Salt & Battery Comics

Read ‘The Lineage of Grass pt.1′

Whats the difference between your front lawn and all the people on this green Earth? The Internet, of course!

This guy and his friends do not like you

In light of seeking the source of individuality, rather than searching for the lowest common denominator it may prove useful to think of the “individual” as more of a recursive problem. Simply put, every individual can be at the same time both equal to and greater than the sum of its own parts.

Regardless of the level of sentience, all beings on this planet (in fact, all matter in this universe) are made from the simplest of building blocks. Two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom combine to form a single molecule of water. That molecule is unique; it has the exact same properties as every other molecule of water in the cosmos, yet it is a single, individual, unique piece of the universal puzzle. Here’s where we start looking at the bigger picture:

Let’s say that our single molecule of H₂O is being held together with its other H₂O siblings by surface tension in a morning dewdrop on a single blade of grass. In this context, our molecule ceases being considered a “molecule” and now becomes part of a larger structure – a “dewdrop” or perhaps just “water”. Collect more water together and you’ve made a “puddle”. Add a source for this water and some velocity and you have a “river” which flows to an “ocean”. Each phase along the way corresponds not only to an increase in scale, but in re-categorization each step is made contextually greater than the sum of its parts.

Humans are shining, fleshy examples of this concept: Our brains, (and our precious minds), are composed of a great deal of individual neurons all working together to bring us our regularly scheduled programming. Each neuron communicates with others in basic codes; functions so simple we haven’t figured them out yet. These codes cascade into “rules” which become “instructions” and finally “language”. Somewhere along the way, this crescendo of communication wrought by the efforts of billions of single celled creatures takes the form of our respective consciousnesses. Whether your personal belief system holds that our minds are divinely inspired or simply natural formations, there are still innumerable neurons in your skull doing most of the calculations.

So where does the Internet come in with all its tubing? Like a brain full of neurons, a lawn full of grass consists of numerous smaller entities. The major difference between the two is something neurons do better and more quickly – communicate. (Grass does in fact communicate genetically through pollination, though this process isn’t measured in megahertz but in months.) Each neuron is linked into a vast array of other connected neurons which accept, receive, and transmit data to the rest of the network. Sound familiar? In the world of today’s technology, people are using computers, cell phones, and television to stay connected with an increasingly larger network.

Like a water molecule to an ocean and a blade of grass to a meadow, there comes a tipping point at which we stop saying “they” and start calling it “it”. All is fine for water and leaves, but what happens with entities that, given the ability, naturally tend to communicate when in large enough concentrations? If consciousness is a natural byproduct of billions of neurons communicating with each other, what will happen when we reach the eventuality of billions of people linked together, sending data to and fro? Will we stop referring to ourselves as “we” and instead speak in the first person? (Or the Royal ‘We’?) Would this “person” be aware of the neurons of which it is composed, or would it be unable to see the forest for the trees, so to speak?

It may be frivolous at this point to sit around contemplating a society which is so numerous, so interconnected as to bring forth its own level of sentience; after all, we would need billions and billions of people, all highly connected to each other to even approach the level of speed and sophistication of the human mind. Even so, one only has to watch a History Channel marathon to bear witness to the increasing rate of change our civilization is experiencing as technology advances and more individuals are brought into the fold.

Do you see shifts in public opinion?
Or do you see something changing its primordial mind?

It’s almost childlike. And they grow up so fast.