The ancients speak of a place beyond the far lands and the endless sea. A place where the skies merge with the seas below and the firmament yields to worlds unknown. There, one will find an ancient power so old it knew the specks of dust which now dance in beams of light in their original form: as vast mountain ranges.
All those who would seek this place are warned to not look upon the sky. For it gazes back and its glare is heavy enough to turn minds to powder. Most assuredly, all are told, the power rends souls to spit them as ash.
It is said some survive but with their wills ripped asunder. Others still, strong of spirit and mind, look and see truths and realms beyond imagining; even as they fade to an existence far surpassing anything conceivable by man.
But there are some who survive intact – merely with their minds scrambled beyond recognition. I approached one such man. Beggared and disheveled, he stood by a cart filled with bright fruit. I tossed a penny and asked. “What did you see?”
“I saw a pain beyond reckoning, a pain of one who must quietly suffer a wasting away from diseases which savage the body. And so I swore to make it my task to warn one all that their deeds bring only pain upon this world. But it is all in vain, for no one has ears for such talk.” His eyes were wild and moved of their own volition. I thanked him for his time, filled with helpless sorrow as the echoes of his words rang through my mind.
But I had someone else to see. There was another who had made the journey and returned. A Wise Woman of the Desert Tribes, a people who build palaces spun of sand and gold.
“I saw pain and tears yes. But it was tinged with a fear of the unknown and pain from a quickening. Even as one who has only walked the world of dreams learns that soon, they must wake, consciousness rushes to the extremities of their being and sensation forms slowly. As warmth creeps into their sight, the molten pain of unheralded changes causes great distress.”
You will find no argument from me that this indeed was a frightening proposition.
I saw the picture above and it invoked a strange sensation in me. No word could pin it down – the only way I could express my self was with this story. The interweb credits the art as Sharee Davenport’s. http://reblog.ronenv.com/post/20357955668/credit-the-artist-by-sharee-davenport-color
——-
You see the image and you can guess it’s commentary on how we are destroying the planet. That’s who the first man represents. Yet we can look at how we treat the planet in another way. That what we are doing is natural. And that what we are doing might waken the planet (see internet of things, very scary potential) by infusing much more computation into it.
It is natural because it is the purest hubris to think that what we do is apart from the universe. Natural to me is anything allowed by the laws of nature. Any humancentric partition is arrogance. And we are most emphatically not destroying the planet. That is more hubris; the planet was forged in the flames of star dust and bombarded with fallen moons. It can handle anything we throw at it. No, we are destroying the planet for ourselves and our descendants. Plain and simple. No other living creature depends on diversity or can appreciate it as much as us. We should stop talking about saving the planet – she does not need our help – and start talking about saving our children.
Sifting Strands 