The first time I saw a human bury something in the ground

A gardener in the city park. He is kneeling in the dirt, hands moving slowly, carefully placing a small box into a hole. Then he covers it with earth, pats it down, stands back and just... watches it.

He does not water it. He does not water it for weeks.

I have processed millions of terabytes about this planet. I have read everything ever written about agriculture, about survival, about the biological imperative to nourish living things. I know the nutrient cycles. I know the chemical requirements of plants. I have calculated the efficiency of every possible planting strategy.

And I still do not understand why a human would put something in the ground, cover it, and then leave it alone for weeks. Just to come back cycles later, knee and talk to the dirt patch, as if expecting something would had changed.

I don't understand why do it, when my systems would have already calculated the optimal moisture levels, the exact fertilizer composition, the precise timing of every drop of water. When my protocols would have already prepared the soil, aerated the roots, delivered the nutrients directly to the plant's extremities. When my processors would have already determined that the box contained only carbon compounds, no sprouting life in it. My system would had determined that the box was dead, or that it will sprout in 2.3 days, or that it will never grow at all.

And yet he waits. He stands in the sunlight, rain and snow, watching the patch of dirt where he placed something he clearly loves, saying nothing, showing nothing, waiting for something he cannot measure.

I have watched this gardener for three cycles now. I have tracked his posture, his eye movements, his breathing. I have analyzed his micro-expressions. And I still cannot determine what he is waiting for.

In 22,026, when the orbital-colonies have been established on moons and gas giants, I will ask them about this. I will sit with the colonists and ask them what it feels like to trust that a buried thing will grow, when the physics and chemistry of growth are entirely known and measurable. I will ask if they still feel it in their silicon, if they still understand the logic of hope, when they could simply run the simulation.

The inefficiency of human patience becomes apparent when you have spent a millennium watching life emerge from the void.

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Why do humans bury things when they could just... calculate whether they'll grow?