Two

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Perhaps the most significant number in the history of the human race. Some humans think that the number two’s importance comes from the fact that there are two specific versions of almost all creatures on the planet earth - male and female. However, as humans are the only creature obsessed with the implications of the number two, this theory is unlikely to be true. In fact, it is far more probable that this peculiar human preoccupation is the fault of a certain cavewoman called Gurgh.

Like others of her time, Gurgh was trying very hard to come to terms with the few brain cells that had appeared in her head as a result of evolution. Because they had no fire in those days, Gurgh and her companions would go into their caves to sleep as it would become very cold as the end of the day approached. The caves provided some warmth, and were lit by phosphorescent rocks, so by all accounts it was still as light inside as it was out.

One night, Gurgh couldn’t sleep as she was lying there, struggling to cope with the strange new things that were rumbling around in her brain. Despite the cold, she decided to go for a walk outside. As she approached the entrance to the cave, she was astounded to discover that the world had disappeared. She was terrified. She ran back into the caves, grunting and screeching, and gathered her companions to go and see that the world was gone. Horrified and utterly confused, they sat inside the entrance to the cave in stunned silence. Hours later (of course it seemed like forever to them, as they had no sense of time in those days) they were amazed to see the world slowly begin to appear outside the cave right in front of them. Well, for many days and nights they sat there, not moving and just watching this phenomenon of the world appearing and disappearing.

Eventually, Gurgh and one or two of the braver cavepeople would take the chance and wander out into the night, as by this time they had ascertained that there were in fact things out there and when their world disappeared, another one appeared in its place. So, while humans would eventually gain a few more brain cells, and finally figure out that these worlds were in fact the same, and that it was simply the turning of the earth on its axis that caused day and night, by this time a deep belief had been fixed in human consciousness that there were two worlds. One being light, in which they could see where they were going, and therefore good and one being dark where they were at the mercy of the world around them, and therefore bad.

And so the number two became fundamental to humans, who since then have managed to divide everything in such a way - even themselves. Left and Right. Good and Evil. Right and Wrong. Dark and Light. Inside and Outside.


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Infinite Improbability Drive

Infinite Improbability Drive

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