Why is humanity special?

[DefenderOfBasic]

I think this is potentially another "mini essay" that can be part of the outreach #4 - this may already be answered in the paper, but there's this concept that is in a lot of religions that I'm wondering if God Conjecture formalizes: why is humanity's role special in the universe?

I think the short answer is: a human is a functionally unique type of Observer, because they can connect between the "top" and "bottom" (not sure what the formal words are for this in the framework). I can add more links here about religious people like Matthieu Pageau trying to describe this at a technical level.

[SASenchal]

I think the basic answer you've got is correct.

Humans have the ability to set the limit of the observable structure (R_O - the potential limit of the Observable Ruliad) using abstractions. These don't have to be religious, they can be philosophical (see Postmodernism / idealism). They can also be political and economic.

This ability to construct the space 'top-down' is something animals definitely lack. They are 'bottom-up' explorers of latent space, they can't, in the same way set their own limit criteria.

The God Conjecture formalises this obtusely. It's shown in section 10 on genesis (why are humans special / most-god-like) but can also be seen in the appendix on human superstructures.

Your words are correct. In fact theology addresses this. In the Torah before Adam we have humans, they are setting their attractors incorrectly (see Aztec / Mayan cultures as example of collapse from bad cultural algorithm). You should take a look at Walter's short computational theology interpretation of genesis in the issues - it discusses some of this.