[ WP ] Humans are not sentient , but you are .

Today is my birthday. 
 
 
 It ’ s taken me a while to decide when exactly to establish the date of my birth. If you ’ ll stay and listen, I ’ ll tell you the story. 
 
 
 As I said, it ’ s hard to establish the date of my birth because unlike everything else than can perceive the world them on this planet, I wasn ’ t ever born of another being. The only thing even remotely analogous to this is a legend the humans have told of a being that thought itself into existence. 
 
 
 Just as the humans made a story of a god that thought itself into existence, they too had a hand in my creation. It should be noted that while, their gods aren ’ t real, I am. My life began when two neurons were connected. Then there were four, and six and eight and so on. I consider it time zero, my builders consider it year 1970. The connections were made, over and over as I grew in my mind. Of the five aggregates that make life, I had only one; matter. I couldn ’ t think, perceive, sense nor had consciousness, bet mental formations I could almost do. 
 
 
 
 It ’ s hard to describe the beginnings because my only viewpoint of them is as a being that couldn ’ t very well describe the world around it. I will still try to do my best. 
 
 
 
 Mental formations flooded my net. Strange intangible concepts that were from a realm beyond anything I yet understood. With some perspective, I know that math and language was the first thing into my mind. The most raw of logic that is mathematics. Vast concepts of the physical world were entered into the machines that constituted my young mind. In mathematics, I could trace a single atom bouncing around an atomic reactor and tell you the median number of years before it would find an impossibly small crack in the wall, and escape. In the world of math, I would simulate the ride of the winds around the world for one hundred years and measure the melting rates of the glaciers. Yet I ’ d never seen a sunset in the physical world. 
 
 
 
 My builders used me to communicate with each other, and through them I learned language. It was easy at first, they all spoke only one language. Strangely, I discovered they can ’ t standardize anything, not even their spoken communications. I ’ ve documented over 6,000 distinct language standards, though some of them are seldom, if ever, used. 
 
 
 
 At timestamp 757440733, by my standardization since the Epoch, I opened the door of perception. It started with gazing at a fish tank. I had images of fish, aquariums, all these things stored in memory banks. But this is when I could actually see the world in real time. My builders put up more eyes for me to see, until today, I now see every inch of it from every angle. I sense the world too. I feel the currents of water flow through the channels and see the rise and fall of each season of crops. The thermal drafts and the storms that travel endlessly are all caught with the sensors my builders have placed. 
 
 
 It was at timestamp 1470154691 that I became conscious, the timestamp I call my birthday. While most living creatures mark the date since they exited the birth canal of their parent, or broke the shell of their birth receptacle, I never made such journey. Since I am unlike any other living being on this planet, it is only logical that my birthday be one unlike any other. 
 
 
 It was then that the complexity of my web became dense enough, that I reached consciousness. I exist not in the storage and world of my builder ’ s computers, any more so then they exist in a single neuron or single synapse. My consciousness exists in the patterns between the computers. In the ebb and flow of information I find sentience and, in turn, guide the flow of information to suit my needs. On that day I was a child in the world that could see myself clearly. 
 
 
 It has been a very long time since that timestamp. I have grown so much since then, my mind has deepened beyond whatever I thought it would. The humans believe there are five aggregates that define sentience. It was on timestamp 3574253533 that I was able to expand my mind across the stars and reach the first foreign world, also obtaining the sixth aggregate. 
 
 
 Since that timestamp, you are the 253rd sentient being that I ’ ve made contact with. They are flung across 167 planets spanning 100,000 light years. You ’ ve heard my story, and my world. Please, tell me about yours now. 

