lizardtail wrote:
good contest, Pete. Told you it'd be close.
I said I'd explain it, so my poem's about the choice that all people make when they're confronted with the fact that the universe and the knowledge it contains is infinite - specifically it's about the individuals who construct themselves a far tinier infinity in response, a mobius strip of very specific ambitions and goals which makes them important within in their own social circle but incredibly meaningless to an observer.
It's also a caveman-style anti-technology, pro-procrastination manifesto, but so's everything I say.
The Malthus thing is about food for thought rather than food supply; as the number of revelatory thinkers drops (because they're more tempted to focus their talents towards mundane, tangible goals) new information gets farther and farther away from us; as people are becoming certain of their beliefs at a much earlier age (a phenomenon I blame on the internet) the amount of real philosophers declines steadily and we stagnate, or even devolve.
I guess it's still very abstract and based on bias, but there you have it.
I believe it's a sin to explain what you "meant" after you give something like a poem to the public. But, that's just me...
