Deep Mutational Planning

Sea squirts aren’t any dumber than you
When it comes to plotting survival.
Their tricks have worked a long time. Of course,

Their tricks are quite different from yours.
They find a nice spot while still larvae,
Plant their heads in it, and reabsorb

Almost all of such brains as they had.
Then they stick there and filter water,
Like flower-stomachs, stomach-flowers.

Evolution plans the way you scan
To try to capture what it’s planning.
How life started trials and errors,

Who really knows? But that’s how it goes.
The trials pile up by the trillions.
The successes tend to look the same

As the successes that went before,
But once in a while a lineage
Hits a seam of opportunity,

And off it goes, wildly mutating
For a while, until it hits a wall
Or finds its groove to hang around in.

The unbraining sea squirts found a groove
Half a billion years ago. Now you
Chase just-lost tails, hot tales in pursuit.