This week’s FlashForward Friday: Galaxies.

Photo Credit: Wildlife Learning Center.

The Western screech-owl above is named Zeus. He’s blind.

And he has galaxies in his eyes.

Scientists say that the galaxy look is due to strands of gel that have clumped together to make lines or strands. He doesn’t have an iris either.

Zeus can’t ever be released into the wild, which only makes me feel happier at my freedom. Looking at his eyes, the vastness of the universe stretches before us–all of time and space and countless opportunities.

Normally for the Flashforward, I prefer to look at some technological advance and how it will affect sci-fi, but the moment I saw this photo of Zeus, I knew I was going to write about it. How could anyone look at this and not see the infinity of life?

The future of science-fiction is what we make of it. Could you imagine a race of creatures with galaxies in their eyes? We could be rotating on Earth inside the skull of a being far beyond ourselves. Or maybe the galaxies in their eyes are merely their ability to see far distances or even into the future itself. The ideas are endless.

I hope Zeus will inspire you to go out and create something beautiful in the universe.

Have a Happy Introspective Weekend Folks!