Tick Life

In 1934, philosopher Jakob von Uexküll published Streifzüge durch die Umwelten von Tieren und Menschen, translated in English as A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans, with A Theory of Meaning.

In his book, Uexküll explains how hungry ticks can survive for eighteen years without drinking a single drop of blood.

But more importantly, ticks spend their lives waiting atop of branches for a mammal to pass beneath them, which occurs very rarely. The philosopher argued that, however much a tick moment lasts for, however longer it is as compared to a human moment, it is unlikely that they can just wait for such a long time like that.

Therefore, he assumed that ticks must lie dormant for years, in the same way in which we sleep for hours, until a signal wakes them up. The signal that it's time to feed.

“The crucial point in this understanding of the metaphysical relevance of interactive digital media content is that it prompts humans to apply their cognitive and perceptual equipment as well as their subjectivity to a context that could not be encountered in their ordinary life” (Gualeni, 2011, p.5, cited in Backe, 2017, p. 42).

References

Backe, H. J. (2017). Within the Mainstream: An Ecocritical Framework for Digital Game History//Dentro del canon: Un marco ecocrítico para la historia del videojuego digital. Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, 8(2), 39-55.

Gualeni, S. (2011). What is it like to be a (digital) bat?. Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, Athens.

Von Uexküll, J. (2013). A foray into the worlds of animals and humans: With a theory of meaning (Vol. 12). U of Minnesota Press.