I hated pigeons
#2020
Last Saturday, I went to a talk about pigeons1.
You know, those birds we find annoying?
The ones we chase away with spikes on our buildings?
Turns out, pigeons were fundamental to human progress.
Their guano made gunpowder possible.
They carried our messages across battlefields and cities.
They could always find their way home.
So we brought them everywhere.
Until we didn’t need them anymore.
We found better explosives.
We invented the telegraph, then the telephone.
But by then, pigeons were everywhere.
And we couldn’t see their purpose anymore.
So now we ask: why do they even exist?
As if everything in nature needs to justify itself to us.
As if usefulness to humans is the measure of meaning.
All those animals and plants we find annoying?
What if they have always had a purpose we just can’t see?
What if our question says more about us than about them?