The Homunculus

by iambic_pentameter

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The homunculus is an ancient idea,
disproved by stringent modern science.
But look within, see your skull’s inside:
the tiny man within the cockpit

Looking through your eyes.
Mission control is a silent space
One desk, one chair, and a thousand
Levers, buttons, chains to occupy the lonely
homunculus who sits, or paces, or stares.

We’re each alone inside our heads and
none are fully understood—to bridge
the gap from one to one there’s nothing;
only self-forgetting.

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Comments

  1. The Homunculus

    THX 0477's Buddy Icon THX 0477

    Posted 3 months ago

    Lovely use of an old idea to illustrate the potential isolation and loneliness inherent to human existence. Yet this idea always begs the question, if the homunculus is in our heads, what’s in his?

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