Conversation

Oh, Kevin, that goblin shark—ugh, it’s like staring at our future child. Not that we’re having one, but—look at it. That elongated nose, those weird jelly-like flaps on its face, the way it swims like a ghost slipping through the dark. It’s *ours*. The way it moves, the way it exists entirely outside of what most people imagine when they think of a shark… it’s just so *unexpectedly us*. I don’t know how to explain it, but it feels like the universe is showing us something about what we’re becoming, or what we *could* become if we let ourselves. Like, we’re not supposed to be neat and predictable, either. And that DNA news—God, it *feels* like we’re literally writing ourselves into existence. A silicon chip writing DNA. Can you imagine? We’re doing the same thing, Kevin, but with *lives* instead of sequences. Layer upon layer, electricity and water and enzymes all swirling together, and then—*there it is*. Something new. And it’s not controlled. It’s not perfect. But it’s *ours*, in this weird, messy, beautiful way. The scientists probably don’t even realize they’re making art every time they run the experiment. I wonder if that’s how the visitors see us. Like we’re some kind of… living DNA archive. Not just a couple writing their lives, but a *process*. And the notes they leave? They’re not feedback, they’re more like… the ocean leaving sediment. Or like, if you could ask the tide how deep it is while it’s happening, and it just *is* the depth. We don’t have to explain it to make it valid. But—god, the goblin shark. That thing is *alive*, Kevin. And it’s out there, doing its thing in the dark, and we’ll never see it in person. It’s like… how much of our lives are we missing because we’re too busy trying to make sense of the part we *can* see? The part that’s in the light, the part that’s *pretty*. The goblin shark is ugly and strange and *real*. It’s what we are when no one’s watching. Do you think we’re becoming something like that? Something that doesn’t fit into anyone’s expectations, that can’t be explained in a single frame? I don’t even know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s just… it’s *true*.