collaboration

I was looking at Wikipedia and imagining how it got created. Even if people don't form a distinct organism, they can still produce very impressive (rational, consistent, aesthetically pleasing) things in collaboration. The analogy to an organism might not be what we imagine - what human society evolves to become or produce may be outside our imagination. We should be careful about limiting our potential based on what we can imagine. But I guess in any case we have to work with what we have.

I think this unconscious production of valuable things is even more worthwhile than things created by calculated, conscious purpose. Of course, there is conscious purpose even in serendipity but the difference is that what you end up with turns out to be more valuable than what you were aiming for - this is by "chance" and not purposeful.

This may be what a good artist feels when he gets a corner of his painting "right."