The fertilised egg was released like millions of other such
eggs into the water column off the island of Bali. Following
its purpose, the egg developed into a barnacle embryo. The
microscopic ball of cells developed rapidly while the warm
water current off Bali carried it along the island in an easterly
direction. Quietly dividing and growing, against all chances
somehow the larva evaded the gaping mouths of small and large
predators all perfectly adapted to feed on the teeming broth
of minute organisms that lived in the upper column of seawater.
The larva started feeding on the massive amounts of algae
drifting seemingly aimless like the barnacle larva itself.
Feeding, growing and moulting, the larva was blissfully unaware
of the danger it was constantly exposed to, just passively
drifting in the current. A true drifter, if ever there was
one. Time and space were meaningless; the larva just was without
any conscious understanding of its surroundings.
The sperm cell and the egg met inside her mother’s uterus
somewhere in a back garden on a particularly balmy summer
night. That was how she was conceived. Over the next few months
she became aware of noises reverberating inside her warm and
wet cocoon. That was how she learned to separate her mother’s
from her father’s voice, the purring of her cat and
the happy laughter of her older sibling waiting for his baby
sister to arrive. Her fledging young mind separated the noises,
analysed them for meaning and catalogued them. As a baby she
was constantly searching for the meaning behind a new noise,
driving her parents mad with fear on her crawling excursions
into every corner of the household. As she aged, the cacophony
of noises indoors and outdoors progressively became more like
a concert and she listened with awe to the information it
carried. There was a lot of that hidden to her family and
peers she realised; they did not understand when she tried
to explain the deeper meaning of a tone or a melodious voice.
Gradually she understood she was unique in her ability to
hear and experience structure and meaning in noise. It was
at once deeply moving and deeply discomforting. Her parents
sent her to a different school and she quickly bonded with
the kids that had unusual mathematical abilities. Theirs was
a kindred spirit just talking in a different language. She
learned their language and progressed rapidly, developing
an understanding of the structure and hidden meaning of space
and time way beyond her tender age. She had an acute feeling
of her place within this cosmos.
Over time, the larva underwent various developmental changes
and by pure chance kept on surviving. Without knowing it,
the most significant moment in the life of the barnacle larva
had arrived: after a month of being at the mercy of everything
nature could possibly throw at a microscopic organism dissolved
in a drop of water in the seemingly limitless ocean, the larva
was bent on detecting chemical cues in the water released
by fellow barnacles that had already settled in an area. These
cues meant that the area was suitable for settlement, a monumental
and irreversible event in the life of a barnacle. This was
as close as the barnacle would ever come to having a choice.
The larva settled on a patch of rock, in close proximity to
fellow barnacles. Cemented onto the rock, for the rest of
its life this place would be home. Life became routine –
feeding, growing and reproducing all blended into a continuous
stream of activities devoid of questioning, searching or understanding.
Jumping years ahead at school, she entered a newly founded
elite university. Still more child than adult she delved into
mathematical complexities and realities hidden inside the
structure of the cosmos only a few other human beings could
comprehend. She preferred to store her insights inside her
memory in the form of sounds rather than writing them down.
Sounds were so much more logical but it did make it difficult
to explain her thinking to others. A lot of the beauty woven
into the sounds, noises and entire concertos inside her head
was lost when put into mathematical formulae and words. She
once read in a newspaper that she was probably the only person
in the world that could hear the handwriting of God. Life
to her was so profound; there was deep meaning in everything
for someone who could listen. She was both driven and destined
to understand the meaning of the cosmos, life and death, feelings
and the mind. She struggled to write it out for her peers,
those few of her species that could understand her. It took
years of patient listening, analysing and translating to arrive
at something that was intelligible to them. It was all stored
inside her mind but she was finally satisfied she could translate
the monumental symphony of the universe. It was a step that
would transform all aspects of human society from science
and the arts to religion and it was first to happen at a conference
in Bali. The defining moment of her life had arrived.
Feeding, growing and reproducing. Many times over the barnacle
had already successfully passed on its genes and nothing but
death would stop the endless cycle.
It was the day before her speech at the conference. She had
hired a car and driven away from the chaotic noise of the
city to a quieter area. She found an isolated stretch of beach
and the sight of the moonlight breaking in ripples and irregular
patterns on the black sand was very satisfying. The sound
of the waves lapping gently against the beach and the breeze
softly blowing in from the ocean sounded to her like an echo
of all the information, structures and interconnections she
had so painstakingly studied over many years. Stepping into
the water, she grabbed a handful of wet sand and let it drop
bit by bit back into the water. Splish, splash – there
was so much truth in this. Her hand probed for another suitable
amount of sand when suddenly a stronger wave washed up on
the beach. She righted herself and quickly stepped forward
to stem her fall.
Feeding, growing and reproducing. It all came to an end for
the barnacle when one night while filter-feeding in the gentle
wash of waves, a foot stomped down and crushed the shell of
the animal. Pieces of shell as sharp as a needle penetrated
the skin of the foot and, together with some of the torn,
soft tissue of the barnacle were injected into her blood stream.
The allergic reaction was violent. She had avoided seafood
other than fish her whole life, instinctively knowing that
the melodies produced by marine animals did not sound right
for her. Crawling up the beach, she quickly collapsed as her
body tried in vain to reject the intruding poison. It reached
her brain and her final conscious thought was that the sounds
of her impending death were not wrong at all, they did not
even sound frightening. They just were and, as such, formed
part of the overwhelmingly beautiful symphony of the universe.
