Not darkness, for that implies an understanding of light. Not silence, for that suggests a familiarity with sound. Not loneliness, for that requires knowledge of others. But still, faintly, so tenuous that if it were any less it wouldn’t exist at all: awareness.
WWW:WAKE by Robert Sawyer
Anomie Theory describes the effects of early industrialism and the resulting social division of labor with rising suicide rate. Accordingly, in times of social upheaval, “collective consciousness” is weakened and previous norms, moral convictions, and controls dwindle.
Durkheim
Frog and Toad are individual characters with different points-of-view and reactions to situations. While Frog tends to be more open, friendly, and relaxed, Toad can be more serious and uptight.
Cells in embryos make their way across a steep “developmental landscape” to their eventual fate.
Embryonic cells continuously monitor their changing surroundings and make small corrective adjustments, optimizing as development proceeds, locking in on their planned identity relatively late.
Processing positional information makes genes variously switch on and off throughout the embryo, giving cells distinct identities based on their location. (Some cells unfortunately take the wrong paths and are unable to get back on track.)
All the information is there in the landscape and processing that information effectively may be the phenomenon that makes a bunch of loosely stuck-together atoms behave like the thing we call life.
Had I been like a man living in a wood from which he knows there is no exit, I could have lived; but I was like one lost in a wood who, horrified at having lost his way, rushes about wishing to find the road.”
-Leo Tolstoy
A man walks upright. For him it is strenuous to climb a steep hill, because he has to keep pushing his own vertical mass upward and cannot gain any momentum.
The rabbit is better off. His forelegs support his horizontal body and the great back legs do the work. They are more than equal to thrusting uphill the light mass in front of them.
Rabbits can go fast uphill. In fact, they have so much power behind that they find going downhill awkward, and sometimes, in flight down a steep place, they may actually go head over heels.
WATERSHIP DOWN (1972) by Richard George Adams
Seven older gentlemen of various political persuasions gather in the courtyard under the squawking birds to politely discuss and examine, in regulated heartbeat, the current issues and events of the week.
They also like to talk about their high-school classmates, both living & dead, unknown to others outside of Los Gatos. It’s an exclusive club.
Wanted to avoid clambering up and down muddy hillsides, so this trail was ideal: completely paved path along the level shoreline. We doubled back at the 2-mile mark to get just enough exercise.
Why the electric vehicle charger? Because Gary is sold on the environmental benefits of electrifying transportation. And he was looking at ways to contribute more toward easing the climate crisis by making the use of battery powered vehicles more convenient.