Posthuman Blues

I was watching gusts of snow falling in front of an outdoor lamp and noticed that the flakes became momentarily elongated as they passed through the middle of my field of vision. As they neared the lamp they would suddenly gain additional "segments" and briefly appear like tiny wingless dragonflies; as they departed they would rapidly "shrink" back into normal windblown crystals.

Apparently the flakes were moving so fast that my eye-brain relay system was forced to compensate by providing this "time-lapse" illusion. Or maybe the effect is more easily explained. In any case, I was reminded of the so-called "rods" that appear in many videotapes devoted to UFOs. Some debate continues to rage about what these structures are, although I'm personally satisfied that they're airborne insects translated into stick-like shapes by videotape's optical limitations.

It's unsettling to consider that my brain actually manufactures events -- however miniscule or trivial -- to avoid potentially sanity-threatening gaps. If an alien intelligence wanted to infiltrate, it could take advantage of this capacity for self-deception, flickering at the threshold of perception, unremarked and serene in its invisibility.