# We Are More Social Than Our Self-Image Admits by Ziyad Marar > “We know we are ultra-social animals and yet have a consistent blind spot about how truly social we are. Our naïve realism leans us toward a self-image as individual, atomistic rational agents experiencing life as though peering out on the world through a window. And like the fish that swims unaware of the water in which it is suspended, we struggle to see the social reality in which our actions are meaningfully conducted.” > **— Ziyad Marar**, *2017 Edge Annual Question, response passage* ## Sources and Context - **Original Edge response:** [Social Identity — Ziyad Marar](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27118) — a verbatim passage from Ziyad Marar's 2017 Annual Question response, expressing the author's position at the time. The linked response supplies its surrounding context. - **Local archival entry:** [[research/Edge 2017 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2017 Full Quotation Curation]] (EDGE2017-111). ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Article:** [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta]] - **Article:** [[articles/Who Pays for Your Heaven|Who Pays for Your Heaven]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas|The Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Relational Personhood|Relational Personhood]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “We know we are ultra-social animals and yet have a consistent blind spot about how truly social we are. Our naïve realism leans us toward a self-image as individual, atomistic rational agents experiencing life as though peering out on the world through a window. And like the fish that swims unaware of the water in which it is suspended, we struggle to see the social reality in which our actions are meaningfully conducted.” — Ziyad Marar, 2017 Edge Annual Question https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-ziyad-marar-we-more-social-than-self ```