A Quiet Little Story
There once was a planet. And on this planet, life was sparked.
It grew and spread across the oceans, changing, splitting, becoming many
different forms of life. Eventually, it moved up on land as well as
the oceans. Soon, it had spread over all the land, changing, splitting,
becoming ever more diverse. And from that life, grew a life form
that became intelligent. It learned and adapted, and was able to spread
over all parts of the planets, even some on and into the oceans. Over
time, they became ever more adaptive. First, by changing the life forms
around them to serve their survival, then eventually creating machines even
more efficient to replace those serving life forms. As time went on,
they had spread over the entire planet, with machines that converted the
energy and resources into a stable ecology devoted to supporting their
life. No other life form existed, because they had all been replaced by
machines. Their system was brilliant and stable and the life form
thrived to the point of equilibrium across the entire planet. With
their needs met and survival assured, their whole existence became focused on
discovery and knowledge and creation. Then, one day, they discovered a
way to observe and measure the Soul. They easily measured it in
themselves, but found no trace in the machines around them. They
discovered that it could only exist in the plants and animals and insects
that they had replaced with the machines. And no matter how they
pursued it, they could find no way to create it themselves
for their machines. By the time they had discovered this, the samples
and data needed to bring back the other life forms had crumbled away to dust.
And...inevitably...they all died of loneliness.
-- Kiki, March 19, 2002