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The Madness of Trees ... September 28, 2004
ever notice how holding something heavy as close to yourself as possible makes it seem lighter to carry? this even works with memories.
i don't know where i read this. i can't remember, but i know i read something recently about trees. well, unless you're still in first grade, you probably know that some trees can live practically forever compared to almost all other organisms. some of them live over a thousand years.
another interesting fact is that your brain operates like a computer. that's right, right now you're sitting there with a big, grey, squishy computer on the top of your neck. and want to know something else? no? too bad. (just one more thing before i get to the point.) did you know that despite the reputation of the computer as a precision machine, computers actually often make calculation errors in enough abundance that the average number of errors can be measured in thousands per minute. sometimes even hundreds of thousands. this number increases for a given time period the longer you let the computer run and also with the volume of calculations the computer does in that certain period of time.
i always imagine that in the highly complex network that makes up our biological computers, the error ratio is almost infinitely higher than the ant-brained computers spawned out of modern technology i have been referring to. i imagine that these errors can build up in the brain just like they do in a computer. with a relatively simple computer, these errors eventually manifest themselves as the all too well known "blue screen of death." but then you can turn the silly thing off and start from scratch. a clean slate. no errors. but in humans who, unlike the computer, cannot simply reboot when the errors cause problems, these errors accumulate over time, stack and stack and stack, one on top of the other. eventually, if we let our minds run long enough, we come to the place where, were our brains computers, we would see the blue screen. we would press the button on the front of the case and instantly be repaired. but we cannot. this place, for us, is called madness, and because of the way we function, it can be all too permanent.
here is my point. trees. they can grow to be thousands of years old. now, obviously i understand that a tree does not have a brain. still, sometimes i imagine that they could instead possess a consciousness of sorts, a small and disincarnate brain which produces an awareness wholly unlike anything a human being would ever be able to experience or describe. but they live thousands of years. imagine the errors that would accumulate if this were so. just sit and ponder with me for a moment the madness of trees.
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