Intelligence in Nature

Been reading around the subject of ayahuasca lately -- it's an hallucenogenic potion concocted by a variety of Southern and Central American shamans. Some "Western" scientists and intellectuals -- biologists, psychologists, even a rabbi! -- think that ayahuasca enables DNA to communicate itself to the human brain. Visions of twinned snakes and of ladders have led some of these people to surmise that the double helix of DNA has been expressed for ages now in what we would call "primitive" cultures across the world. Take a look at the classical symbol of the medical profession, the caduceus -- yep, two intertwined snakes.

It's a lot to swallow, no matter how freakily interesting it is. But the larger issue, that of intelligence in nature, is much more rooted in scientific inquiry -- I can't help it, I'm a suburban girl from the prairies and I believe in science, as much as I know that such belief marks me as a non-creative, non-spiritualized brain-o-centric organism. Jeremy Narby, a Swiss/Canadian researcher with a terribly dull writing style, has come up with a few examples of how brainless or low-wattage life nevertheless acts intelligently (it's a book called "Intelligence in Nature"; he also wrote one on ayahuasca called "The Cosmic Serpent".) Slime mold can organize itself to stretch through a maze in the most direct way possible so as to reach a food source (did you know that slime mold loves oatmeal??). Salmonella sends a protein into a cell that causes that cell to shiver and convulse and thus absorb the rest of the viral proteins waiting just beyond its cellular walls. Bees perform amazingly well on color recognition tests. There was also something about butterflies having eyes of some sort where their genitals are, but it was late, I'd had a tough day, and I couldn't cope with the nightmare image of genital eyes. It's a difficult thing for me to think about even in the broad light of morning. Let the shrinks make of it what they will.

So what all this is leading up to is my sink. I know that I have to scrub it this morning, but now I also know that in doing so I will be wiping out intelligent life on earth. I also know that intelligent life is hard to find these days. W being a case in point, of course, but also the batty shenanigans of right-wing politics in Alberta, the incarceration of the Lebanese leader in his own offices by a rabid horde of militia types, the stylist who inexplicably coloured the back of my head maroon when the rest of my hair is blonde, the return of lycra leggings and skinny jeans, the amount of salt in canned chicken broth. We might actually be able to use whatever smarts my sink bacteria can muster.