Evolution 169

I don't think the last lines mean don't take a side, I think it means keep an open mind, don't become a fanatical follower of a certain view.

OK are you guys ready? So this song is about the Dopaminergic system in our brain, used to be called the "pleasure center" - hence the line "Welcome to the pleasure dome". I'm pretty sure he didn't know about it and yet he depicted reality as it is. It is the system used to motivate us to eat, have sex, and a bunch of other stuff(all addictions sprout from this sytem).

This system acts in a way that it controls our behavior, therefore making us run like "rats in this experiment", guided towards what will cause us pleasure. This system can easily get fucked up, and not to mention the fact that every single person being driven by his animal pleasure urges, is acting like an addict completely oblivious to how fanatic he gets about things, and going through life in an addict-like self deception and denial to the enviornment.

So the set your mind to one side, might mean one ideaology, because once you embrace it you can easily go into denial about it's logical plausability, or it might also mean a certain drug or certain behavior.

This system is there to rob us of free-will so that we survive(how much is eating really supposed to be a choice?). The only problem is that human kind has found infinite ways to short-circuit it. Hey even South Park made an episode on it (Freemium Isn't Free) If you want to learn more: www.dopamineproject.org

According to my delusioned mind, this lyrics is about this cruel experiment we usually call "life" and all the things we have been indoctrinated that we have to do during it's span.

But most of all, i think it's about how stupid it is.

"And one by one we crawl, and two by two Into the mouth of madness, we seek the perfect view "

What do you reckon the number 169 represents in the title?

I think the "169" refers to a college class number, like "Math 101", instead it's "Evolution 169". Maybe?

i think while he was writing he need it to rhyme so he just used 169 i guess lol.

K... it was buggin me so I did some quick research, and your all pretty much right, its about human evolution, and anthropoly... 169 actually was a course number or something, check this out if you want. http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/gurven/coop2.htm

This is such an amazing song. Exterus nailed it, except I'd add that the last line is pretty much saying believe in nothing, don't take a side.

About the 169 thing....I always thought it was supposed to be like a bible passage (like Evolution 16:9). There are a lot of biblical references here. "and two by two into the mouth of madness" is a reference to Jesus telling his disciples to preach the gospel two by two, for example. I think he's criticizing blind belief in general here. A lot of people blindly just believe evolution is true because they hear it from authority figures (scientists). He's telling us 'don't set your mind to one side' and admit that you don't really know.

Nah.... I think it's about stem-cell research. Evolution 169 represents this subject.