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  No other life form existed, because they had all been replaced by machines.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