'The Man is Disappearing.'

I mentioned a book that I was working on. Well, I finished it. I took a whole stack with me to Rome, where I would say that they held their own amongst very tough competition. Here are some photographs of the book.

Insects.

A scientist friend of mine tells me that very soon in the evolutionary trajectory of insects they will notice, as we have long ago, that in the sky there is a giant ball of fire. They will one by one give up their daily routines of digging and eating dirt and they will begin moving towards it. The ones with wings will carry those without. Some of these combinations will move very quickly, traversing large portions of the distance between them and the sun.

by Sebastian

Evolution - Birds.

We have a handful of strategies that we use to understand the evolution of humans. It is a difficult art in which we can easily make mistakes. Because of this we tread cautiously: only a tiny fraction more of the steps that are taken aren’t steps backwards. So far we’ve found that the structure of our mind is outward-layered with newer developments built on top of older ones.

In the same way that the newer physical components of our brain rely on the infrastructure of the older ones, so it could be true of our personal experience. It could be that our everyday interactions with each other have as their far far removed base ancient survival mechanisms wholly irrelevant to our modern lives (the terror of birds, our once-predators, comes to mind). Perhaps our decisions in dealing with those we love are secretly influenced by an ancient fear of being swooped up while exposed. Perhaps the strange ability to dwell on a moment and expand from it an overwhelming sense of inspiration, perhaps this is caused by some still extant older infrastructure trying to connect to a now extinct cousin and attempting to use the newer machinery to perform the same function.

When I was a bird I was once, while attempting to court a particularly beautiful female, overwhelmed by the memory of a bizarre and terrifying sound. I had heard it in the human camp: a powerfully loud sound with very little melodic complexity. I flew away terrified, in a state of shock.

On my return I relived the excitement of the original terror by mimicking the sound. I and the particularly beautiful female and a few of the other males who were also attempting to court her flew around up and down and around each other. I cried out the sound and the others tried to mimic me, but could not generate the excitement that my cries did.  

by sebastian

I am a dog.

I am a dog and can hear most things.
I walked into the room and was convinced that you had gotten things wrong.

I sat next to you and thought about how it is that I know things are wrong, but I became tired and fell asleep. When I woke up you had lit a fire in the fireplace and were putting out some food for me.
I tried again later, but this time I sat close to the fire. The warmth made me drowsy and I fell asleep again.

The next day you went for a walk to the forest and took me with you. It was cold so you wore a large coat. I do not need clothes because I have a coat of fur. I ran ahead of you many times to look out for other things. In the forest we stopped briefly and you peed. I peed too.

When we got back home I remembered that I was trying to work out what was wrong. You lit a fire earlier in the day than the last time, which is good because it was a colder than the day before. I fell asleep again and woke up later. You were putting food into a bowl. I ate it.

The next day you went to the forest and I went with you. We came back and you lit a fire. It's good because it is cold outside. I ate food from a bowl and I was warm from the fire. It made me happy. It is good.