The Sea Squirt is a creature that starts life as a ‘tadpole’, it swims, it is conscious. Then it attaches itself to a rock, it absorbs its own brain, and it becomes to all intents and purposes – a plant.
The less humans think, the more thinking is deferred by technology, the more it becomes unnecessary – abdicated – does ‘consciousness’ go with it? Is the future the absorbing inertia of the sea squirt…?
Protect and Survive – Stay at Home
When does ‘threat perception’ become paranoia, or collective delusion? When does propaganda trip into psychosis? And, transversely, when can mental illness reveal ‘truth’?
‘My mother said we all have our cross to bear. She paraded hers like a medieval martyr, notched, gouged, bleeding. She believed in Christ, but not his cross-bearing qualities. She seemed to forget that he had borne the cross, so we don’t have to. Is life a gift or a burden?’
Weight (2005) Jeanette Winterson
A gift can be a burden, but a burden can equally well be a gift…
