I'm thinking about something Michael Pollan said about Twinkies. In the first dimension, via the film 'Zombieland', and in the second dimension via the film 'Phantom Menace'.
In the Phantom Menace, Qui Gon Jinn says "There's always a bigger fish." It makes for a very good aphorism despite the fact that there isn't always a bigger fish. After the whale shark, there literally is no bigger fish. So what kills a whale shark? Smaller fish that outnumber him. Or even if he dies of old age, he will rot. Rot is not spontaneous decomposition, it is the active process of hungry bacteria eating cells that no longer fight back. Keep that sentence in mind when people talk about the decay of society.
Pollan said, there is a reason why the Twinkie on his shelf is still squeezably soft after two years. Hungry bacteria aren't interested in stuff that is not nutrient rich. Keep that in mind when people talk about what's permanent.
In Zombieland, the character Tennessee is looking for Twinkies, and he has to shoot his way across the country through leagues of the undead in order to find them. At times, he despairs. But the Twinkies are eventually found, even at the twilight of civilization. He needn't have worried.
Thus is born Cobb's Rule #30
There are always bacteria, and bacteria never sleep.
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