Contingency theory

ack to scientific principle for a moment. I began this exposé with the analogy of a spider and its web and the manner in which one organism traps prey and immobilises it, consumes it and derives a source of nourishment from it. Bear in mind that specific behaviour, that of the spider and indeed the prey, has to do with fitness or survival of the species.

In the ecology arena, the Contingency Theory is a mathematical model which permits us to determine when an organism should consume a less profitable, but much more abundant food source and when the organism should pass this food source up in search of a more profitable, but scarcer source. It would appear logical that an organism would seek out the most profitable return for its efforts, but not necessarily. One could simplify this by saying that to a predator one food source might require more resources to find, yet yield a higher degree of nutritional value. Alternatively, one food source might be readily available, and therefore require less effort to secure, yet provide less in terms of reward. There's an interplay between the costs expended and the benefits received. In essence, contingent.

It would be logical to conclude that I might have appeared no longer a profitable food source to KMC and DF. I had, essentially, been stripped of just about anything they deemed of value. However, what is profitable to one organism, may not be to another and additionally, the requisite value of the source is directly related to the efforts required and expended to retrieve it.

Despite having less in the way of liquid monetary substance, I still had hope and enthusiasm; an intense interest in not allowing myself to become cynical and mistrusting, as a consequence and an intense passion to find genuine, mutual and complimentary companions. Could it, therefore, be hypothesised that even though I felt I'd been exhausted while on and struggling to escape the web, I still could be viewed by another organism as a source of yet further supply?

A journey of more than a 2,000 miles, at the end of the summer of 2004 would show whether this hypothesis proved true...