signs of stendhal

In one of my all-time favorite Ted Talks, Dr. Bonnie Bassler tramples the assumption of discrete human selfhood.

Bassler explains how most of what you consider your “self” consists of or is occupied by bacteria. And not only are most bacteria living in and on us beneficial, they are essential; not only are they social organisms, they are democratic; and not only do they have language, they are bilingual.

Their society — whose history exceeds ours by billions of years — offers a poetic example of how, through cooperation, masses of literally infinitesimal members can “be successful at overcoming” a relatively gigantic body. It’s also apropos how strategies to control and repress them has recently changed: following failed attempts to kill unwanted populations, new drugs aim to prevent their organization by fabricating so much false (chemical) conversation that the “noise” renders them effectively deaf to each other, and therefore silent. But as long as they can still communicate, there’s little they can’t do.