Does a butterfly think a human is immortal?

[KillerMuffin]

If they ever pondered such things.

The vagaries in the lengths of our existence are astonishing if you think about it. Generations upon generations upon generations of butterflies pass in the span of one person's life.

If something lives so long that even our history did not track its lifespan, would we think it immortal? If we never saw it die?

Either that or oh dark thirty and tangerine tea isn't good for Muffie.

 

[DiamanteBella]

I like the way you think...it's not something I ever would have thought of myself but it's something interesting to ponder.

 

[cymbidia]

At least they're not the frenetic Dew-inspired thoughts.

And i have a generalized belief that there's a sort of slow consciousness in the rocks under our feet, the material from which the earth is formed. It moves and flows and changes just as organic life does--but at a vastly slower time scale. Why, then, can it not be conscious in some not-organic manner?

 

[EllieTalbot]

This thread reminds me of that scene in "Vertigo."

I don't know about butterflies, but we humans are aware of the finite lifespans of many things which, as individuals, we could never observe in entirety: trees, rivers, mountains, planets, stars. But we can observe it as one entity, because we can tell our children what happened before they were born, and perhaps, what they can expect.

Intelligence is the eternal witness, if we let it be.

That didn't come out right, but I can't think of any better way to put it just now.

Pondering under the Ponderosas,
Ellie

 

[Ishmael]

If they ever pondered such things.

The vagaries in the lengths of our existence are astonishing if you think about it. Generations upon generations upon generations of butterflies pass in the span of one person's life.

If something lives so long that even our history did not track its lifespan, would we think it immortal? If we never saw it die?

Either that or oh dark thirty and tangerine tea isn't good for Muffie.

I don't know why, but this reminds me of a quote by Arthur C. Clarke.

"Any technology sufficiently advanced from your own is indistinguishable from magic."

It's all relative I guess.

Ishmael

 

[estevie]

Either that or oh dark thirty and tangerine tea isn't good for Muffie.

I'll go with this.

 

[woodgie2]

And as for what Mayflies think...

OK, here's a thought.

Take every living thing and make it percieve its whole life the same way.
Then think of the fact that we live much, much longer than a Mayfly, therefore do they percieve us going about things in a slo-mo kind of way. Just like we look at the giant redwoods? Conversly, the Redwoods, do they see us rushing around like mad things and do they even notice the Mayfly?

I hope that made sense.

 

[JerseyBoy]

I
If something lives so long that even our history did not track its lifespan, would we think it immortal? If we never saw it die?

I dont know that there exists such a thing...we are just too nosey about shit like that

except perhaps time itself...

 

[Guest]