The Pet Shop: Goldfish

“Where do goldfish come from? Why do we have to keep them in round fishbowls?” The child at the pet store asked.

“I can only answer the first question partially, but it involves the answer to the second.” The woman at the counter replied. “Goldfish are kept in round fishbowls so that they end up in the same place by the time they remember their existence. A goldfish has bad enough memory that it regularly repeats its first and only memory of coming into being. When this happens away from their previous remembrance, there’s a chance a copy of that goldfish will appear at that old place.”

“The process isn’t perfect, as you can see in the different spots each goldfish has. Each one is a glitch in something no one understands. But the goldfish is sterile, so this is its only way of reproducing. It defies normal conventions of nature.”

“As for the original goldfish that started this all, no one knows. Some think it was eaten long ago, or is temporally preserved as someone’s trophy. Biologists and physicists dodge the question of where the first one came from. It’s the only clue that singularity-based life is possible.”

The child looked back at the fish tank, and blinked with surprised as she counted two more goldfish than before the clerk talked to her.

(Originally written 12/20/2015)