Friday, September 7, 2007

Teeny-Weeny Bug Standard

I was sitting at my keyboard, trying to make it sound like a snare drum. I was marvelling at the science of miniaturization.  An electronic keyboard can be made to sound like any musical instrument, or an entire orchestra.

That led me to consider how a complete television station can be shrunk to the size of cell phone.  That is what you have: a television camera that takes a picture that can be broadcast to a receiver that will send your words and pictures anywhere in the world.  Not only that, it will store your favoite music or video games or your entire personal telephone directory in there, ready for you to use. 

BUT while I was considering how all that could be stored in a pocket sized gadget, a tiny insect flew past my face, and it reminded me that there is a stage of miniturization even better than our best technology.  It is the bug's natural system.

That bug, almost too tiny for me to see, is a complete creature.  He has a brain, too tiny for me to even imagine, and muscles, and skeleton.  He has his memories such as avoid birds and fly swatters, his feelings such as too hot or too cold or it's daytime or night time, his drives for food and to reproduce.  They are all built in to a space far smaller than a cell phone.

He may have hopes and dreams, ambitions, plans for the future even if his life span is only a few days.  Who knows. 

Anyway, by the teeny-weeny bug standards, we have a long way to go in miniturization.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

    I like the idea that there's a spider hanging around the corner just ready to catch that but up in it's web and feast.
Jude
http://journals.aol.com/jmorancoyle/MyWay

Anonymous said...

Jude doesn't like bug, I guess.  LOL
HEY...great amorphizing...bug into cell phone and back to human characteristics.
Wonderful observations!

Have you seen the art carved pieces on the top of a pin?  NOW...THAT's miniturization...again, apologies for my spelling!
Kate