“Write it, damn you, write it! What else are you good for?” James Joyce

Lack of Predators

Introduced species are not invasive. After all, they don’t colonize new habitats voluntarily. Goya talks about the sea nut (Mnemiopsis leidyi). As part of international transfers, the sea nut is transported to the sea in ballast water tanks, where it has no natural predators. The comb jelly (Ctenophora) performs a miracle of adaptation. It acts like a vacuum cleaner.

Headline of a German newspaper: “A Problem Animal Conquers the North and Baltic Seas.”

In a Roman hotel room. Nana crouches in light blue lingerie in front of the language teacher. She travels back in time with Goya, to a (new) Cambrian period, where jellyfish would once again be the most powerful predators. Nana hallucinates in the echo chambers of the academy; This conference- and congress-jet-lag delirium, in which even native speakers don’t speak English any better than everyone else. The bioluminescent glow of the sea oyster in the ocean depths, promising a murderous bloom. As a reminder: The philologist Goya is also a specialist in bioluminescence. He breeds glowing mice.

The sea oyster’s solutions are unique. Its existential maneuvers point to evolutionary regressions and parallel developments; to the fact that everything could have turned out quite differently. It is a winner of globalization, a beneficiary of climate change, a monster of adaptation.

Nana liquefies in Goya’s arousing presence—in anticipation of a cosmic orgasm.

Each sea oyster possesses a high degree of evolutionary intelligence, having required no deliberate adaptation for over 540 million years. The sea oyster functions flawlessly. Its efficiency surpasses any human standard, without the need for a second evolutionary cycle. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” said Leonardo da Vinci. And yet, breeding them in captivity fails. Goya, as a national authority, enrages the audience with Professor Grzimek’s grim grandeur.

“Bernhard Grzimek (1909–1989) was a German veterinarian, zoologist, animal rights activist, and ethologist, long-time director of the Frankfurt Zoo, wildlife filmmaker, author, and editor.” Wikipedia

Because he is accustomed to communicating at the level of an institute director, he looks down on most of his colleagues. In a shimmering gray area between a sense of duty and sexual desire, he allows himself to be seduced by Nana.

Tool Intelligence and Metacognition

“Can animals transfer their own experiences to others?” Goya asks. In simpler creatures, there is merely an unconscious competition between uncoordinated sensorimotor systems. The elephant demonstrates consistency and perseverance in its search for a watering hole. This points to constitutive features of human consciousness: global availability and self-monitoring. This architecture enables coherence. The information processing system appears ancient even in the geological dimensions of evolution. Apparently, some mammals are capable of handling challenges associated with the prefrontal cortex, including metacognition, that is, accurate self-assessment.

Goya wants to begin the sexual game in public. Nana is his reliable accomplice. She pulls her skirt up to the top of her stockings.

Chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gorillas confirm the assumption that animal species phylogenetically closely related to humans possess strong memories.

Capuchin monkeys use ingenious tools, such as one made of conglomerate rock, to crack open the fleshy peels of fruit.

Does this correspond to planning on a human scale? Do non-human animals possess self-control and imagination? In any case, it can be observed that dogs can resist instant gratification and choose a better option, even if only for a short time. Human perception revolves around the spindle of imagination. Our time travel depends on our imagination.

Nana needs far stronger stimulation than Goya’s sonorous voice and his inexhaustible eloquence.

“It’s like starting the meal with dessert,” she thinks. She spreads her legs, not expecting Goya to be disturbed by the sight of her modesty.

“Oh my God,” she moans, and she means it.

Crab-eating macaques on Ko Yao Yai use stones to crack open trapped food. Complex processes can be observed in a multifaceted way. A group of beach dwellers exhibits remarkable skills in cracking open shellfish. The group’s territory encompasses an abandoned palm oil plantation. The monkeys open the olive-like fruits of the palms using the same pattern they use to access the contents of shellfish. Ludwig Huber describes this universalization as a “recent behavioral adaptation.” He speaks of a “technological response of the monkeys to an anthropogenic change in their environment” and, in that sense, of a “genuine behavioral innovation.”

“Neurophysiological studies in macaques and humans suggest that the use of tools expands the internal representation of the extremities (hand, foot, beak, etc.) of the user.” A research team led by Christian Rutz at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland is investigating the manual dexterity of New Caledonian crows. These birds are distinguished by their serial production of hooks.