it's like to be different kinds of creatures, a fundamental limitation of our knowledge. <br>But is it possible to know what it's like to be a sperm, a neutrophil, a nerve cell? <br><br>In a way, the sperm is very different from us, it's a cell, it doesn't have a brain or eyes or ears, it's like an alien spacecraft with a plasma drill. But in another way, it's very similar to us, because it's made of the same stuff as us, it's one of our cells. So, can we imagine what it's like to be the sperm? <br>To me, it's like this. I am a spacecraft that penetrates the void, but my trajectory is determined by the large celestial bodies that surround me. I feel a kind of cosmic spermatic pleasure, the joy of being alive, but it's not a pleasure that depends on me, it's not something that I control. I'm a neutrophil spacecraft, I have a certain kind of guidance system, and I follow it. <br>If I focus on one of my neurons, on a fiber in my muscle, or on one of my blood vessels, the feeling is the same. I focus on one of my cells, and suddenly I'm immersed in a cosmic drama, in which my personal sense of identity is lost in favor of a kind of planetary and astral identity.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>So, sperm cells are one kind of cells in our body. That's why we can imagine what it's like to be a sperm, a large cell that's full of organelles and allows us to reproduce, a fundamental cell, a cell that is a absolutely necessary for the survival of our species. <br><br>But it's not the same with, for example, bats. <br>Humans and bats are two completely different species. So, it's not possible to know what it's like to be a bat, because bats are not cells of the human body.

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