Latent Destiny by Anurag

Modak

It is a strange creature, The one that proliferates below.

I t spreads like a fire

Like a virus

Like a fungus

Hungry for food.

It leaves behind a network, A web of glowing embers

Of straight lines

Of order

Of chaos

Of life

And, of death.

Yet, looking upon the growth of the human creature

One must indeed wonder:

Did the power that created the Universe imprint upon it a certain pattern? Did it leave instructions for us on how to find him/her/it/all/none?

The images of the superstructure of the Universe reveal an unusual network: Matter clustered into nodes and filaments, With voids in between.

How similar this superstructure is to the handiwork of human city-building And how closely human city-building resembles the brain.

Perhaps, we have an inherent geas to replicate this pattern? To build a brain?

After all, can we not understand human cities in terms of neurons?

They are connected by highways of sorts:

Super-fast flows of information, Linked by numerous branches, all cross-communicating Certain ones are responsible for administration:

Executive decision-making, passing judgments, creating formal and informal rules of operating Certain ones are known for problem-solving and innovation

Some are critical for communication and the flow of information, goods, and services Others are known for appreciating the fine arts:

Music, painting, sculpture, literature, and architecture

Yet others are simply tasked with cultivating the next generation.

We must thus wonder:

To what end are these cities constructed?

Shall the Earth become as though a brain? Is this the latent destiny of the Universe? The answer One way or the other, Is equally exciting

Frightening

And, strange…

Just Comments by Bryan Cabezas

As I scoured my room for any hint of my past and scrolled through my phone for any indication of a former life, I couldn’t find one. Not that the evidence wasn’t there, I have plenty of damning footage and a collection of trinkets and trophies, just, I couldn’t bring myself to label them as moments of a previous life. I wasn’t ready for the ultimate graduation of my years as a premed student, where existence meant only trying to keep my head above water and adventuring excitedly into this novel world of medicine. I believe my hesitancy comes from the fact that… as a med student, I still see the medical world with just as much novelty, and to say that any of my past experiences can be differentiated from the experiences I am accumulating now, would probably be a miss categorization on my behalf. As a second-year student, my outlook and interaction with the field of medicine has not changed, and had my undergraduate self been placed in the same circumstances, studied and taken the same tests, I would be none the wiser. I believe that the world of medicine is a realm that can perpetually keep me in a state of excitement, giddiness, and novelty like I was during “roots,” and that the only “bloom” I can hope to ever receive or experience is one where… well… I guess I don’t know.