THE IMAGE of two trigrams: below Heaven, above Fire. The sun is high in the sky. The dry warmth of late summer, the harvest is brought in. What is the net of a life of experimentation and experience? What is the payoff, and how can it be passed on to the next generation? A human life condenses into a single story. From years of research and trial and error, only the essentials remain in memory. Miscounts and mistakes pave new paths.
A cumulative culture could emerge through imitation of the other and storytelling. Stories allowed themselves to be baked as clay tablets, written out on scrolls or books; soon a library full. What is written endures. A dense fabric grew between the old and the new dreams, between those of the past and those of an imminent future. Between a clay tablet and a data centre lie only five thousand years.
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