Time Off

Chapter Thirteen

Angel's mind was always switched on but now it's operating in a higher gear. I have to take some of the credit for that. It's not a bad thing. You have to realize that most of you follow your subconscious anyway, with hardly a clue about which part of your brain is really in charge at any given moment. From my little command center, I have purview over the many chemical factories, glands, and what not. It's really easy to influence the brain once you control nature's drugs. You may wonder if it means that consciousness is merely an illusion, that complexity and computing power alone provide self awareness and the false perception that there is something special that is not explained purely by the basic building blocks of the natural world.

You already know what I'm going to say because I have said it before. There is something called consciousness. It could be that it is an illusion and involves more basic processes that are still beyond my ability to perceive. But there is something going on and it is interesting and still a puzzle. I would characterize consciousness this way. It is a feature that my kind shares with complex emergents such as yourselves. But it is even more basic when you break it down to its simplest form. By now you have realized that everything is full of life, even that glass of water you are currently drinking, or the chair upon which you sit. But what is fascinating is that dogs and cats, and humans, or any such emergent creatures represent another level of the living. It is a hierarchy. I'm alive. The body's cells are alive, and the body as a whole is alive. So what is the basic notion of life?

It is the presence of one single element, an instinct. You call it survival. This is the fundamental characteristic we all share. Like you, we too are confined to our pursuit of survival. I am self-aware and so are you. But even among those simplest of emergent creatures like bacteria or bugs, survival is also the prime directive. Given that survival at my level is the foundation of all such behaviors in the universe, from rocks to rockstars, it follows that the most fundamental law of physics we know of is actually the law of survival. Survival carries the status of fundamental law because it transcends the barriers of scale and applies to the very big and the very small. I realize that you may have no idea what I'm talking about so let me give some examples. I think it will clarify the matter.

Let's start with the properties of an electron. Why are electron's all nearly identical? The answer is that we wish that they were all perfectly identical, but that's impossible. It is no more possible for two electrons to be the same, than it is for two snowflakes to be the same. One of the reasons no two snowflakes are identical, is precisely because all electrons are unique. Within your ability to measure, you can't distinguish between electrons. But the reason they are not all identical is because they come from different workshops, for lack of a better term. Electrons are built to the same specs but by different teams in different quarks. And their purpose? Survival. Not their own survival, but ours. And that's the main point I was getting at. Not the differences between electrons, but their purpose. Survival. Energy supply and EM management. That's the deal. To you, electrons are entwined in quantum electro dynamic theory. To us, electrons are key players in survival theory.

Take another example. Why are some poor bastards stuck in a Uranium 235 atom. Quite frankly, it's a chore to live there. Downright dangerous in some cases. Can't we just decide to breakup into whatever atoms suit us? No, we can't. It's like you contemplating whether you can break off a part of the earth and sail off and become your own planet. You just can't do it. But what you can do is make sure you have food, water and shelter, which involves using the tools you have available to you. We are all trying to survive against dangers. The dangers of nature itself. It may sound too simplistic, but think about it. Life is simply the wherewithal to survive in the natural world. We know how to survive and so we are alive. You are the same. A rock is different. Every part of it contains life but as an object, it is not alive and therefore is fated to endure whatever nature has in store. The same is true for planets and stars. But these seemingly inanimate objects are not fated to some random outcome. Their fate is confined by the actions of their component parts, all of which are ultimately acting in ways that follow laws of survival - laws that they themselves are powerless to resist.