Christelle Dabos on Empathy, Doing Good, and How We Fill Ourselves Up

On a Sunday morning in September of 2016, author Christelle Dabos was making hot chocolate when a thought struck her: what if every human being were born with an irresistible urge to do good? This question would later serve as the inspiration for her novel "We."

Years earlier, Dabos lived in a time when empathy wasn't a priority. In Nice, France, in the 2000s, she observed the selfishness of students and the lack of assistance offered to others. This mindset stayed with her, prompting her to reflect on the nature of empathy and the question of whether humans could be biologically programmed to help one another.

Dabos began experimenting with her own code of chivalry, pledging to help anyone in need and seeking out "knights" to join her cause. She then moved to Belgium, where she encountered people who embodied a different attitude towards helping others. These interactions helped Dabos realize that empathy isn't just a choice, but an innate force she dubbed "Instinct."

She drew inspiration from various sources, including the Wachowskis' "Sense8" and "The Matrix," Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now," and Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" These works helped her explore themes like identity, empathy, and the concept of a collective consciousness, which she called "We."

Despite these ideas, Dabos questioned the feasibility of a society based entirely on Instincts, noting that it lacks the ability to adapt, differentiate, and accommodate individual aspirations, as well as the rest of the living world. In her novel "We," Dabos explores the complexities of a world where empathy isn't a choice but an inherent trait, with characters like Goliath and Claire embodying different aspects of this concept.