Evolution

First there was perfection: crystaline structures, lava flows, the
tide, all manner of gases, most especially carbon dioxide.  Then came
the disruption, the first fall from grace.  Biological, carbon-based
life.  The joining of amino acids to proteins.  Proteins to cells.
Single cells at first, chosing in blind developmental ways to join
together, to unknowingly cooperate in the process of life.  Eventually
becoming dependent upon each other.  Growth.  The organism.  It was
inevitable, in a way.  Changing, enlarging, specializing.  Painful
cellular moment by moment growing on a scale inconceivable to those
experiencing it.  Thus came the plants.  Not totally innocent.  But
pure.  Rooted, roving.  Absorbing the CO2 around them.  The first web,
the first network of life, in roots slipping like lava before, through
the soil to meet and join.  But here and there cells had changed.
Left bits out, added others.  And eventually there was what we, in our
arrogance, call true life.  The first animal organism.  The third
fall.  The third loss of purity, of innocence.  And from this came
consciousness in varying forms.  Instincts that could not always be
traced to cellular growth.  In parallel, enmeshed.  The web of
active organisms was lain over the network of plantlife.  

Some might say the web of plantlife was lain over the truly original
being.  The planet: earth and dirt and fire and stone and air and
water.  Gravity and friction.  A religious argument for some...

The organisms enacted the fourth fall with consciousness.
Decision-making unmotivated by food or fear or breeding.  The next
lattice was lain over all previous work.  Many felt it did not
actually mesh with the net, was not part of the natural scheme.  But,
as it was created and created thusly, all things are natural.  Only... 
sometimes contemptuous.  

Consciousness chose to advance itself with creation.  The carving of
wood, stone, metal.  The building with materials, the creating of
better materials, the changing of the landscape.  Eventually creating
a new sort of consciousness.  Seeding the world for the next step.
Created consciousness.  Machines.  The net is lain over all others.
Does it fragment or grow stronger?  Is life lost or pruned?  Will this
be the final fall from grace, the last shred of perfection lost to
time and change?  As with all things, only time will show us.

And only time will witness the results.


			- Kelly J. Cooper
			  Copyright 1993, all rights reserved.