"Progress is the symptom of a disease."
     "Why do you say that?" asked Lynn.
     "Because it is sign of a mental illness."
     "What is the illness, Torm? I'm sure you're going to tell me anyway."
     "It's a derivation of the excess cortial tissue in the brain, which is a tumor."
     "Oh, my. Genetically malignantly insane?"
     "No. Look at it. Get basic. What is the brain? It is an organ that allows for the removal of roots."
     "Huh?"
     "All life feeds by absorption. It is the means that transfers entropy from the body to allow for concentration of energy, not dispersion. In us is the survival instinct. That instinct tells us to avoid entropy. We squirm away from rot, which is entropy incarnate. It repels us. Most organisms try to find an environment where survival is of the highest probability. We seek places that offer plentiful food, we scorn those where food's sparse. Food is sparse in the Sahara. Life avoids the Sahara."
     "Life that enters the Sahara, and stays there, dies."
     "But most never enter it. Sanity precludes it."
     "What about the roots?" asked Lynn.
     "Plants have roots, animals have brains. Plants tap into the Earth to shed entropy. Animals can not digest dirt, so we have brains. Back in evolution when they split, those plants that specialized in their neural systems succeeded in survival. These were micro-scale, mind you. This allowed these cells the mobility to seek that which would reduce entropy more efficiently. These survived better than plants that had no specialization neurally. They searched out the food sources that the others got piecemeal. The mobility allowed for them to get to the better food sources."
     "That is the function of the brain and the purpose of life? Avoid entropy?"
     "All life avoids decay. It's the one thing that all life shares, no matter the level."
     "What about using rot to feed plants?"
     "Everything works at levels. Animals began to specialize in mobility, thus they sought a higher level on which to transfer out entropy, since it was mobility that gave the best change of survival and breeding."
     "I knew we'd get around to sex."
     "It is another of the mechanisms that we use to reduce entropy."
     "You could have fooled me."
     "Lynn, be serious."
     "I'm trying."
     "Back to survival drives. Shelter must also be brought up, since it complements mobility. Increasing survival is feeding and self protection, isolation from high entropy sources. Most organisms, as they became more complex in the drive to defeat entropy, seek a higher level of isolation. This is where reproduction fits in. Evolution advances because of survival, not because of adaptation. The saying, 'That which adapts, survives.' is actually wrong. 'That which survives, adapts.' is the way it should read. Proliferation is success."
     "Overcrowding?"
     "Give me time to get there."
     "If I must." Lynn sighed.
     "Where was I? Oh, yes. Each different organism finds the place where it can best survive, the homing instinct. This, we'll get back to. Now this individual specie learns to process a range. This is called filling the niche. Home and territory."
     "How does this make progress a symptom?"
     "I'm getting there."
     "I guess I'll have to trust you on that."
     "Most organisms have sensory cells or mechanisms. This is what interfaces the brain to the environment. It is in the interpretation of the inputs that decided the actions of mobility. Most organisms with visual senses use these organs to observe the conditions around them. Those with the better organs of vision fared better, being able to get to the entropy reducing sources more quickly. They were also more capable of getting out of the way in time. Thus they were rich in contropy.
     "Now as evolution progressed, those with more analytical ability began to arise in the face of competition of all the other species. Memory is innate in all neural functions. Even pea-brained fish remember. Competition became fiercer, and those with better memories fared better. They fed better and poisoned themselves less. They avoided trouble more often. They fared better in mating and survival of their young."
     "Sex again. You are such a beast. My mother warned me about you. I haven't yet figured out why."
     Torm sighed again. "Thus the precedence for survival is the ability to perceive what is present in the environment and act upon it."
     "You don't say."
     "Thus came more cortial matter, and it spelled survival. It was an uphill struggle that man took. The biggest asset man had was the ability to evaluate and pass on such knowledge. Thus, man became the most successful specie on the planet with this advanced transfer of knowledge. It was no longer tied to a range with an available home. It made its home where the range was best, and fared even better.
     "Then man learned the art of distribution. This is where he went wrong. The system of transfer of knowledge was standardized, stating what should exist for the particular system to work. Hence, man turned his cortial focus away from what was present in the environment, and started looking at what should be present."
     "And this is the disease for which progress is a symptom?"
     "Yes, exactly. Man would look at a territory that appealed to him, and he would say, there should be a house here for me to occupy. One would be built. When the house was finished, the man would say, it should be more comfortable."
     "The woman would say that. The man would work to make it more comfortable."
     "Then it would start accumulating furniture. And don't forget the entropy damper, the ever loving fridge. That should be in every home. And since he was in the habit of saying there should be this and should be that, he says there should be an easier or better way to do things to change what is. Man is a change junkie, really warped. Man is not happy unless he's changing something. There's always something that should be there that isn't."
     "And this is a mental illness? Fun is sick?"
     "Not pleasure. Not enjoyment. But a sense of achievement, glee in a possession that is not a necessity, that is sick. Our concept of money is perpetuated on mental illness."
     "Are you telling me to cut down on my shopping?"
     "No, but not that it wouldn't hurt."
     "How boring sanity must be. But maybe you have something there."
     "So you agree?"
     "Heavens, no. I was just inferring that this is boring."
     "But reality is boring. Survival is boring. That is the illness. Boredom. Boredom of what is. The inability to accept reality. We turn to distraction of what could and should be. It is a perversion of our desire to reduce entropy. We are fading in our survival skills because we let our products make it easy on us. We don't care if it's bad for us, as long as it's easier. If it poisons us, it was easier to support our needs of what should be.
     "In our relationships, we see what should be, not what is. We are all blinding our focus in a sea of what should be. If you want to keep it in a can until you want it, put florocarbons in it. It's easier. We've designed our entire economy on making what should be easier. We teach our skills in what should be, not what is. We teach what to expect from life on what should be. We can no longer look at what is without thinking what should be."
     "So we're all insane?"
     "Yes."
     "And every other country wants to be like us?"
     "Exactly."
     "Then the only way for us to keep ourselves from extinction is for all of us to stop looking at what should be and start looking at what is?"
     "Precisely."
     "That's good to know, dear. A nice boring world is sanity. I have an appointment early in the morning. Are you ready to go sleep yet?"
     "I guess."
     "Good. Good night, dear. You're such a brute." She kissed Torm on the cheek, rolled over, and fell asleep.
     Torm was not far behind.