organism
"According to Teleology, each organism is like a rifle bullet fired straight at a mark; according to Darwin, organisms are like grapeshot of which one hits something and the rest fall wide. For the teleologist an organism exists because it was made for the conditions in which it is found; for the Darwinian an organism exists because, out of many of its kind, it is the only one which has been able to persist in the conditions in which it is found. Teleology implies that the organs of every organism are perfect and cannot be improved; the Darwinian theory simply affirms that they work well enough to enable the organism to hold its own against such competitors as it has met with, but admits the possibility of indefinite improvement. But an example may bring into clearer light the profound opposition between the ordinary teleological, and the Darwinian, conception."
"To use another analogy, the organism is like an exquisitely tuned receiver (and emitter) of EMFs over the widest possible range of frequencies. That's why the quantum jazz of the organism is so fantastic; its antennae are tuned to signals from many frequencies, from the earth, the sun the moon, perhaps even from distant stars and galaxies, and will respond to them with new music. But quantum jazz could also be sabotaged by malignant interference."
"To use another analogy that engineers understand, the organism is like an exquisitely tuned receiver (and emitter) for EMFs over the widest possible range of frequencies. By half-accident, we found that all living organisms - especially those that are most actively moving around - look like a dynamic liquid crystal display in all the colors of the rainbow."
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.