Swarm

I saw something beautiful today. A small flock of birds, probably 50 or less, was swooping and diving in formation. There didn't seem to be any purpose to it, other than the simple joy of flight. The amazing thing was watching the intricacy of the formations, the precision, and the efficiency. As a programmer, I know the general way "swarm" can be simulated, i.e. each bird simply stays a certain distance away from each other bird, while also remaining a certain distance within the other birds. Done on an individual scale, the algorithm scales up to the extremely complex "swarm" behavior we see in birds, insects, and other created things. Although the algorithm is actually fairly straightforward, we're nowhere close to being able to implement something like the group dynamics of swarming bird flight in physical reality. Machines would require the invention of new materials, power sources, communication methods, and likely a number of other things I can't even imagine.

As I sat watching, it hit me how amazing God's creation, and therefore God, is. His creation is stunning. Stunning in beauty, stunning in scale, stunning in complexity, and stunning in simplicity. There is no iterative process like there is in programming; God's creation was perfect from the beginning. That blows me away.