Mach 20 - Laurie Anderson

Ladies and gentlemen, what you are observing here are magnified examples or

facsimiles of human sperm

Generation after generation of these tiny creatures have sacrificed themselves

in their persistent, often futile, attempt to transport the basic male genetic

code.

But where is this information coming from?

They have no eyes.

No ears

Yet some of them already know that they will be bald

Over half of them will end up as women

Four hundred million living creatures, all knowing precisely the same

thing--carbon copies of each other in a Kamikaze race against the clock

Some of you may be surprised to learn that if a sperm were the size of a salmon

it would be swimming its seven-inch journey at 500 miles per hour

If a sperm were the size of a whale, however, it would be traveling at 15,

000 miles per hour, or Mach 20. Now imagine, if you will, four hundred million

blind and desperate sperm whales departing from the Pacific coast of North

America swimming at 15,000 mph and arriving in Japanese coastal waters in just

under 45 minutes

How would they be received?

Would they realize that they were carrying information, a message?

Would there be room for so many millions?

Would they know that they had been sent for a purpose?