Scavengers

An interesting realization the other day
while watching a termite struggle in vain
in the drowning waters of the toilet.

Why do intelligent creatures struggle,
often in vain, against the void?

It is essential for them to do this.
In fact, they derive their very existence
from the fact that they can attain
the occassional fractional success.

To scavenge a little extra free energy
from a stingy universe.
The pain, the terror, the struggle - it is necessary!
We owe our very lives to these feelings,
to these terrible conditions.

Demons, we are, struggling against the cruel universe.
Scavenging free energy.

Why is it such a religious experience to smash a bug?
Is it because we hesitate for a moment
to consider where we ourselves are on the food chain?
That we briefly consider our own mortality?

Since the bug does not have a rich conceptual vocabulary,
is it okay for his local command node to be squashed?
A decision center shut down.
An evolutionary dead-end.

But aren't the dead-ends almost as important
to the selection process? Without selection,
the system wouldn't evolve, would it?
Moo.

(C. Fitch, 1997)

Cris A Fitch cfitch@alum.mit.edu