broken ladder.

sequence: approximately 3.2 billion base pairs.
distribution: not random.
review: none.

a broken ladder: a thing still climbed. a rung that must be learned, stepped over, worked around. loved despite the gap, or because of it. the ladder still gets you where you're going, mostly.

in wim wenders's until the end of the world—the five-hour cut, the one he actually meant—claire tells gene: you're like a broken ladder. i can never put my trust in you again. she still loves him. her voice reaches him from space. i still love you, broken ladder. a structure you needed, that failed you, that you keep reaching for anyway. both meanings are intended.

in the welfare function, initial endowments are exogenous. the system distributes outcomes accordingly. this is not a malfunction.

"play the hand you're dealt." the hand was not consulted prior to dealing.

roger penrose has proposed that the universe contracts to a singularity at heat death and begins again. that the present is one configuration in an infinite series. that nothing is final, only deferred. this is not offered as comfort. it is offered as a coordinate system.

quantum entanglement: once two particles have interacted, the measurement of one determines the state of the other. instantaneously. regardless of distance. this has not been demonstrated to apply to people. it has not been ruled out.

broken ladder is the work of clay schöntrup. he found the city, lost it, and found it again—and has not entirely recovered from the relief of it.