The Confusion and the Foggy View

Preamble to the Myth


At the age of 16 I was convinced that I knew everything. By 22 I had realized that I was not superhuman, but I still thought I was at the top of the world. By the late 20s I was no longer convinced of my infallibility. By the late 30s I was an ignorant, fragile and insignificant mortal, and now, almost a decade later, I'm ever more so as each day passes.

The purpose of citing my personal example was to emphasize that this process of humility is not just an individual phenomenon, but also a collective one. As we continue to learn more, we increasingly realize that we know less about the universe and ourselves than we previously imagined. Perhaps we are approaching adulthood as a species.

As the fables of one's childhood lose their magical hold over the imagination upon entering adolescence when linear logic dominates ones thought patterns, one tends to shatter all the handed down icons because one regards them as superfluous. Such is the arrogance of youth. However, upon entering adulthood one rediscovers the allegoric beauty and simplistic wisdom of the fables of childhood and gives them new meaning and reverence.

We have come almost a full circle. But it is not really a closed circle. It is like a spiral that goes upwards. As we make a full round and come to the starting point we are actually at a higher plane than we were at the beginning. We have discarded the fables of our childhood, but we have also learnt that our knowledge has severe limitations. The arrogant attitude of the 19th century adolescent scientific mind-set is gradually giving way to more humility and a mature outlook of the universe where we are willing to fathom the unfathomable.

The Scientific Mythology


Every society has its own unique cocktail of ideologies, value systems and mythologies that reflect the collective wisdom of the population in question. Thus what was the wrath of Thor to the Vikings is merely a thunderstorm to today's Weather Channel viewers.

As our experience and tools of observation become refined we probe deeper and deeper into the cosmic enigmas. At the end of the second millennium our technological society has its own very unique and attractive mythologies.

If, at least for the sake of argument, we keep divinity out of the loop, it will still follow that the Universe seems to obey certain Laws of Nature. Whence cometh such Laws is neither explained nor pondered. Be that as it may, these Laws are ostensibly (i) consistent, (ii) universal and, (iii) ultimately, discernible. This is the crux of today's scientific mythology.

We have pieced together a plausible concept of our origins (though it is far from comprehensive and, in the end, no matter how scientific, it is essentially a mythology).

The central theme of the story says that simple constituents - subatomic particles, for example - can somehow (but we do not know HOW) get organized into higher states of complexity until they transform into other items - such as various elements - that exist as distinct entities. Simple hydrogen atoms, we learn, are fused to form helium in the hearts of small to medium stars. In larger stars more complex stable elements get formed. Simple constituents get organized to a higher level of complexity and thus something new is created.

Then after the big stars turn nova and splatter all these elements around we get a rich and diverse kind of cosmic dust. Eventually, in this neck of the cosmic woods carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen (and a few other mischief mongers), following elementary Laws, get organized into a self-replicating energy transference cycle. Bingo, you have biological life. Again simple constituents get organized to yet a higher level of complexity creating a new phenomenon.

Likewise, the next higher plane of organizational complexity yields animal life and a rudimentary nervous system. There was a time, the scientific myths tell us, when light perception was unknown to the then animal life-forms. Then a photon chemoreceptor is somehow (and we really do not know HOW) linked up to the rudimentary nervous system and information about the existence of light was perceived. Since that must have conferred competitive advantage, soon (within a few million years) eyes became common place. Alongside with that, we are also told of the evolution of complex nervous systems. Here again the web of existence is knitted into an ever more multifarious matrix. Simplicity folds layers upon itself and becomes intricate.

The next great leap in the story is abstract thought. What is its form? We have agreed to believe that it is electrochemical signals organized in intricately complex patterns. Another upward spiral in the cosmic scheme of organizational complexity. Simpler entities reorganizing themselves as building blocks of the next higher level of phenomena. As an analogy imagine the vast binary arrays of zero's and one's that makes up the Star Wars software and multiply that complexity a million times.

The Reckless Speculation


Let us imagine that in much the same manner there may exist, or may come into existence at some point, extra-corporeal, self-sustaining, information systems. For lack of a better term, call them souls.

Of course, this is all idle speculation for the depth of our ignorance is stupendous. We do not even understand the very nature of the force of gravity (is it particulate in form or is it electromagnetic?). Yet we deal with it daily and aspire to undertake interstellar travel. When there was no vacuum tube or transistor there was no way to perceive radio waves. But radio waves still existed. There are vast wonders that the cosmos holds in secret. It is not reasonable to rule out the outlandish and the unfathomable. What we do know already is outlandish enough. We must never be stubborn in our refusal to entertain the fantastic. The natives of H. G. Wells' "Country of the Blind" could never know of the existence of the moon or the stars. Likewise, we may never know the spirit world if it exists.

Why even claim that there is no possibility of the existence of some wave-forms which can transfer information at velocities exceeding light? Would such (imaginary) wave form fit our concept of psychic perception? We don't know. And ultimately, that is our only reasonable answer: WE DON'T KNOW. As A. J. Ayer would say, it is a tautology: unknowable, therefore irrelevent.