Meme

“Life is complex. That is, any system with a sufficient degree of complexity gradually approaches what we would consider life; growing, learning, reacting. Breeding.” The professor massaged the bridge of his nose. “Computing, mimetics… the idea of sentience, of consciousness, arising naturally from a decision-making process… of life springing not from a chemical soup, but from an idea. Like germs, in the dark and unswept corners of our minds. Contagious.”

He wiped at his face and turned back to the blackboard, empty now. He could feel the wriggling lines, like leeches in his head. “God help me, I never thought…”