A Message From The Arachnid Ambassadors?

Spiders have been around for a long time, and part of the reason they've been such a success is that what they do, they do very well. Spiders don't normally change their behaviours en masse unless there is a distinct reason for it. When they do, it's usually because pesticides have scrambled their brains, and the new behaviors are simply defective versions of the old ones.

I can't explain it properly, but I've been convinced for a while now that spiders are possessed of something resembling consciousness. Some spiders are actually on a par with humans when it comes to certain intellectual tasks.

I don't know that spiders are "intelligent" in any sense the same way we are... but I've always suspected consciousness in them beyond that of the average bug. Then again, I myself never kill spiders. Not out of reverence or superstition: it's more like an experiment in inter-species communication. We don't screw with you, you don't screw with us. And no, I don't know anyone who isn't at least a little disturbed by the idea of spiders being conscious in any form. I know I certainly am.

So you can imagine how disturbed I am by the sudden, unexplained change in behaviour among the spiders east of Dallas, Texas. The local spiders... the usual, solitary, orb-web-building type... have teamed up to produce something as baffling yet strangely significant as a crop circle. Only no one is doubting that this... whatever the hell it is... is real.

Is this the first contact we've waited for? Is Anansi the Spider God displeased?

Is there something fundamental that has to change, somewhere east of Dallas?

The spiders have me thinking.

***

Then again, maybe it's all Vincent Price's fault that I'm thinking this way. When it comes to deeply ingrained behaviours in humans, never underestimate the power of an old song.

"If I may put forward a slice of personal philosophy, I feel that man has ruled this world as a stumbling, demented child-king long enough! And as his empire crumbles, my precious Black Widow shall rise as his most fitting successor!"