Be a shepherd in the Alps.

The sky was clear, and a group of goats of considerable size came to the mountains in the Alps. They are the tallest mammals in the world, good at climbing and jumping, and can freely indulge themselves in the bare rocks and rocks on the steep plateau. Suddenly, a grotesque guy wearing a helmet and artificial limbs appeared behind the sheep. He walks on all fours like a sheep and eats grass like a sheep, but his face and figure still reveal his identity-a man. This man is Thomas, the "king of sheep" in the Alps.

Thomas, 34 years old? Thwaites) is a conceptual designer in London, England. He was very interested in science and technology, mankind and futurology since he was a child. Before that, he had participated in the possible design of future genetic engineering and discussed how human beings can improve themselves in the future. He thinks that not everyone wants to be super smart. He found it desirable to be a carefree animal, so he decided to try to use science and technology to turn himself into a goat.

In order to realize this whimsical idea, Thomas made a lot of systematic and meticulous preparations. He analyzes the behavior of goats, learns the way they communicate and observes their anatomical process. He invited Dr. Green Heath of Stanford University to make goat limbs for him. After a year of exploration, Thomas finally put on a special prosthesis to make himself move like a goat. Thomas even considered installing an artificial rumen in his body so that he could digest the grass he ate like a goat. Their experimental plan was funded by Wellcome Trust, a biomedical charity.

On June 20 15, Thomas set the goal of crossing the Swiss Alps and found a shepherd who agreed to live with his sheep. After several days of adaptation, Thomas will drink water, eat grass and climb mountains with Dashan in three days.

The crystal clear snow peaks, dense forests and clear mountain streams in the Alps excited Thomas at first, as if he had come to Xanadu. Full of confidence, he quickly changed his biological channel from "human" to "sheep", and frequently showed his kindness to new sheep friends, trying to get close to them, but the goats obviously didn't buy his account. Only one female goat was friendly to him, which made Thomas confident that he might look handsome as a goat.

However, Thomas soon discovered that living like a goat was not as simple as he thought. The mechanical limbs made him feel pain. The rugged mountain road is difficult to walk, and it is even more fatal when going down the mountain, because he will keep hitting rocks and have no extra hands to protect himself. Besides, we have to endure the cold. He can only keep pace with them for about a kilometer, and then he can only chase their asses and eat ashes. But fortunately, you can find big troops every time. When they were found, most of them were grazing leisurely, and occasionally they looked up at Thomas, who was out of breath, as if curiously asking, "Dude, why don't you hurry up?" Many times, he collapsed on the grass with fatigue. Except staring at the blue sky, the rest of his body no longer seems to belong to him. However, this feeling of forgetting me is actually very good. My mind has been completely liberated and I can almost communicate with heaven and earth.

Thomas' biggest challenge is to convince the sheep that he is one of them. Once, he finally climbed to the highest point of the whole hillside and wanted to sing loudly, but suddenly he noticed that all the other goats stopped chewing the grass in their mouths and stared at him. Thomas had never been afraid before, and then he suddenly realized that they had sharp horns on their heads. Just now, because he was so happy, he involuntarily showed the behavior pattern of human characteristics, which caused the hostility of sheep. Thomas doesn't know what to do. He held his breath nervously and dared not move. After a while, the ewe goat, who had a good relationship with him, approached him, gently touched his cheek, relieved the sudden tension, and finally the sheep bowed their heads and ate grass again. A shepherd nearby witnessed the incident and told Thomas that the sheep had accepted him. Thomas finally succeeded in getting in touch with goats. He forgot to wear heavy artificial limbs and his human identity, and wandered and played on the hillside like a real sheep. This moment is really hard to change.

The beautiful and short three days made Thomas fall in love with this simple life of physical and mental stretching and incomparable happiness. "The experience of being a sheep has taught me how to be a man." He said. In July this year, Thomas exhibited his photographic works in this project in London, and his new book "Goat Man: Holidays Different from Humans" was also published the following spring.

"People are born free, but they are everywhere in chains. He who thinks he is the master of everything else is a slave more than anything else. " When Thomas climbed the Alps as a goat, the sunshine in the cold wind, the grass when he was thirsty and the rest when he was tired made him always grateful for the gift of life given by nature.

Perhaps, when we let go of the pursuit of an overly intelligent and complicated life, we can get the highest freedom and happiness, which is also the ultimate pursuit of civilization and evolution.