The Wake - Fortnightly Magazine

Endoskeleton Speculation

December 4, 2009

By

While using a broom, one can brush an ant with relative ease. It will not work its way through the bristles and will move with the swishing motion of the right and left arm. The ant therefore can move some 100 times its own body length with the push of a broom. It walks away unscathed as if nothing happened, and it will not even need a psychological consultation. Try this with a human being and you will get a very different result. The human will break easily, its bones shattering into dust, especially if brushing it 100 times its body length. It will cry and moan the whole stroke as well, and it may die from internal bleeding and/or a brain hemorrhage. If the human does in fact make it one swoop (rare), he or she will most definitely need a psychological assessment, and will most likely never function normally in society again. Jumping nervously at every slight movement and hiding in dark corners of closets will become customary.