Tiny Nests.

I was in town with my dad earlier today when we pulled up to a stop light. I looked out the window to my right and saw a tiny bird trimming a small patch of grass that had sprung up through the sidewalk with its beak. Amidst all the traffic and noise of the city, here was this tiny bird gathering bedding for a nest it was no doubt repairing after some of the high wind we've had lately.

The world is filled with creatures that maintain the balance of things despite man's introduction of society. Birds build nests in our factories, raccoons find solace beneath our houses and sheds and insects can be found in nearly every square foot. It speaks to the flexibility of nature in the face of overwhelming circumstances. Even if the world became entirely industrialized, and there wasn't a bit of green space left, I have no doubt that somehow, someway nature would find a place.

The beasts and insects of the planets that are alive today are relatives of prehistoric grandparents. While we don't have dinosaurs roaming around the Earth, we still have crocodiles and Komodo dragons. Insects have especially seen little change since their days with the dinosaurs, so specific and intentional is their design.

In the grand scheme of things, man's time on the planet has certainly been brief. It will be interesting to see what changes we as a species will undergo in the next thousand years. I feel as though we are still primitive in our own right, with so much more evolution yet to come. As a creature, we have achieved some remarkable features in our evolution. Our bipedal nature and forward facing eyes have made us excellent hunters, and the evolution of language has allowed us to expedite information from one another. However, our soft skin is very susceptible to injury and disease, and there is so much in our fast-paced mechanical world that can injure or kill us with little warning. I'd imagine somewhere in our future we will find ways, either evolutionary or technologically to combat our shortcomings.

That's what's truly unique about mankind as a species. We are able to fill in the gaps in our evolutionary design with technology to such an incredible degree. I think it's safe to say that we are fully capable of integrating technology as an aspect of our physical evolution. We are as reliant upon the machines that keep us alive as they are upon us for their existence. It's somewhat symbiotic, save for the fact that unlike true symbiosis, our machines do not serve a purpose other than that for which they were created. They do not better themselves for being part of us, they simply "aren't", without our hand to create them.

It will be a truly chilling day the moment a machine creates another machine with no other purpose than a desire to create, for what defines life better than a need to reproduce.