Negative Space: creatures

Man at present believes that his interest lies in making machines breed always better and better; he has already succeeded in effecting much that at one time appeared impossible, and there seem no limits to the results of accumulated improvements. It must always be remembered that man’s body is what it is through having been moulded into its present shape by the changes of many millions of years, but that his organisation never advanced with anything like the rapidity with which that of the machines is advancing. — Samuel Butler (Erewhon)