Chapter 2 The end of life

There was a mental patient who didn't do anything all day long, but squatted in a dark and humid corner of the yard wearing a black raincoat and holding a flower umbrella. He just squatted like that, not moving day after day.He didn't struggle when he was taken away, and if he had the opportunity to squat back in place wearing that outfit and wearing a flowered umbrella, that was quite persistent.Many psychiatrists and experts have seen it, but after several days of tossing, there is no answer.So everyone gave up, saying that the mental patient was hopeless.One day a psychologist went there, he didn't ask any questions, he just dressed like the patient and squatted with him under a flowered umbrella.every day.After a week like this, finally one day, the patient took the initiative to speak.He quietly approached the psychologist and asked in a low voice, "Are you a mushroom too?"

This is a joke I heard a long time ago, is it funny? I don't think so. I have done similar things. Of course, I am not a psychological expert, and I am not sure that I can cure that patient, but I need her approval to understand her perspective and her worldview. She used to be a teacher, then suddenly changed.Apart from eating, sleeping, and going to the toilet every day, she squats in front of stones or flowers and plants to study carefully, and sometimes even lies there whispering—to whatever she faced at that time, maybe it was a stone, maybe a tree, maybe something None, but she is so persistent that she hasn't said a word to anyone for several years, and she just does those things seriously, and she ignores her husband and children when they are crazy.

After several failed attempts to talk, there was another person beside her who was doing the same thing as her, and that was me. The difference from her is: I am pretending, holding the recording pen in my hand and ready to open it at any time. Those ten or so days were hard, so I went to pretend to study those flowers, plants, stones and trees when I was free.If it keeps going like this, I guess I'm going to be hospitalized too. Half a month later, she noticed me, and she was astonished as if she had just discovered it. Her: "What are you doing?" I pretended I had just spotted her too: "Huh? Why did I tell you? What are you doing again?"

She didn't expect me to ask back, and she froze for a moment: "What are you doing?" Me: "I won't tell you." After I finished speaking, I continued to pretend to be interested and looked at the wilted grass in front of me. She moved closer to me and also looked at the grass. I pretended to be very mysterious and covered it with my hand to prevent it from being seen. She looked up at me: "I've seen this one, it's not a big deal. There's a lot over there." Me: "You didn't understand, this one is different." She asked me curiously, "Why is it different?"

Me: "I won't tell you!" She: "If you tell me why it's different, I'll tell you what I know." I pretended to look at her innocently. At that moment, I felt that my expression was no different from that of an idiot. Me: "Really? But what you know is probably not as good as mine." The expression on her face was as if she was looking at a child, holding back a smile: "You won't suffer, it's a big secret that I know, it's definitely better than yours! How about it?" I know she's settled down, the way she speaks to me is obviously coaxing me, all I need is for her to feel superior.

Me: "Do you mean what you say?" She: "Do the math, let's talk first." I let go of my covering hand: "Look, there is a worm hanging from the tip of the grass, so the grass is a little bit wilted, but it's actually eaten by worms." She looked at me disapprovingly: "What's the matter, what you know is nothing." Unconvinced, I asked back: "Then what you know is nothing special!" She smiled: "What I know is a great thing, and no one has discovered it yet!" I pretended not to be interested and lowered my head to continue looking at the wilted grass and the non-existent bug.

She said braggingly, "Your one is too low-level, it's not considered a high-level being." Me: "What is an advanced life?" She smiled mysteriously: "Listen to me, you will be shocked!" I looked at her suspiciously. She pulled me to sit on the spot: "You know we are human, right?" I:"……" She: "I thought it was nothing at first, but then I found that people are not advanced enough. You also know that many scientists are looking for planets similar to the earth, right? For what? To find creatures similar to humans." Me: "I already knew that!"

She smiled: "Don't worry, listen to me. I don't understand at first, why are we looking for creatures similar to humans? Maybe the creatures on that planet are all robot-like, maybe they are all based on the silicon element A life built...do you know what element a human being is based on?" Me: "Carbon element, everyone knows this!" She: "Hey? You know quite a lot... I thought at first, those scientists are too stupid, they have to be similar to the creatures on the earth to be considered creatures? It's too stupid. But then I figured it out, if that planet The aliens on Earth are different from humans. Aliens do not breathe oxygen and eat carbohydrates. They can live by inhaling sulfuric acid and eating plastic, so it is difficult for us to communicate with them. Therefore, scientists are not stupid, they first Find an environment similar to the earth, where everyone breathes oxygen, drinks water and eats Chinese cabbage, so that they have something in common, and the basic forms of life are the same, so it is possible to communicate, right?"

I looked at her disdainfully: "Is this your discovery?" She patiently explained: "Of course it's not my discovery, but I think deeper, since there are so many ways of life, maybe some things around us are life, but we don't know they are life, so I started to study them, I Feel like I can find new life forms here on Earth." Me: "Then you have discovered what life is?" She smiled mysteriously: "Ant, you know? That's a different form from ours!" Me: "Bah! Children know that ants are insects!" She: "However, everyone doesn't know that ants are actually cells."

Me: "Ah? What cell?" She: "Well, don't you know? Let me tell you: In fact, ants are a kind of living cells. I named it 'loose life'. In fact, the queen is the brain, the soldier ants are the body's defense organization, and the worker ants are all Cells are also mouths and hands, which are used to find food, pass them on, and maintain the brain. As the brain, the queen of ant also has to take care of the reproductive system. When worker ants gather together for transportation, it is actually the blood that transports nutrients. Worker ants It takes care of many functions, and it also needs to cultivate new cells—that is, young ants. The signals between ants rely on chemical substances, right? Humans do it too. You don’t need to direct your cells, the cells can solve the problem by themselves! Understand? In fact, ants are another form of life, not simple insects. Have you ever raised ants? Haven’t you? You raised a few ants, and they died within a few days. Die, because you lost the command of the brain. You have to raise many of them to live. It’s like taking a piece of human tissue and cultivating it, but it’s better than human tissue. When we look at ants, we can see ants crawling. In fact, ? We didn’t see the whole thing! Ants are just cells. The whole ant colony is a complete life! Loose life!”

I find it amazing, but I plan to know more: "That's all?" She: "That's more than that. Stones may also be life, but in different forms. We always think: life has eyes, noses, arms and legs. In fact, stones are another kind of life. They don't look like they don't move, but they don't. It can move, but it’s too slow, but we can’t feel it. Their movement is passive. The wind blows, the water rushes, and the animals kick. They can all move. But stones don’t want to move, because they will die if they move around of." Me: "How did the stone die?" She: "Wear it, it will die if it wears off." Me: "You have to prove that the stone is life before you can prove that the stone can die?" She: "The dregs that fall from the stone wear and tear may be soil or sand. The earth is composed of these, right? The nutrients in the soil can grow food and vegetables, and animals and people eat it... eat Meat is the same, but there are more procedures! Then people die and become ashes, or are buried and rotted, and then return to the nutrients in the sand and soil, and then the sand and soil containing nutrients are gathered in the Together they became stone, and the stone is life." Me: "How come together is life?" She looked at me seriously: "The brain is meat, how can there be thinking?" I froze. She smiled proudly: "I don't know? Gathering together is life! People are loose life composed of ants, and the same is true for stones. When sand and soil gather together, there will be thinking, which is life! Stones can't hear it." They understand our language, and don’t think we are life. In their view, we move too fast, live too fast, and die too fast. You build a house with stones, and the stones haven’t felt the change yet. The house may have collapsed early in the year, and the stones have long been ordinary stones, because hundreds of years are nothing to stones. From the perspective of stones, even if we stand still for a lifetime, they will not be able to see us, it is too short Already!" I was dumbfounded. She looked at me relaxedly: "How? You can't do it, right? What I have to do now is to find a way to communicate with the stone. After studying this, I will look for any creatures that look like human beings like stones. Maybe in our In front of us, we can’t see it.” After she finished speaking, she smiled triumphantly and squatted next to a stone to watch carefully. I stopped pretending to study the grass, stood up and walked away quietly, so as not to disturb her. Then there was almost a month or so, right?I will always pay attention to the stones on the side of the road. The long life of the stone, in the eyes of human beings, has almost no end.