It’s him. He’s the joke.

Would “incognizant” fit the bill? Or, perhaps, the XY Problem?

Yes, so don’t be lookin’ at its quack

If it makes you feel better, it seems like you’re not the only one who missed the thread indent 🤷‍♂️

snekerpimp was responding to FlyingSquid, not baldingpudenda.

Lots of great suggestions involving story craft and the like, so I’ll target the “religious hangups” bit with a couple non-fiction books:

• Sentience by Nicholas Humphrey (great to get a perspective on consciousness and sentience that isn’t marred with religious doctrine)

• Determined by Robert Sapolsky (a primatologist with a knack for getting you comfortable with the notion that we don’t have as free a will as religion tells us)

And just to include a bit of fiction:

• Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (about life as we know it, or maybe as we don’t)

• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (deals with overwritten cultures. Also dragons.)