The Wisdom of Crabs

One million small red crabs

are all assembling on a beach

in the western Indian Ocean.

The soft spread of water at the end of each wave

slides up the beach,

and one million small red crabs

rearrange themselves.

At first it seems they rearrange themselves

to avoid the moment of submergence,

until one recalls that crabs

are not concerned with submergence,

and it is coincidence that they rearrange themselves

with the soft spread of water at the end of each wave.

The beach is broad and flat;

if one were able to view the beach

from directly above,

its approach down to the western Indian Ocean

would appear broad and flat

like a map of the beach and the crabs.

But even if one were able to view the beach and all the

crabs from directly above,

the pattern of crabs,

that is, the way they rearrange themselves,

would still elude one.

I imagine a really big computer,

but even it cannot predict

how the crabs will next appear on the beach,

even an instant later.

Ian Olson