see "meaning" and "purpose" in the bubbles in boiling water-or do
you?
Crab: No, but-
Anteater: Now that's MY point. No matter how big a bubble is, it owes its
existence to processes on the molecular level, and you can forget about
any "higher-level laws". The same goes for ant colonies and their
teams. By looking at things from the vast perspective of evolution, you
can drain the whole colony of meaning and purpose. They become
superfluous notions.
Achilles: Why, then, Dr. Anteater, did you tell me that you talked with
Aunt Hillary? It now seems that you would deny that she can talk or
think at all.
Anteater: I am not being inconsistent, Achilles. You see, I have as much
difficulty as anyone else in seeing things on such a grandiose time scale,
so I find it much easier to change points of view. When I do so,
forgetting about evolution and seeing things in the here and now, the
vocabulary of teleology comes back: the MEANING of the caste distribu-
tion and the PURPOSEFULNESS of signals. This not only happens when I
think of ant colonies, but also when I think about my own brain and
other brains. However, with some effort I can always remember the
other point of view if necessary, and drain all these systems of mean-
ing, too.
Crab: Evolution certainly works some miracles. You never know the next
trick it will pull out of its sleeve. f'or instance, it wouldn't surprise me
one bit if it were theoretically possible for two or more "signals" to pass
through each other, each one unaware that the other one is also a
signal; each one treating the other as if it were just part of the
background population.
Anteater: It is better than theoretically possible; in fact it happens
routinely!
Achilles: Hmm ... What a strange image that conjures up in my mind. I
can just imagine ants moving in four different directions, some black,
some white, criss-crossing, together forming an orderly pattern, almost
like-like-
Tortoise: A fugue, perhaps?
Achilles: Yes-that's it! An ant fugue!
Crab: An interesting image, Achilles. By the way, all that talk of boiling
water made me think of tea. Who would like some more?
Achilles: I could do with another cup, Mr. C.
Crab: Very good.
Achilles: Do you suppose one could separate out the different visual
"voices" of such an "ant fugue"? I know how hard it is for me-
Tortoise: Not for me, thank you.
Achilles: -to track a single voice-
Anteater: I'd like some, too, Mr. Crab-
Achilles: -in a musical fugue-
(^322) ... Ant Fugue