Stepping Outside Our Human Bubble
Experience 'not for humans' perspective
Have you ever noticed how most of our lives happen in spaces made just for us humans?
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The chair you're sitting in right now, the room around you, the streets outside – they were all built for people. They fit our bodies and our needs perfectly. I started calling these places "For Human Surroundings" or FHS for short.
Garvit Sahdev enjoys understanding the ideas that shape our world. The Thoughtful Tangle is an initiative to share this journey and experience with friends who love to do the same. He selects one idea and dives deep into it to understand its basics, relevance, impact, and opportunities around it.
Look around you. The ceiling is probably just a few feet above your head. The doors are just tall enough for people to walk through. Tables and chairs match our sitting height. Roads are wide enough for our cars. Everything fits us like a glove.
Most of us spend almost our whole lives in these human-made places. We wake up in our bedrooms, drive on roads to work in buildings, eat in restaurants, and relax in living rooms. It's all made for us.
There's nothing wrong with this! These spaces keep us safe and comfortable. But I've realized something important: when we only stay in these human-sized bubbles, we forget something big.
Stepping Into a Different World
Then there are places I call "Not For Human Surroundings" or NFHS. These are spaces not built with humans in mind.
Some NFHS places are natural – like deep forests, mountaintops, or the open ocean. Others are human-made but not designed for comfort – like massive dams, huge factories, or open mines.
What makes these places different? They weren't built to match our size or needs. They don't care if we find them comfortable. They exist for their reasons.
What Happens When We Leave Our Bubble
Last month, I went hiking in an old-growth forest. The trees were hundreds of years old, towering so high I had to bend my neck back to see their tops. I felt tiny walking between those giants.
Another time, I stayed up late to watch stars in a place far from city lights. Looking up at the endless sky full of more stars than I could count, I felt a strange mix of feeling small yet connected to everything.
Each time I step into these NFHS spaces, something interesting happens inside me. My breathing slows down. My shoulders relax. My busy thoughts quiet down. It feels like coming home to something I didn't know I was missing.
The Big Realization
Here's what I've learned from these experiences: we are just animals. Smart animals who build amazing things, yes, but still just one species on a planet full of life.
In our human-made world, we often forget this. We get caught up in deadlines and social media, and career ladders. We worry about things that, in the big picture of life, might not matter so much.
But standing next to an ancient tree or watching ocean waves that have been moving the same way for millions of years reminds me of a simple truth: I am small, and that's okay. It feels good.
The Trap We've Built
Sometimes, I think we've created a strange trap for ourselves. We build cities and systems that create new problems, then we work hard to solve those problems, which creates more problems, and on and on it goes.
We build bigger houses that need more cleaning and maintenance. We make faster cars that need wider roads. We create social media that makes us feel we need to keep up with everyone else.
It's like we're hamsters running on a wheel we built ourselves.
Finding Freedom Again
When I step into NFHS, that wheel stops spinning for a while. I remember that I'm just one small part of something much bigger and older than me. Strangely, this doesn't make me feel sad or unimportant – it makes me feel free.
Free from having to be the best. Free from endless wanting. Free from the pressure to keep up.
I'm not saying we should all go live in caves. Our human surroundings give us safety, medicine, art, and ways to connect with each other. These are good things!
But I do think we need to step outside our human bubble regularly. We need to touch the earth, stand under vast skies, and remember our place in the natural world.
What About You?
Have you ever had this feeling? Maybe when you stood at the edge of the ocean, or looked up at mountain peaks, or even when you were in a massive train station that made you feel tiny?
I'd love to hear about your NFHS experiences. Those moments when you remember that you're part of something bigger than just the human world.
Because I think these moments help us live better, even when we return to our human-sized lives. They help us remember what's important and what's just noise.
So maybe this week, try to find an NFHS place near you. It doesn't have to be a grand wilderness adventure. Just somewhere that wasn't made with human comfort in mind. Stand there for a while. Breathe. And remember that you're an animal too – a wonderful, thinking, feeling animal with a place in this big, beautiful world.
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