[Novel] Spring Porridge: The Isolated Individual and the Synchronized Swarm
Humans live in the rural exhibition zone of the Museum of Extraterrestrial Life. They build fires, till fields, and boil porridge.
However, these humans are not humans from Earth.
They are an exhibit of Homo apiformis, a species from the planet Affilis commonly known as 'honeybee-type humans,' designed as a swarm (which they call a 'nest') and based on a stable sociality that lacks the capacity for questioning.
Among them, there is one individual who is isolated.
His name is Michio. A 30-year-old male with an IQ of 103 and an EQ of 85. For the 15 years since he was transferred here at age 15, he has lived, worked, and eaten entirely alone.
And in an exhibition zone a short distance away,
an intermediate-type swarm brought from the same nest as him—about 30 humans—are gathered around the same porridge today, living their lives with the same movements.
This is a record of one sunny spring afternoon,
when one 'individual' and a 'collective' as a swarm
ate the same porridge of root vegetables and grains.
I. Michio's Lunch: The Sound of Fire and Solitude
Noon. The bean flowers in the field swayed in the wind, and the exhibition bell rang in the distance.
Michio leaned the hoe he had been using to till the fieldagainst the wall, brushed the dirt from his hands, and quietly returned to his hut.
Building a fire follows the usual routine. He lines up dry twigs and strikes the flint twice.
A small 'snap' sound.
That becomes the first 'voice' of the day.
Once the fire is lit in the lower chamber of the furnace, he silently takes thorium wheat flour out of the jar.
He checks the texture with his palms—
The grains were a little coarse, reminiscent of the lingering dryness of winter.
'The wind is different from last year.'
His murmur had no one to answer it.
The air simply trembled, and the sound was absorbed into the earthen walls and vanished.
Michio roasts a Luo potato.
The surface of the potato chars, the skin splits, and nectar seeps out.
Amidst that aroma, Michio closed his eyes.
'Is living the same as being roasted?'
He tries thinking about it.
Exposed to fire, transformed, and gaining sweetness—
perhaps humans, too, are creatures that change their flavor through suffering.
As he poured the hot water, he let his thoughts wander further.
'If I were in the swarm, would I have ever truly tasted this porridge?'
The question, like the bubbles floating on the surface of the porridge, held its shape for a while, then vanished without a sound.
When the porridge is cooked just right, Michio picks up his spoon.
He takes a mouthful. The saltiness, the heat, it is the same as yesterday. In that sameness, relief and a slight irritation well up at the same time.
“Does being unchanging mean not being alive? Or does it mean continuing to live?”
He finishes the porridge without finding an answer.
He bites into the edge of a charred potato and feels a slight bitterness.
In that bitterness, for some reason, he tastes 'time'.
After the meal, he washes the bowl and puts out the fire. The sound of water echoes quietly.
He adjusts the position of the water pitcher on the windowsill and stretches out his finger as if to measure the light outside.
“Is living just a matter of confirming things?”
Those words will not remain in the observation records. But they were certainly repeated many times within him.
II Lunch of the Intermediate Herd: Voice and Synchronization
At the same time as Michio.
Steam rises in the communal kitchen,
Ten males, twelve females, four juveniles. The average IQ is 66, EQ is around 70. And they were moving about, intermingling.
“Stir, almost there”
“Stir, now”
“Almost time, to eat”
The words are short, neither commands nor suggestions.
Repeated like a rhythm, the space sways in time with their movements.
When one of the juveniles drops a spoon, the individual right next to it picks it up and laughs.
When they laugh, those around them laugh too.
The sound spreads like a wave, and eventually, it subsides.
Inside the pot, thorium wheat and chopped luo-potatoes were mixed into a thick, creamy consistency.
The only seasoning was salt. Yet, the order in which the porridge was served and the signal to begin eating were naturally synchronized.
“Eat, now.”
The moment those words were spoken, everyone lifted their spoons at the same time.
A juvenile said while slurping the porridge.
“Today’s taste, like.”
The adult next to it responded.
“Like.”
And another adult as well.
“Like, like.”
The short words gradually amplified, turning the entire herd into a kind of 'music'.
Before long, one of them saw the burnt part of an overcooked potato and frowned.
“Black.”
“Black, but sweet.”
“Black, but, sweet, like.”
And then they laughed again. There was no starting point of thought in this laughter.
There were no questions, and no answers. Simply 'being together' was, for them, the very essence of 'a meal'.
III Fruit Juice Day: The Ritual of Silence
The weekly "Fruit Juice Day".
A day left over from the old queen system, where they abstain from food and survive only on fruit juice.
On this spring day, Ryu juice—a transparent purple liquid—was distributed.
There is no fire in the herd's kitchen.
The individuals sit in a circle, signal "now," and drink it all at once. When the young ones grimace at the sourness, everyone laughs again.
And with that, the ritual ends. Unfulfilled, yet in equilibrium.
At the same time, Michio quietly drank his fruit juice in his hut. Feeling the sourness remaining on his lips, he muttered:
"Hunger is what it means to be alive."
For him, "fasting" is an act of thinking.
For the herd, it is a "shared silence."
Both quietly brought to the surface the "meaning" hidden within food.
IV Cultivation Records (Excerpt from Staff Report)
[Museum Exhibition Area Cultivation Record: 23rd Term Update]
Main Cultivated Crops: Thorium Wheat, Luo Yam, Sin Root
Thorium Wheat (Triticum thoriumii)
An energy grain containing low concentrations of radioactive isotopes.
It emits a faint glow under ultraviolet light and stabilizes when heated.
Grows vigorously during the high-temperature season; harvest season is at an average temperature of 18-22 degrees.
Luo Yam (Dioscorea luoensis)
A high-sugar root crop.
Forms clusters in layers near the surface, with grayish-brown skin that has a metallic luster.
The edible part contains slight bioluminescent components, making it look good for night displays.
Sin Root (Sinapsis radialis)
A fine-rooted vegetable that grows from early spring to summer.
Adapted to high-humidity environments, it has a mild taste and is used to flavor porridge.
This explanation is posted on the bulletin board in the exhibition area.
Both Michio and the intermediate herd read the words written there. However, what they interpret is completely different.
1 Michio's Understanding and Practice
Michio stares at the posted text, his finger lingering on the phrase "emits a glow under ultraviolet light" at the end of the sentence.
“So, I am eating light.”
In his field, the wheat glows faintly at dusk.
Watching the subtle shimmer in the light that nears the night,
I wonder, “Where does this light go inside my body?”
I place the harvested wheat grains in my palm and look at them while changing the angle.
When the soft phosphorescence illuminates my skin,
I feel as though the outline of myself emerges from the reflection.
“Perhaps, while I eat, I am returning the light.”
For him, cultivation was not an academic act, but a “dialogue with the world.”
2 Understanding and Practice of the Intermediate Herd
The herd also reads the notices.
But their eyes linger more on the diagrams than the text.
Cross-sections of roots, sowing times, ranges of soil moisture.
They imitate those “procedures” perfectly.
“Sow, today,” “Water, necessary,” “Harvest, now.”
Their movements are precise and efficient.
The procedures written on the notices are carved directly into the bodies of the herd.
It was less about understanding and more about “repetition through harmony.”
Even so, the crops grow well. This is because they have no “hesitation.”
In a society where no individual poses questions, everything becomes averaged.
The wheat in that field stood at an even height, swaying without a single shadow out of place.
3 Record Addendum (Staff Report)
Observation Results
The intermediate herd converts the content of the notices into action immediately.
It is an acquisition through “rhythmic synchronization” rather than linguistic understanding.
On the other hand, the individual Michio tends to read passages of the notices repeatedly,
and from there, he engages in speculative speech and unique cultivation experiments (changes in seed spacing, use of shadows).
There is no major difference in the crop growth rates between the two,
but the crops in Michio’s plot have significant individual differences in color and taste,
while the crops in the herd’s plot are remarkably uniform.
Notes:Michio occasionally looks at the bulletin board while eating porridge,
muttering, “I wonder who wrote this text.”
No one in the herd shows any interest in that question.
V Seasons and Meals: Between Light and Fire
Spring
The field begins to sprout, and the air grows damp.
Michio chops the taproots of the new sprouts and mixes them into his porridge.
The aroma is faint, with a bitter taste.
“In spring, the voice of the soil is still asleep.”
He stops his spoon and thinks this.
The herd’s porridge uses the same ingredients, but one of the juveniles says,
“Spring, sweet.”
The adults repeat the same words.
“Spring, sweet.”
In the waves of that sound, the difference in taste dissolves.
Summer
The entire exhibition zone is filled with heat.
Luo potatoes have a strong sweetness, and the porridge thickens.
Michio lowers the heat, cooking it little by little and letting it cool.
“The flavor that remains after the heat is the part that is alive.”
The herd's porridge, conversely, is boiled down until thick,
and everyone blows on it in unison to cool it.
“Blow, blow, now.”
The sound of the herd blowing resonates like wind chimes.
Autumn
The harvest season for thorium wheat.
Michio extends the drying time for the wheat by one hour.
“If you let it absorb the light a little longer, the aroma changes.”
He tries roasting and eating it as a test.
The luminescence fades, leaving behind a savory fragrance.
The herd harvests and dries the wheat at the exact time as posted. Every grain is the same color and the same hardness.
They call it “beautiful.”
Michio, on the other hand, feels it is “too quiet.”
Winter
The light diminishes, and the air in the exhibition zone grows cold.
Michio adds a little more salt to his porridge. It is not so much to warm his body, but
“to confirm the taste of being alive.”
The sound of the fire echoes, and the indoor air becomes slightly dry.
Outside, the herd gathers around a bonfire,
and they say in unison, “Eat, now.”
Their porridge is thin, with little variation in flavor.
Yet, their voices maintain the warmth.
For the herd, winter porridge is “porridge for gathering,” while for Michio, it is “porridge for confirming one's solitude.”
Epilogue: To eat is to hold a question
The afternoon light slants in, and the two exhibition zones cast long shadows.
The herd finishes cleaning up and returns to the fields.
Michio, too, returns his washed bowl to the shelf and stands still for a while.
“Why is it that they hold no questions?”
“Or perhaps, not holding questions is the very definition of completion.”
The thoughts arising within him
gradually cool in the silence of the exhibition room.
Even so—he thinks.
“As long as there is a question, the meal is not over.”
He makes porridge, he roasts.
Each time he repeats this, he is measuring the shape of life.
The temperature of the fire, the balance of the flavor, and the movements of the heart.
The herd lives in harmony,
and Michio continues to verify in solitude.
To eat is not merely to sustain life.
It is an act of tracing the contours of one's own existence with taste, aroma, and silence.
And those who hold questions
continue to think about the world while they eat.
Michio's practice of cultivating ingredients for "roasted root vegetables" and "grain porridge" is,
The biological aspects of Michio and the intermediate-type individuals
will be explored in depth!