Sometimes the universe exposes some of its hidden links. (We must acknowledge that none of those links may be linked at all. Perhaps the similarities are coincidental and it's only our propensity to find patterns in the universe around us.)

Any, getting back to those exposed links which, when traced back, bring some pretty big surprises.

This particular chain began when I read some statement by Ru Paul during an interview about life being all an illusion. Better yet, here's the exact bit:

How do you feel drag's function has changed? The function hasn't changed. It's been the same since the beginning of time when shamans, witch doctors, or court jesters were the drags. Which is to remind culture to not take itself seriously. To remind you that you are not your shirt or your religious affiliation. You are an extension of the power that created the whole universe. You are God in drag. You are dressed up in this outfit of a body, which is temporary. You are eternal. You are forever. You are unchanged. And this is a dream you're having. So don't get to attached to it. Make love. Love people. Be sweet. Have corn dogs. Dance. Live. Love. Fuck shit up. But it's all good. You can't fuck it up because you're eternal.
(Article by E. Alex Jung for Vulture.com)

This got me to thinking how perhaps all of our experience of life is really a natural "organizing" phenomena that the universe displays in different arenas. (People, animals, plants, electricity, computers, cars.) Maybe developments aren't totally without restriction but are subject to laws beyond our present perception. Perhaps cultures move forward in time obeying simple rules that control their developments. Like the computer simulations known as cellular automata. In cellular automata, we know what the "rules" of development are because we set them; in real life, we don't know what those constraints might be.

Those cellular automata got me to thinking about the work of Stephen Wolfram and his theory of perceiving reality as presented in a huge book titled A New Kind of Science. Wolfram is a theoretical physicist who has made major contributions in particle physics and cosmology. He also created Mathematica which is now the  world's leading software for technical computing. This guy is a true heavyweight in science. And so is his book–1197 pages not counting 70 pages of microscopic index. (A quick scan of the illustrations throughout the tome reminded me why I'm only 91 pages into it. Charts, printouts, drawings, tables, patterns, patterns and more patterns. )

Maybe this guy has the answer as to what life is and how it got to where it is within these pages.