The fact that life eventually issued in a species that might
understood life was hardly going to be the end of the matter, was it?
I mean, that creature wasn't just going to stop there and then with
its intelligence slowly going to seed, was it?

But we didn't know that. We were quite taken up with our situation.
Sometimes we got lucky; sometimes we didn't. This man claimed he could
appease the fierce forces and we listened to him. We daren't challenge
those forces. Maybe some of us saw another way - a human potential -
but these were voices in the wilderness. Our dynamic didn't take in
truth; we preferred the wondrous stories...

And in time our numbers increased. We fought, of course. There was
always someone who would - eventually - halt the fighting. Most of us
accepted his rule. The cost of not doing so was too high. So now we
were slaves and serfs; it was just the way things were. And then -
eventually -some traders discovered another way. We might be free. We
might... But almost immediately we found ourselves in dark mills.
Capital was the new word. And nation. Again we fought...

But gradually - actrually, very quickly - we created vast societies.
Freedom was our vision but we soon took it for granted. Why enthuse
over a natural possession? And now we faced huge challenges. We needed
a new vision but had disabled all the traditional means, belief, the
wondrous stories...

But we are the creature who understands life. The intelligence honed
by evolution has finally borne fruit. We are on the cusp of a global
society - and a global awareness. Life has produced a creature aware
of life. We - of course - possess something we call a mind; but we
are, in another sense, the mind of life itself. And since life is
nothing more - or less - than a purposeful arrangement of matter we
might therefore be said to be the mind of matter.

Maybe that ought to be our vsion for the years ahead.....

Joseph Humming