'How could you rise anew

if you have not first become ashes?'
 
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

(art by https://www.artstation.com/artist/zeen )

The human mind,

is not some golden benchmark
glimmering on some
green and distant hill.

No, it is a foul,
pestilent corruption.

(Westworld.S01E09)

I read a theory once

that the human intellect

is like peacock feathers.

Just an extravagant display

intended to attract a mate.

All of art, literature, a bit of Mozart,

William Shakespeare, Michelangelo,

and the Empire State Building...

Just an elaborate mating ritual.

Maybe it doesn't matter

that we have accomplished so much

for the basest of reasons.

But, of course, the

peacock can barely fly.

It lives in the dirt, pecking

insects out of the muck,

consoling itself with its great beauty.

(Westworld.S01E07)