(Rose)
It’s nice and also a little spooky, how much and how naturally there is a smile on my sister’s face now as we walk.
She just achieved one of her goals in life, just like that.
All the voluminous and colourful orbs of blood or experintal fluids she used to carry are now gone.
Only replaced by translucent beads she plays with between her fingers and the palm of her hands.
We still walk around gorgeous landscapes that span an endless chain of mountains. The weather is clear and nice. It’s nice to see mountains behind the current chains when we reach high paths.
N – Catch.
She throws one of her barely visible pearls. I almost miss it but I get it. I hold it between thumb and index above my head to look through it like a lens. Optically, it acts closer to a thin lens than the sphere it actually is. Another oddity caused by T.I. surely.
R – What’s inside that one?
N – You.
R – ?
N – This one is programd to create a copy of you, out of anything. It just requires a lot more energy to work.
R – Wha... What should I do with it? I don’t want to et another copy of Rose that much.
B – I think Night sees it as a backup for your body. As we did before. Even though we’re looking after you right now, we know eventually sothing will happen to you.
R – Shut up you.
I give a little slap to the pale flowers growing there gently. Nightmare looks amused.
N – You can tweak it for different purposes, two of which you just ntioned. But there’s another one, at least.
R – Hm? Co on, don’t tease .
N – If you use it differently, this is a human egg. Using no T.I., you could hatch it into a child, new born.
I feel a shiver, while I still hold that thing in my hand.
Good and awful mories flash in the very last corner of my skull. Where it’s happy or dark.
My mouth feels dry.
Nightmare snatches it back from as she saw frozen there.
N – You don’t have to decide right away. It’s yours if you want to.
R – I don’t know what to say.
She grins.
N – Just thank I’m a god.
I only halfway get her jokes sotis. At least enough to tell this was a joke of so sort.
She shows another lens anwhile.
N – This one holds the information to craft one of the rose petals salamanders. And this one, the turquoise grass.
R – You didn’t lose ti.
N – It’s easier to copy than to reinvent.
R – Right. You did ntion that before, and Blu too. Any bird yet then?
N – No... That is annoying... But I don’t have the entire full data for any bird species left in my mories. It would take longer work. I still have enough to design new ones though.
R – I just realised, we haven’t seen any real bird since we arrived on this continent, quite a while ago now.
B – Most species disappeared. Southern Aricas may have been unlucky.
R – Hm... Well, maybe the jungle will still hold so. Are we still far?
B – Maybe one or two thousand kilotres. Hard to say. But once we finish crossing the Andes, we can’t really miss the Amazon.
R – I’m eager to see how it looks and how it evolved.
Nightmare seems to realise sothing.
N – That just reminded of sothing.
R – What is it, sis’?
N – You often use the word evolution the wrong way.
I chuckle. I know that very well.
R – There’s the literary aning indeed, and the more common aning to it. I know I use it for both.
Since she started on the topic I’m passionate about, I easily go on.
R – The Darwinian aning is of slow and various changes brought out through natural selection and generations. And thank you so much Blu for teaching about genetics and mutations.
B – You are very welco dear.
R – Evolution from the literary definition is the natural selection of the most adapted inherited mutations to a current context. Whereas the more common understanding of the word evolution ans a slow progress, as if it was sothing linear like the progress in the making of a work of art. They are inherently different concepts but they do appear similar when you look at them retrospectively. Every mutation that didn’t bring an advantage is removed from history over a few generation of selection, and all that you see is the infinite and tenuous string of transformation. And it’s true that I talked about beings-like-you and dünyanın çiçekleri as evolving over their own lifeti. Which is altogether a mistake on a very literary conception of the principle, but also, dare I say, a relevant evolution of the aning of that concept? Because you are less bound by genetics and reproduction, yet you adapt yourself, willingly, and you change a lot. I wanted to say there that you evolve a lot, but that is the more common and mistaken use of the word. You transform much faster, because you are closer to a concept like a culture or a society than an animal organism, being unbound by flesh. Which ans beings-like-you bring a new set of rules to evolution, bringing the literal aning much closer to the implied and common one. There’s also the definition, related to the second one, that sees evolution as an opposition in speed to a revolution. Instead of changing everything abruptly and with shocks, with great violence even, against greater resistance; bring it slower and frictionless over a longer period of ti. And there will be far less resistance to your changes, as you give ti to... adapt.
B – This also applies in chanics.
R – That’s right! And that’s where the word evolution still has a relevant aning, although that stretches further away from its root definition. But cogs will wear out faster if used more abruptly.
B – Would there have been other anings to the word that would have quickly been discarded along the way?
My brain feels fuzzy and warm as I realise what she ans. I burst out in laughter.
R – Oh good one Blu! Now you get it! That’s another thing that is great about evolution. It’s a principle that encompasses far more than just biology! That’s why the original aning becos a living fossil word aning, while other kinds of anings arise. Because they’re selected through use in languages, and because this concept discovered or popularised then truly applies easily to many a thing in life.
N – Now that is my lord of chaos speaking the truth.
R – Hey! I told you it’s a terrible nickna!
She laughs heartily now. We caw at each other then, in between grins and laughs. And slowly we progress on our way across the beautiful and desert Andes.
~
Debating with lover and family sure can be nice.
Evolution is one of those words that grew too big for itself and what it could encompass. I’m sure there were many more like it over ti, with aning diluting and separating in divergent species through spreading use. But this one is my favourite.
I may have evolved and transford a lot over the years, in many more ways than one would expect, but this is sothing that remained true since I learnt about it as a child.
The word chaos has similar depth and importance for my sister.
Most would only hear the common definition of it when ntioned.
She and I understand and hear the sa deeper and more profound one.
~
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