Crab Apples and Rabbit Holes

Yesterday, as I was walking down the road, returning from the barbers, I spotted a crab apple tree (malus sylvestris). It is not an uncommon sight along the residential roads of the United Kingdom; its small apples are often scattered all around the ground underneath – usually getting squashed on the soles of the shoes of passersby.

Seeing this tree sent me spiralling down a rabbit hole of thoughts about what I suppose could be loosely described as the meaning of life.

I considered the purpose of the apples. They must feed the birds, animals and insects and I suppose humans would have historically used them as a food source. However, the primary reason for apples’ existence is to reproduce to ensure the species keeps spreading and surviving. In the wild this could be achieved through various means such as apples carried away by animals or birds to new locations, or perhaps the apples falling into a river or stream and floating further away.

This got me thinking of all the trees and plants worldwide that do the same thing, albeit in different ways. And the main question I asked myself is what’s the point? It amazes me to no end how all of this flora was formed on Earth with the ability to reproduce – but why did it? What is the point of it continuing to do so? Will it keep reproducing until each extinction event destroys more species until the point where the Earth dies and nothing more can live? Or is there some greater purpose?

All questions that have baffled countless scholars, philosophers and scientists over the centuries – neither of which am I.

It just feels like a lot of work, a lot of chance and a lot of time for something that, on the whole, from a universe perspective, seems so pointless. Of course, on a human level, we can be thankful that it does happen.

I also include animals in this miracle, especially when you consider everything that needs to work and how wrong it can go at every step. But it makes more sense in animals (at least to me) – there is a chemical/instinctual drive to procreate. How far do trees know that they need to produce new versions of themselves?

More questions that far smarter people are working on I am sure. Some questions that we may never know the answer. And, ultimately, do we need to know? Sometimes to get carried away with a particular thought or thought exercise is good enough without needing to come to any specific conclusion.