Mind Nomad Writing

Occasionally, in the pursuit of substantive progress, the evolutionary process oversteps and introduces a defect into the population. The concept of adaptation may have been entirely logical and perhaps even possessed significant progressional potential for the species. The context, timing, or entry point – however – was not quite right. In an effort to advance the species, the mistimed intervention actually leads to setbacks as the population perpetuates and overcomes the consequences of the misfiring.

The process itself can’t really be held accountable for the lost time and carnies produced. The patience for digging around in the dirt in an effort to build great nations will always wear thin. The tolerance for mindlessly floating in primordial soup as a specimen under a microscope is only so strong. Eventually the recurrences of plague, famine, drought, and consumption by the microorganism with the biggest mouth on the slide starts to feel a bit monotonous. The dream of a promised land that includes the gentle breeze from an air conditioner and the salty taste of processed meats becomes intoxicating.

In one of these doldrums of evolutionary innovation, the process rushed forward with the implementation of the nervous system. This partly-considered and impatient production came with a strong initial return on investment. Growing a spine and standing up as the tallest monstrosity in the laboratory certainly offers its advantages and this kind of explosive change definitely circumvents the exacting trial and error method of progression. The timing and sample size were the complicating factors in this experiment – one that may have been better suited for somewhere remote and secluded, like Galapagos.

Ahead these brave new variations of vertebral pond scum scurried – stumbling, shaking, quaking, groaning, squinting – adapting to newfound intelligence. In addition to intellect, the species was faced with an adaptation for which it was not yet sufficiently prepared to face. Encased in the same spinal column that allowed them to tower above their prey was a network of poorly coordinated and fragile wiring containing emotions and urges all set off by a tenuous system of impulse and electricity. 

The blueprint for this innovation was admirable, an organic technology bestowed on an unappreciative and barely-sentient species. Designed as signals of information, packages of data encoded from the environment – emotions were instead interpreted as illnesses. At various times these illnesses were treated as individual maladies, sometimes even the sign of abject moral failure. At other times these illnesses were treated as a form of social contagion, an epidemiological threat. Over time the illnesses were codified and efforts were undertaken to instruct those with special training on how to best sanitize and manage these illnesses to prevent the spread of infection.

Humanity’s attempt to manage the inheritance of the nervous system should merit some acknowledgment. Archaic and unsophisticated as it may have been, at least they had an awareness that the bestowal of this mess of nerves and indecipherable psychological cues posed a risk to the present iteration of the species. Thankfully, evolution has a knack for course correction and many tried and true tactics for bringing things back into order. The process self-corrected by patiently waiting to strike at the right moment. Acting in a rash manner could have doomed our very existence, while waiting too long could have led to further permutations of a system that could pose a threat to evolution itself. No, this time it would be different. The analysis would factor in the precise moment to pull the levers and enact the process of natural selection.

In a stroke of brilliance, the process seized the opportunity to latch on to the power of social contagion and use this process as leverage to slowly turn the tide and enact evolutionary growth. At first, the wave of contagion crashed on the shores of stigma and disavowal. Here the species cultivated the requisite fear and mythology about the nervous system. Generation after generation grew more and more wary of this embodied system of emotion and urges. They began to ask themselves and one another about the validity and safety of this system. Could any of these internal messages be trusted? What if these are signs of a depraved mind? How can we take any comfort in or direction from something that encourages us to kill our fathers so we can fuck our own mothers? And so the process of humanity disconnecting from this interwoven adaptation began. All chance of understanding and trusting the system slowly eroded.

A subtle component to this brilliant plan was the knowledge that when a system is pressed into an extreme stance it will naturally snap into the alternate extreme position before resting in homeostasis. This whiplash came as the stored up, kinetic energy rippled and eventually spilled out in waves crashing on the shores of ignorance and acceptance. On this side of the contagion, the nervous system was met with intrepid naivety tinged with a morbid and voyeuristic curiosity. 

The interest on this end of the divide was cultivated by the experience of generation after generation becoming disillusioned with the tales told by the last one. They were taught to fear the Boogeyman only to learn the true intent of these stories was to engender compliance during bedtime routines so their parents could fuck one another or some other person of their choosing. Like Eve, humanity forged ahead indignantly, certain their consumption of the fruit would have a different outcome.

The full brilliance of this plan now on display, evolution finally atoned for the nervous system. Once enough replications of the species had been encoded with a lack of trust and ability to interpret the nervous system’s signals the vestigial future of the nervous system was sealed. Those eventual generations on the distant beaches asking for a chance to confront the nervous system and intimately explore emotions were no longer equipped to do so. The very nightmares they convinced themselves they had dispelled came back to find them and consume their minds. Urges to kill fathers so as to fuck mothers were honored as unassailable rights. 

Fear and tolerance – Repression and expression – Father and Mother – Disavow and invite. All may be opposite extremes and all find their rightful place in evolution’s strategic deployment.

#Vestigial