Self-conscious Beavers

The way I understand it, we are all descendants of an original replicator. Our D.N.A. convincingly shows that almost all life is related. If we trace our ancestry through the evolutionary bush, it goes something like:

Initial mystery replicator – bacteria – sponges – worms – things with backbones – fish – mammals – beavers – primates – monkeys – hominids.

The inference here is that humans are simply animals, yet a resounding majority of humans prefer to think that humans must be much more than just animals and cite as evidence special human features like opposable thumbs, the ability to brew beer, self-consciousness, oral and written language skills, culture, and eternal souls.

Nobel laureate Francis Crick, in his book the Astonishing Hypothesis almost apologetically tries to explain that, “… “You”, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.” Mr. Crick knew he would have an uphill battle to fight in trying to share his ideas for a scientific search for what is often called ‘the soul.'

While researching chimpanzee social and family life, Jane Goodall has done much to cause a re-evaluation of what it means to be human. Unfortunately, there are not many wild chimpanzees in Portland to study, so I have had to make do with beavers.

As mammals, beavers and humans have much in common. We both change our environments to suit our needs (building dams for instance). The big question is whether or not either one of us do so consciously and with intelligence.

Cuneiform script. One of the earliest known forms of written expression

The rise of the first big human civilizations seems to be concurrent with the human capacity to communicate through the use of abstract symbols.

While not as refined as cuneiform script, this example of ‘incisor-scription’ (proto-beaver text) shows some similarity to Hebrew script (below).

Indeed, the beaver script is often found carved into long logs which very much resemble scrolls.

So far, I have had little success in deciphering the beaver artifacts available to me. This may be due to a possibly erroneous assumption that the 'incisor-scriptions' are an alphabet based system. Many examples of early human writing include systems based on pictograms.

When considered in this way, 'incisor-scriptions' provide tantalizing evidence that humanity may soon be sharing the earth with another conscious species.

Who can examine the central character in this phrase and not recognize the sensitive portrayal of ‘coyote’?

Skeptics may argue that finding meaning in the tooth-marks left by beavers is about as plausible as finding the face of Jesus in the patterns on a grilled cheese sandwich. We are after-all, pattern-seeking animals, often able to read meaning into situations that are bereft of meaning.

Still, the likelihood that other forms of consciousness may be hard for us to recognize doesn’t necessarily mean that other forms of consciousness are impossible. Would we recognize the evidence for alien consciousness if we saw it?

Beaver Totem at Smith & Bybee Lakes

Pattern Recognition

If one reads enough science magazines, one absorbs the idea that a key evolutionary survival characteristic is the ability for animals to recognize patterns. The hominid process of elaboration on this particular ability has resulted in things like superstition, the ability to recognize patterns where they don’t really exist.

Spring at Smith and Bybee Lakes isn’t a clear cut process. Trees rooted at the edge of an uncertain lake can’t decide if they’re waking from winter slumber or drowning. Yet life displays its exuberance to propagate in forms besides budding tree branches, like this head-start patch of Irises schooled in vowel forms.

In one of those annoying coincidences that are used by people to prove there aren't any coincidences, I had been told about Zen masters who spend inordinate amounts of time, painting and repainting Zen circles just days before venturing out to the lakes. Like most things about Zen, the importance of painting simple looking circles over and over largely escapes me. Regardless, I was primed to see circles almost everywhere after thumbing through a book that was filled with pictures like this one. (I apologize. I haven't been able to find the source for this picture ... I'm still looking) It won’t be long before the winter’s moratorium on growth is broken and ‘life’ will begin again to write its green ‘O’s of promise, another well known pattern that addresses rebirth and hints at eternal life.


As Spring wore on into Summer and Summer slid into Fall, I would periodically visit and chronicle nature's repeating expression of birth, death and rebirth. Representative photos of this process can be seen at, http://picasaweb.google.com/realdoubter/LifeCycle