Meet OPAL!
(that’s Observer Perceiving Another Layer)
She’s an ordinary octopus
with some extraordinary questions
about this curious world
(or should we say WORLDS?)
For OPAL has noticed something strange:
Humans seem to think
that only creatures with brains
can think and know and learn!
“How very odd,” says OPAL,
(turning a puzzled purple)
“Do they not see what happens
right here in my tidepool?”
*
Let’s follow OPAL
as she explores her world
meeting neighbors who might
change YOUR mind about Mind!
First stop: STELLA the Sea Star
who’s busy growing back
three whole arms
she lost last week
“You see?” says OPAL,
“No brain in there at all!
Yet STELLA knows exactly
how to rebuild herself!”
“That’s Pattern,” says STELLA
(waving a regenerating arm)
“Information flowing through me
telling each part what to do”
“Not MESSAGE like your words,”
adds STELLA thoughtfully,
“but DIFFERENCES that ripple
cell to cell to cell…”
*
Next: ANNIE the Anemone
who dances with her neighbors
in waves of opening and closing
that spread across the pool
“No brain here either!”
OPAL bubbles excitedly,
“Yet see how they share news
of tide and temperature?”
“We speak in patterns,”
ANNIE sways softly,
“Each change I make
changes my neighbors too”
“What humans call ‘minds'”
she ripples thoughtfully,
“We call the Dance of Differences
that flows between us all”
*
Then: BARRY the Barnacle Bunch
who time their feeding
in perfect rhythm with
thousands of their kind
“Now watch this carefully,”
OPAL whispers,
“See how they coordinate
without any central control?”
“We are the pattern!”
clicks BARRY happily,
“Each of us responding
to differences we sense”
“Together we make
new patterns emerge
that none of us planned
but all of us dance!”
*
OPAL swirls thoughtfully
(all eight arms weaving)
as she watches these patterns
of patterns of patterns…
“You see, dear friend,
what humans often miss
is that Mind isn’t IN things
but BETWEEN them!”
“It’s in how differences
make differences
that make still more differences
flowing through the world”
“Like how my skin
changes with what I see
creating new patterns
that others can read!”
*
“But here’s the tricky part:”
(OPAL turns a scholarly blue)
“Human WORDS work best
for counting separate things”
“They’re great for measuring
forces and impacts
in the physical world
of push and pull”
“But living patterns?
Those flow and change
in ways that nouns and verbs
can barely touch!”
*
“Perhaps,” says OPAL
(brightening suddenly)
“that’s why humans think
only brains can think!”
“Their language tricks them
into looking for mind
as a thing inside heads
instead of a dance between parts!”
“While we here in the tidepool
know that mind flows
through all the patterns
that connect us all”
*
“So next time someone tells you
that thinking needs a brain
remember dear STELLA
growing new arms without one!”
“Remember ANNIE’s dance
of flowing information
and BARRY’s coordinated rhythm
emerging from many becoming one”
“And perhaps you’ll start seeing
what your language hides:
that Mind is in the patterns
that connect us all!”
*
With a final flourish
(and a rainbow ripple of colors)
OPAL jets away
leaving us to ponder…
How many minds
we might find
if we learned to see
patterns that connect!