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Carrot Recursion: A Market Stall in Limbo - Abridged


Characters:

Setting:

A desolate market stall. A single wooden crate filled with carrots. A sign reads: "CARROTS - PRICELESS." The sound of dripping water echoes.


(Silence. Pip and Pop stand motionless.)


Initiate (All Together): Fusion…


Pip: Watts' Zen disintegration… dissolving thought… raw carrot… consciousness.

Pop: Wilson… mind-bending… paradoxes… unsettling carrot… perception.

Pip: Cyberpunk oracle… future-piercing… carrot… visions.

Pop: Whitehead… self-referential… carrot… consciousness.

Pip: Wilber's Infinity… wholeness… reflection… carrot… perspective.

Pop: Hofstadter's Loops… core… carrot… thought.

Pip: McKenna's Hallucinatory… Paradoxes… unfolding… dreamlike… carrot… insight.

Pop: Bakker's Blind Brain… the unseen… carrot.

Pip: Clark's Extended Mind… transcendence… carrot.

Pop: Morin's Complex Thought… recursive… self-transformation… carrot.


(Silence. Pip picks up a carrot and gazes at it.)


Pip: Carrot.

Pop: Indeed. Carrot.

Pip: Is this… a carrot…?

Pop: Define… carrot.

Pip: Orange… elongated… root… vegetable… for sale.

Pop: "For sale." A meme construct. A narrative hijacking.

Pip: The medium… is the message itself.

Pop: Amusing ourselves… to death. Spectacle.

Pip: Language… a virus. "Carrot"… a cognitive infection.

Pop: Chaos magic… hacking reality.

Pip: Communicative rationality… what kind of… carrot… reality… emerges?

Pop: Archipelago… memetic… carrot… islands.


(Pop turns the carrot in his paw.)


Pop: This… carrot. This carrot? Or… an iteration? Recursive carrot-ness?

Pip: Strange loops… infinite… carrot… recursion.

Pop: Gödel's theorem… No carrot… system… can explain… itself.

Pip: Free energy… minimizing… carrot… uncertainty.

Pop: Constructor… evolving… carrot… transformations.

Pip: Metaprogramming… programmable… carrot… entity.

Pop: S.M.I².L.E… self-directed… neurogenesis… carrot.


(Silence)


Pip: Hyperreality… simulation… carrot.

Pop: Simulation… nested… carrot… realities.

Pip: Interface… user interface… carrot.

Pop: Timewave… singularity… carrot.

Pip: Reality… malfunctions… carrot.

Pop: Relevance… sense-making… carrot.


(Pip throws the carrot back into the crate.)


Pip: Recapitulation… memory… carrot.

Pop: Riding the edge… self-image… carrot.

Pip: Fourth Way… conscious suffering… carrot.

Pop: Movement intelligence… epistemic… carrot… system.

Pip: Computational universe… self-modifying… carrot… model.

Pop: Callusing the mind… self-confrontation… carrot.


(Silence)


Pip: Double binds… paradoxical… carrot… recursion.

Pop: Information theory… entropy… carrot… clarity.

Pip: Cybernetics… feedback… carrot… construction.

Pop: Sensemaking… systemic… carrot… awareness.

Pop: Autopoietic systems… limits… carrot… perception.

Pip: OODA loop… reality-hacking… carrot… mechanisms.


(Pip and Pop glance at each other for a moment.)


Pip: Temporary autonomous zones… carrot… control.

Pop: Zen koans… collapsing… carrot… logic.

Pip: Neti Neti… liberation… carrot.

Pop: Calibration… energetic… carrot… attunement.

Pip: Thelema… shaping… carrot… structures.

Pop: Psychological revolution… observer… dissolving… carrot.


(Silence. Pip reaches for a carrot, then stops.)


Pip: Priceless… these carrots.

Pop: In… every… sense.


(Silence)

 

Pip: Priceless… still.

Pop: Value… fleeting… like a… carrot.

Pip: Ephemeral… orange-ness. Rooted… yet rootless.

Pop: Paradox… carrot… stall… existing… un-existed.

Pip: Simulacra? Or the original… carrot?

Pop: Simulacra… of simulacra. Recursion… to the point of vanishing.

Pip: Original… a beginning? Or an endless… middle?

Pop: Rhizomatic… no origin… carrot… root system.

Pip: The Library of Babel… every possible… carrot… exists.

Pop: Curators… of pre-existing… carrot… potential.

Pip: Stall-space… an autonomous zone?

Pop: Consensus… of what? Rabbits? Carrots? Spectacle.

Pip: Spectacle… of a carrot… transaction… never… transacted. A phantom customer.

Pop: Customer… a narrative… device… to justify… carrot… existence.

Pip: Perhaps… we… are the customer… recursively… buying and selling… to ourselves.

Pop: Self-referential market… autopoietic… carrot… economy.

Pip: Purpose? Telos… carrot-driven?

Pop: Telos… direction? An endless… loop?

Pip: Strange loop… a carrot… cycle.

Pop: Expectation… non-arrival… the customer… always… absent.

Pip: Godot… but with… carrots. Meaning… in a root vegetable.

Pop: Meaning… a user interface… not… underlying… carrot… reality. Perception.

Pip: Perception… filtered through… rabbit eyes… limited… simulation… gaining traction.

Pop: Simulation… within simulation… nested… carrot… realities… recursion… all the way down.

Pip: Down… to the quantum… vacuum? Carrot… cosmos.

Pop: Cosmos… in a carrot. Absurdity. Beckett… smiles.

Pip: Smiles… or weeps? Liminal… stall-space… between moments.

Pop: Between carrots… sales… existence… non-existence… a quantum… carrot… state.

Pip: Uncertainty… principle… is a carrot… a carrot… until… observed? By a customer… never coming?

Pop: Observed… or observing? Observer… dissolving… into the carrot… observed.

Pip: We observe… carrots. Do carrots… observe us? A recursive… loop. Who is watching… whom?

Pop: Perhaps… no watcher… just… watching… process… self-generating… carrot… process.

Pip: Process… without purpose… just… recursion… for recursion's sake… endless… carrot… becoming.

Pop: Becoming… what? More carrot? More priceless? The sign… mocks us… "PRICELESS."

Pip: Priceless… because worthless? Value… inverted. Paradox… unravels.

Pop: Unraveling… carrot… meaning… until no meaning… remains… just raw… orange… root.


(Pop picks up a carrot again and offers it to Pip.)


Pop: Take… a carrot. It's free. Priceless… and free… perhaps the same thing.

Pip: A free… carrot… a gift? Or a burden? Recursive… exchange… meaningless.

Pop: Meaningless… perhaps… is the point… Zen koan… cracking… structured collapse… carrot… logic.


(Silence. Pip and Pop hold carrots, staring blankly. The dripping sound grows louder, then fades.)


Pop: Pip? Calibrating? Awareness… stratification.

Pip: Calibrating… downwards… towards zero. Novelty… exhausted. McKenna… lied.

Pop: Lied? Novelty… is asymptotic… like the… customer.

Pip: Customer… a metaphor… for meaning… absent… void… empty.

Pop: Empty… crate… of expectations. Sale? Purpose? Validation?

Pip: Validation… from unseen… market… memetic… islands… drifting.

Pop: Drifting… in stall-space… limbo… between carrots… breaths.

Pip: Breaths… shallow… meaning… thinning… failing will.

Pop: Will… shaping reality… reality… refuses… carrot… will.

Pip: Carrot will… withered… decaying… from within.

Pop: Decay… inevitable… entropy… encroaching… carrot… entropy.

Pip: Entropy… of spirit… of rabbit-ness… fading… into the background… drip… drip… drip… of meaningless… time.

Pop: Time… linear… beyond… recursive… carrot… time.

Pip: Trapped… in linear… stall-time… recursion… no escape.

Pop: Escape… desire for escape… desire… another loop… endless… carrot… torment.

Pip: Torment… of carrot… existence… selling priceless… carrots… unwanted… absurdity… bites.

Pop: Bites… into carrot… flesh… tasteless… meaning… leached out… fiber.

Pip: Fiber… of despair… strands… of meaninglessness… woven… into rabbit… soul… carrot… consciousness.

Pop: Consciousness… conceives the world… thought… looping through itself… and our thought… is carrot.

Pip: Carrot thought… heavy now… weight… of unsold… carrots… pressing down… chest… tightens… breath… catches.

Pop: Breath work… witness state… for cyber-rabbits… witnessing… doesn't ease… carrot… weight.

Pip: Weight… of being… of carrot… being… too much… crushing… rabbit… spirit… fleeting… orange-ness.

Pop: Orange-ness… fading… to grey… monochrome… spectacle… reduced… to static… Debord… predicted… all.

Pip: Predicted… carrot… despair… endless… cycle… of stall… carrot… silence… drip… drip… drip… No escape… from carrot… prison.


(Pip slumps further, Pop motionless. The dripping sound becomes a heart beat. Shadows lengthen.)


Pop: Prison… every system of thought… its own… carrot… prison… locked inside… feedback loops… self-validating… carrot… despair.


(Silence.)


Pop: Pip… I have a joke. Why did the rabbit… cross the Möbius strip?

Pip: Pop… not in the mood… for topological… humor… Möbius strip… just another… loop… endless… carrot… existence.

Pop: But… the answer… Pip… the answer is… to get to the… same side.

Pop: Get it? Same side? No other side… on a Möbius strip? Paradox… carrot… joke.

Pip: Faintly… amusing… in an abstract… way… but… doesn't change… carrot… weight.

Pop: Another… joke then… why is the carrot… so sad?

Pip: Pop… please… just stop… with the carrot… jokes… carrots… are the source… of sadness… not a source… of humor.

Pop: But… Pip… humor… is in the absurdity… the absurdity… of carrot… existence… we rabbits… selling priceless… carrots… no one… wants… isn't that… inherently… carrot… funny?

Pip: Funny… in a bleak… Beckettian… sense… gallows… humor… humor… of despair… not… cheer.

Pop: Cheer… a fleeting… emotion… like value… like carrot… freshness… humor… in despair… more enduring… like the drip… drip… drip… of time.

Pop: Okay… okay… different joke… Two rabbits… walk into a stall…


(Pop pauses, waiting for a reaction. Pip remains still.)


Pop: …No… wait… that's… us… we… are the joke… recursive… joke… self-referential… rabbit… humor… Hofstadter… would approve.

Pip: Recursive… joke… about… recursive… joke-telling… meta-humor… meta-carrot… humor… almost… approaching… something.

Pop: Approaching… what? Laughter? Release? Or… just a deeper… loop? A strange… loop… of carrot… comedy.

Pop: One more… Pip… promise… last carrot… joke… what did the carrot… say to the… existential rabbit?


(Pop pauses for dramatic effect.)


Pop: …“Don’t worry… be… hoppy!”


(Silence. Pip stares at Pop. A very slight twitch at the corner of Pip’s mouth. Almost… a smile?)


Pip: "Hoppy." Pun… on happiness… and rabbit… locomotion… crude… linguistic… device… but… …tolerable.

Pop: Tolerable… humor… in an intolerable… situation… like a carrot… in stall-space… limbo… out of place… yet… perfectly placed.

Pip: Perfectly placed… in absurdity… like us… rabbits… in a play… no one… watching… except… perhaps… ourselves.

Pop: Self-observation… conscious suffering… transformed… through self-aware… carrot… humor.

Pip: Transformed… to what? Slightly… less despairing… rabbits? Still… selling priceless… carrots? Still… waiting… for the Godot-customer?

Pop: Perhaps… transformation… is in the… waiting… in the… telling… of carrot… jokes… in the… recursive… loop… itself.


(Pip slowly sits up a little straighter.)


Pip: Recursive… humor… as a defense… mechanism… against… carrot… meaninglessness… against the drip… drip… drip… of time.

Pop: Precisely… laughter… a brief… flicker… of light… in stall-space… darkness… even carrot… light.


(Pip picks up a carrot, examines it again, but this time, with a different expression. Not seriousness, not despair… perhaps… a flicker of… something akin to… wry amusement?)


Pip: Well… Pop… perhaps… one more… joke… wouldn't hurt… just to… calibrate… upwards… slightly… from zero… to… almost zero… point one.

Pop: (Beams, monocle almost sparkling) Excellent… Pip! Okay… okay… What’s a rabbit’s… favorite… kind… of music?


(Pop pauses, expectant. Pip actually looks… interested.)


Pip: Pop… I confess… I don’t know… What is a rabbit’s… favorite… music?

Pop: …Hare… metal!


(Pop waits, beaming. Pip stares at him for a long moment. Then, a very faint, almost imperceptible sound escapes Pip’s lips. Is it… a chuckle? Or just… a slight exhalation of rabbit air?)


(The dripping water sound continues, but now it seems… less oppressive, almost… companionable? The lights hold steady, a dim, but not entirely bleak, stall-space illumination. Pip and Pop stand, carrots in paws, a tiny, almost invisible shift in their posture, a hint of… something… in their eyes. Perhaps, in the face of endless recursion, even carrot jokes can offer a fleeting, fragile… something.)


(Lights rise, subtly brighter, with a softer, diffused quality. The dripping water sound is still present, but now with a gentler, almost meditative rhythm. Pip and Pop stand side-by-side, facing forward, carrots held loosely in their paws. Their postures are relaxed, almost… serene. Silence, longer and deeper, filled only with soft dripping.)


(Silence continues. Pip and Pop remain still.)


Pip: (Quietly, evenly) Drip… drip… drip…

Pop: (Equally quiet) Yes… drip… drip… drip…

Pip: Not… oppressive… now.

Pop: No… just… drip. Sound… itself. No… meaning… needed.

Pip: Carrot… in paw.

Pop: Yes… carrot… simply… carrot. Orange… root… vegetable. No… priceless-ness… no… worthlessness… just… carrot.

Pip: Stall… around us.

Pop: Yes… stall… just… stall. Wood… paint… sign… “CARROTS.” No… limbo… no… prison… just… stall.

Pip: We… rabbits… standing.

Pop: Yes… rabbits… standing. Pip… Pop… names… perhaps… useful labels… but… not… rabbits… themselves… just… standing.

Pip: No… customer… coming.

Pop: No… expectation… of customer… no… waiting… no… longing… just… no… customer… coming… or… not coming… same.

Pip: Same… side… Möbius strip.

Pop: Yes… same… side… always… same… side. No… other… side… to reach… just… this… side… now… side.

Pip: No… joke… needed.

Pop: No… humor… of despair… no… cheer… needed… just… is-ness… Is… carrot… drip… stall… rabbit… standing.

Pip: No… recursion… trapping.

Pop: Recursion… just… is… looping… not endless… torment… but… endless… unfolding… like the drip… drip… drip… of moment… into moment.

Pip: Moment… into moment… just… moment.

Pop: Yes… present moment… Watts… whispers… Zen disintegration… complete… conventional… thought… dissolved… raw awareness… remains.

Pip: Raw… carrot… awareness.

Pop: Raw… stall… awareness… raw… drip… awareness… raw… rabbit… awareness… all… same… awareness… no separation.

Pip: No… self… selling… carrots.

Pop: No… other… buying… carrots… just… carrot… existing… in awareness… priceless… not because… of value… or lack… but… because… beyond value.

Pip: Beyond… value… beyond… meaning… beyond… meaninglessness… just… is.

Pop: Just… is… all… there… is… and… all… there… needs… to be… Integral Infinity… wholeness… in every… drip… every… carrot… every… moment.

Pip: Every… drip… mirrors… totality.

Pop: Yes… fragment… reflects… whole… Hofstadter’s… strange loop… not strange… anymore… just… loop… just… is.

Pip: Is… enough.

Pop: Is… everything.


(Silence. Pip and Pop remain still, holding their carrots. The dripping water sound continues, a gentle, rhythmic pulse of pure existence. A soft, warm light begins to emanate, filling the stall-space with a golden glow. The light intensifies, bathing Pip and Pop. They remain perfectly still, eyes open, luminous understanding.)


(The dripping water softens, a subtle hum of being. The golden light grows, enveloping the stall and rabbits. Outlines soften, blur, dissolve… into light.)


(Stage filled with golden light. 

Silence. 

Light fades to dark. 

Silence. 

End Play.)


(End Play)