We have made so many things. We do so many strange things. Ok break it down. We�re animals. We�re organisms. These organisms have taken their surroundings, say�fibres from things and made clothing. And so we wore the clothing as protection and comfort and look how far we�ve brought it? We gathered things to eat that didn�t poison us. We made them taste good so that we would enjoy eating them. And look how far we�ve taken that? Pets. Homes. Even behaviours. We really are meat with a vengeance.

I mean, here we are, moving flesh and we think and speak. We make shapes that we learn to understand, like letters. How about this typing I�m doing right now with these little stalks of meat and bone we call fingers that we�ve learned to manipulate in such a way that I can now press a little square key with each finger so that I can make 80 words in a minute. And how about reading this diary? You�re looking at the letters on this screen, and they�re really just little shapes. Lines pulled together to make forms that we have memorized and recognized as words. Things that mean something so that we can all share an understanding. Chinese characters are an excellent example of this. Such beautiful strokes and lines and shapes and they mean something to billions of people, all together, they understand it because they were shown and remembered.

And speaking too. Sounds, random at first until they began to be assigned to things. We make all these strange sounds with our throats and our mouths and breath and teeth and lips and they come together to make something that we all understand.

If you look at a crowd of people, you see just that. But if you really look, and really think about it, you can strip them all down of their �stuff�, take away the civilization, the society, the manners and breeding, the business, the busyness, the communication, and you�re left with a naked, pulpy collection of organized cells. An organism.

But what an organism�eh?