In nearly every film on the animal kingdom, we are exposed to distressing images. A lion tears apart a live antelope. A praying mantis devours the head of her mate. A snake swallows a quaking rodent. Indeed, the feeding frenzy goes well beyond our planet. It is universal and comes in all sizes, from the microscopic to the galactic. Invisible plankton grazes on invisible algae in the same way massive black holes prey on unsuspecting stars. Nature seems an immense restaurant where every customer, sooner or later, ends as the main course. Why is it so?

We must keep in mind that Eternons assemble ever more complex structures with only one objective: building up  information content and consciousness. Nutrition is the way to do it efficiently. On Earth, every structure is a nutrient insofar as it serves to construct another structure. Particles are food for atoms. Atoms are food for crystals and organic molecules. Molecules are food for microorganisms and plants. Plants are food for animals.

Intelligently, organisms absorb essential molecules prepared within other organisms instead of always cooking them up from basic ingredients. Processed food saves time, energy, and space, just as in any household.  As the intricacy of a life form increases, so does its craving for ready made parts. Since it is almost impossible to get these parts without taking them from other organisms, structures have to prey on each other. How come Eternons have retained what seems a rather crude process to foster evolution? Well, let us envision what could be the alternatives.

We could imagine a universe where everyone would consume energy instead of matter. In the process, however, only the most basic Eternons would be transferred. Their contribution to higher structures would be minimal. The food chain would have only one rung and no real evolution would be possible.

We could imagine a universe where only basic chemicals would be ingested, with no life lost. But, as above, it would entail a lack of complex molecules for higher organisms.

We could imagine a universe where no living structure would be eaten before its natural death. But what exactly is a dead structure? Lively seeds abound in fruit. Lively molecules await in preserved food.

Eternons have set up predation as a process unsurpassed in efficiency to shuffle and enrich their structures. Besides, predation is far from blind killing. Eternons have been conservationists long before humans worried about endangered species. They have always known that eradicating the prey brings about the end of the predator.

Whether the sheep eats the grass, or the wolf eats the sheep, the same always happens: a structure cease to exist to become a nutrient for another. Food and death are inseparable. But the end of the structure is not the end of its Eternons. Life goes on. Although everyone keeps eating everyone, the great work of nature begins to look far more reasonable.