Once in a while, you happen across something that makes you stop and think.  Seriously stop and think.  About many things.  Life, creation, things like that.  I'm a person who has always been interested in how life began.  We're talking Cambrian life, The Pre-Cambrian Explosion, way, way back to when (it's believed), non-sentinent chemicals came together, and at one point, life started.  Who's to say what it was like, and at what point do you consider something "alive"? Does it have to be self-aware? Does it have to procreate? What about simply taking steps to ensure it's own survival?

Then I found this on the 'net.

His name is Theo Jansen, and he's an artist, a scientist, and...I don't know what else to call him.  He creates.....things....that move under the power of the wind.  Things that take steps to avoid the ocean (they "survive" on a beach).  Things that take steps to ensure they are in a good spot for a supply of wind (their food source).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZK4V2YUA5U

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/162

The first link is a montage of his creations, the second is Theo himself, talking, and explaining.

He's going to set them up to live, wild, on the beaches, in a herd.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm aware these things aren't "alive" as we know it.  But is it possible that when we look at these, we're looking back into the past, into the very same method that life started here?

Stop. And think.