Ah… XKCD has done it again!
(and of course my formatting screws it up–click image for the full comic!)
A cuttlefish learns, so amazing quickly,
And oh so incredibly much—
We’ve figured out chemistry, quantum mechanics,
Biology, Physics, and such;
We could, if we chose to, go traipsing through wormholes
To galaxies light-years away;
But frankly, there’s something more baffling to study,
And that’s why we’ve chosen to stay.
These rather unusual featherless bipeds,
So noisy, so smelly, so strange—
It seems they can learn, or at least they respond
To contingencies which we arrange.
They learn rather slowly, it must be admitted;
It could be their brains are quite small.
And given their habits, the evidence tells us
Some probably don’t learn at all.
They somehow invented some horrible weapons
Which all thinking beings should fear
They constantly threaten complete devastation—
I’m rather surprised they’re still here!
They keep dumping poison in lakes or in rivers
Where others get water to drink—
Although this is senseless, and foolish, and stupid,
I still believe some of them think.
They’ve hit upon something that multiplies thinking,
A process they like to call “science”,
Where each person builds on the other ones’ progress
Like standing on shoulders of giants.
Some say these “humans” are smarter than cuttlefish;
I won’t be taking that bet!
But maybe—just maybe—with science to help them,
These humans… they might make it yet.
6 comments
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Bob O'Hara
December 22, 2008 at 6:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ah, you’re in league with the white mice, I see.
Arvind
December 22, 2008 at 10:36 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hey, the white mice are just the 3D extensions of the pan-dimensional puppets of the inter-pan-dimensional cuttlefish puppet masters.
Johnny Vector
December 22, 2008 at 12:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh isn’t it sweet that science rhymes with giants! Nice find!
The Ridger, FCD
December 22, 2008 at 4:19 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Annnnnd of course you’d seen it!
bioephemera
December 22, 2008 at 6:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think that the cuttlefish are training us to become their staff. They look at the sweet gig cats have, and want a piece of that too.
mandydax
December 23, 2008 at 12:37 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Humans make terrible pets, but they’re amazing to view in their natural habitat.