The Galactic Thinker — To the Planet of Clueless Scientists
"Dad?"
'Yes, kids?"
"You HAVE to take us to the Planet of Clueless Scientists."
"Whateverwhyforwhathouwhencethee?"
"We have questions to ask them... but Dad, a question for you..."
"Yes?"
"Aren't scientists EVERYWHERE clueless?"
"Yes."
"So what is so special about THIS planet?"
"Author? Would you like to chime in?"
"Every planet that exists in your universe exemplifies a different human failing. This one just happens to exemplify clueless scientists, which, quite frankly, irk me almost as much as clueless human Liberals."
"But Author!"
"What, kids?"
"Since ALL humans are still clueless, why pick on Liberals?"
"Because they are the new hypocritically self-important, self-centered, and elitist righteous."
"Though they are really the Wrongceous?"
"Nice word. Yes, since they are not offering effective solutions, not knowing what the real core problem is with their society and with others, that of philosophical cluelessness."
"So on this mission you are going to pick on clueless scientists, Dad?"
"No."
"Then what are you going to do, try to enlighten them?"
"No. I now know how futile that it."
"Then what are you going to do?"
"WE are going to pick on them, ridicule them, and try to enlighten them, and, if we can, we will include the clueless philosophers on the planet, too, which is ALL of them."
YAAAAAY!"
"Hahaha... well, pack your weapons... I mean bags..."
"What should we pack our bags with?"
"Implements of torture, preferably from Russian Gulags..."
"So we are throwing truth, justice, and human compassion right out the window like they did?"
"No, we will not become that desperate due to a fucked-up political system, or that depraved due to sinister decrees and practical expediency... so I was just kidding about the Gulag torture implements and their 52 methods like mosquito pits, stand-up holes, contortion racks, vises, beatings, and sleep denial for days and weeks on end; or hot pokers, rubber batons, feces punishment cells, and cheese graters with turpentine, or machine guns, except for one method..."
"Decrees?"
"Down from on high, which is where elitist Liberals want to be. The main two evil decrees were 1: treat the 'Enemies of the State' severely, and 2: reduce the prisoner population quickly, because The State did not have enough resources to support them."
"How did they reduce the prisoner Population quickly?"
"They quickly worked them to death. If you're going to kill them anyway, you might get some work out of them in the process. Two months was the norm before they were dead from exhaustion, starvation, and dehydration. Simple, efficient, and expedient and, they dared to say, ingenious! Work battalions received the worst of it. One wood cutting battalion had a huge daily quota, so in the dead of winter, 60 below zero, they'd be worked for 13 hours, then the three mile march back to the tents if they had that and not just a ditch, then time to eat dinner and breakfast since it was nearly morning. The food was a few ounces of bread and watery, tasteless gruel, and some hot water for tea if they were lucky, lucky meaning they would probably die during the upcoming work shift. Then the next shift of warm and well-fed guards would immediately march them out under gunpoint to work again for another extremely long day, repeating this until the battalion was dead, then they'd get handed another, with a 'job well done' from their frightening superiors, who reported to their frightening superiors, right on up to the Head Psychopath himself, Stalin. North Korea was modeled on Stalinist Russia by Russia, and the two Communist giants, China and Russia defends their bastard demon-child to this day."
"Stalin was that bad?"
"'Bad' was his middle name. His was a perpetual state of murder and thievery. He would murder his own people and steal from Capitalism just to keep up technologically. Besides needing to supply their labor death camps with a constant flow of Enemies of the State, there were purges of anyone who might not approve of Stalin's state..."
'Might?"
"Yes. He said that he knew who a traitor was before they did. There is the time when he gave a speech and left the room to applause. Well, since there was no one to tell them to stop applauding, what do you think happened?"
"They just stood there and kept applauding with fake enthusiasm?"
"Yes. After eleven minutes, imagine that if you can, a paper plant manager was the first to stop and sit. Everyone else quickly stopped. Now, what do you think happened to the paper plant manager?"
"Hmmm... let us guess... his bold independence was deemed a threat, so he was liquidated?"
“Yes, but not before getting some work out of him at a death work camp. Their best chance to get rid of Stalin was when Hitler betrayed him and invaded. Stalin told his leading sycophants that Lenin built the system and they fucked it up. He thought they were going to deservedly shoot him, but they put him back on the throne, similar to when the Lords Appellant put Richard II back on the throne, much to their regret, some fatal, some losing all of their inheritance, as Richard took revenge.”
“Why did they let Stalin live when they had him in their hands? Even he thought they were going to shoot him for his bumbling everything…”
“Their thinking was that Russia needed a strong leader, and ‘Stalin’ means ‘Steel’. Deeper, if you ask me, they were psychologically conditioned to serve Stalin. Addicted to it, even, so they, incredibly, feared change for the better more than the nightmares of Stalin.”
"Was that his birth name?"
"No, he gave it to himself."
"What a stroke of personal propaganda!"
"Much to the sad end of many millions of unsuspecting people, and the misery of many, many millions more. And then, just a few generations later, everyone forgets about it and repeats the same mistakes. Do you know what the overall lesson is, kids?
"What? Know history, or you are doomed to repeat it?"
"Yes, but I was thinking of one of the lessons of this small bit of history in particular..."
"What is it?"
"If your political leadership came to power in an underhanded, sneaky, murderous way, then watch out, because all is fair in love and war, and such leaders are at war with everyone around them."
"So wisdom comes from the blood of history, and it is usually forgotten and not studied?"
"Correct."
"So such leaders rise again and again in history who wouldn't think twice about exterminating anyone who disapproved with their psychopathic murderous and civilization-destroying rule?"
"That's right, so steer clear of such situations and don't get caught in them..."
"And join suitable foes?"
"Not if they were still clueless, too. Enlightening everyone is the only permanent solution. Everything else is just a social Band-Aid, and not a very good one."
"So which torture method are we keeping, Dad? Starving the cluelessly obstinate to death?"
"No."
"Beating and torturing them to death?"
"No."
"Working them to death?"
"No. Do you know what the Russians told family members when their kin was not heard from?"
"What?"
"The the kin was denied correspondence."
"Hahaha. Meaning dead?"
"Meaning dead."
"Sorry, Dad. But the creativity that they used in perpetuating their bureaucratic evil is humorous."
"The Russians had to routinely deceive and lie to keep their twisted system going."
"Dehydration?"
"Yes, by not giving them water and yet giving them salted food, like salted herring or anchovies. Not giving them water was fine, but not giving them food was against regulations, so the salted fish. It worked out, since the less water and food that you gave them, the less they had to go to the bathroom, which was a major pain for the guards. They just threw the fish in the dirt, or, if in an over-crowded cattle car, onto the dirty floor and the starving prisoners scrambled over them like animals. If they did get water, it was in one large cup, and the prisoners would fight, since they wanted the healthy ones to sip first, then the ones with scurvy, then the people with the other diseases."
"How did they not run out of prisoners?"
"They had several tricks. First they simply maintained their arrest quotas by arresting anyone and applying a tag to them from the State's criminal identification system similar to the more brutish nations on the Planet of Clueless Scientists. For example, here, ASA stands for 'Anti-State Agitator', and CRA stands for Counter-Revolutionary Activity', and SOE stands for 'Suspicion of Espionage', COPE means having contacts of potential espionage; SHE stands for 'Socially-Harmful Element', CA means 'Criminal Activity', MOF means 'Member of a Family that has someone who was arrested', CRT means having had 'Counter-revolutionary Thoughts. DAS means Dissemination of Anti-State Sentiments', SDE means 'Socially Dangerous Element'... and, best of all, you did not need a court system, since you weren't handing out a 'sentence' but an 'administrative penalty', and the standard was 25 years in prison, upped from 10."
"If you live that long..."
"Correct, and families and lovers were split up. Better to have a worker with no ties. They are more depressed, submissive, and fatalistic that way. Easier to manage. It gets back to practicality and expediency."
"What means did the Russians employ to get ever-more workers?"
"They would entice Russians who had moved to other countries back with lies, such as how their Mother Country needed them (it is nice to be needed so much, isn't it), and that they could keep all of their possessions..."
"Until the guards stole everything..."
"Yes. One family was dumped in a field with their white piano, then immediately herded onto a cattle car and shipped off to a work camp."
"Were they dressed for it?"
"No! And the guards took anything useful. They were not much better off. Fleas and bedbugs abounded. You had to boil your underwear in your soup to get the bedbugs out. You just had to improvise. One person made sandals out of pieces of rubber from a car tire and tied them to his feet with metal wire, which offered some protection from the frozen, rocky landscape, at least for a few work shifts longer than other less enterprising people."
"Are we going to be merciful and use a machine gun?"
"Not if we had to get as much work out of them as we could before they died."
"And scientists worked for such a state?"
"Yes, but it would be unfair to hold it against them, since they had guns to their heads by their psychopathic political leadership. Our point is that when everyone is enlightened by our philosophy, they will be on the same enlightened philosophical page, and those things will not happen, since our philosophy gives clear survival reasons for valuing others, i.e. the more enlightened minds that there are, the higher our odds of perpetuation our existences in this harsh and deadly universe."
"Broad and sane thinking, Dad, and compassionate, and not just on blind principle, which has failed.."
"Thank you."
"So what torture method are we going to use?"
"We will use psychological torture."
"Well then, we might as well add philosophical torture, since the attitudes of beings in this galaxy have been turned violently against even the word 'philosophy'."
"Oh? And what turned attitudes so against philosophy?"
"Philosophy did!"
"You mean by being so BAD at philosophy..."
"It has ALL been bad, Dad, at least at our level..."
"And what level is that, for the benefit of our new reader..."
"The level of Broader Survival..."
'"Which is?"
"That level of survival that our philosophy classifies separately from base animal needs, since 'Broader Survival' deals with broader issues of survival in this harsh and deadly universe, and addressing base animal needs, like food and shelter, does not, being more concerned with local/immediate issues."
"Thanks, kids. You have more than earned your spots on this mission. Saddle up! As John Wayne would give the order..."
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"Shuttle, prepare for a full complement of kids. We are going to the Planet of Clueless Scientists."
"THEE planet of clueless scientist, or ANY planet of clueless scientists, since clueless scientists are everywhere?"
"THEE planet, no less."
"What about its clueless philosophers?"
"If we can manage it..."
"There is a navigational problem, Dave..."
"Oh? What is it?"
"There are three galactic dust clouds between us and it."
"So... how dense are the clouds?"
"Dense enough where we will have to slow down to get through them safely...."
"Can't we just go around them?"
"No, that would take too long."
"So... what kind of time are we talking about?"
"Eons."
"Hmmm... drumming my fingers and pondering a solution... I am looking at YOU, Author..."
"OK. I will pick you up and pluck you down on the planet. Strap 'em in, Shuttle..."
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"What an advanced looking planet, Dad... technologically speaking, that is. What is that headed right at us?"
"A column of military tanks. Shall we?" FLAG FLAG
"What is it, civilians?"
"Are you the commander of this column?"
"What's it to ya?"
"I am the Galactic Thinker, and these are my kids."
"Very nice, but I do not have time for school field trips, Sir."
"No, these are my biological kids."
"ALL of them?"
"The wonders of test tube technology. They have a few quick questions for you, if you please... it is for the benefit of science..."
"Science, you say... but science benefits us, not the other way around..."
"We have philosophical questions that, along with the answers, will benefit the scientists..."
'WHAT? Philosophy? What a waste of time!"
"That is actually the wrong attitude to take with the philosophy that we have developed..."
"You and what charlatans?"
"That would be more like weak thinkers, but there are none here."
"This is your lucky day. I am going to indulge you, but make it quick. Any more delays and things can get deadly for our side..."
"Are you at war?"
"Yes, why?"
"Then your planet lacks and adequate philosophy, even as it progresses technologically and you received more powerful tanks. Do you agree?"
"Well, yes, now that you put it that way... so an adequate philosophy would prevent war?"
"Yes, and we have developed that adequate philosophy. The only problem remaining is getting it through the thick skulls of the clueless beings in this galaxy."
"Don't you see the problem with what you just described? The skulls that you are talking about are clueless, as you say, and if so, then they will not listen to you."
"You are describing fools, and not all who are clueless are fools – some actually have a vague, uneasy feeling that something is seriously wrong with current mentalities..."
"And their resultant attitudes..."
"Which affect decisions..."
"Which affect actions..."
"All of which comes from values."
"And philosophy gives us values."
"Thanks, kids. So philosophy is at the core of the problem?"
"Yes, and we have not only reached it, but we have solved the problem."
"How? Philosophically?"
"Yes, by solving the problem that was there – i.e. weak philosophies."
"So your philosophy is strong?"
"By comparison? Yes."
"You sound serious..."
"Is actually preventing war serious?"
"Yes, I would say that it is..."
"Then we are serious."
"Well, enjoy your mission here. I must resume mine. Good luck with the war thing... but don't put us out of work!"
"We have you covered."
"How, if you are going to end war, then it must also include the threat of war?"
"No, just war."
"So the threat will still be there? That does not sound like a solution!"
"It is. It is like this, Commander: Pursue peace, it is a noble endeavor, right?"
"I guess it is, yes..."
"But..."
"But?"
"But be armed to the teeth, just in case."
"Just in case?"
"Just in case the other side is not pursuing peace. Being armed to the teeth includes personnel preparedness, which would become your main job."
"Good thinking. Thanks, kids. And good lock. Carry on, little soldiers!"
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"Well, kids. We've had an encounter with a tank column... are you having second thoughts about coming?"
"NO!"
"I'll take that as a resounding no... well, let's find us some clueless scientists..."
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"Dad?"
"Yes?"
"What are we going to do when we find some clueless scientists?"
"Our usual two things..."
"Which are?"
"First, and least of all, we will test our philosophy against their current deficient mindsets."
"Then what?"
"Then we will try to enlighten them."
"How?"
"By explaining our philosophy by first giving them a quick summary, since their time is valuable."
"So we do not want to waste any of their precious, clueless time, is that it, Dad? Because if it is, it is not a smart way to think. They need to give US as much time as is required for us to permanently straighten-out their currently twisted minds..."
"You will have to explain what 'twisted' is, since a human asked our author that very question, and he did not have an elaborate answer prepared then..."
"Twisted, in the case of clueless scientists, is progressing technologically without progressing philosophically. It is doing science just for that sake of science, damn the consequences. It is doing science while hoping that someone sane will come along and use it in a sane way for a sane purpose. It is doing science as a specialist, hoping someone else has the morality thing covered. The problem with that is, as things stand today, NO ONE DOES, and we are not even asking the Ultimate Question of Life, which science does not ask or address or even investigate."
"What is the Ultimate Question of Life?"
"It is, 'Why bother?', but at its deepest level, as in, 'Why bother to do anything at all?'"
"Do we have the answer?"
"Yes, its first form was 'because consciousness is a good thing', meaning it is worth getting out of bed and working to secure and perpetuate it."
"Why should we bother?"
"First, any other thinking is a Philosophy of Death, and second, since we are endowed with it, we are Obligated to work for it, let the dead argue for their state of being. This Obligation, by the way, is the fall-back motivator when we weary of all lesser motivators."
"So... obligation. Nice perspective. Is that all that philosophy offers science? Morality and motivation?"
"No, it also offers the first step in science."
"Which is?"
"Speculation. The pitfall that philosophers have had is playing the IS GAME."
"What is the IS GAME?"
"Erroneously believing in your speculation."
"Before it is verified..."
"Yes, losing touch with the fact that it is still just speculation."
"Isn't that failure the cause of widespread acceptance of erroneous dogma?"
Yes."
"Good that you kids emphasized that no one has the morality thing covered, because no one does, as evidenced by continued war. Academic philosophers have FAILED them, and big time, considering the horrors of war and continued depravity for that matter, and for evidence, I present current wars and continued depravity as EXHIBITS A and B."
"Are there other exhibits?"
"Are there ever. Family, education, politics, their economies, religions, love, relationships, goals, and, in general, the Miseries of Cluelessness, which ABOUND here..."
"Thanks for not just vaguely saying 'yes', Dad. You actually did the mental work."
"Thanks for recognizing that, kids... hey, this sign says that this building is a research and development center. We may kill two birds with one stone here..."
"What do you mean, Dad?"
"I mean we will encounter scientists AND engineers. Scientists do the research, and engineers do the development..."
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"What do you want? We do not do class field trips here."
"We are not on a class field trip, and this are all my biological children, and they are my twelve android kids whom I am legally responsible for. I am the Galactic Thinker, and I am on a mission to your planet. Official business."
"Oh? Let's see your papers then... hmmm... impressive. Straight from the President, and Congress, and the Supreme Court.. and sixteen other heads of state and national governing bodies... ministries, a Parliament or two, even a few tin-pot dictators... HEY!"
"Hey, what?"
"Including our enemies?"
"Our message is broad. It applies to everyone on your planet, so at our level of thinking, we make no petty distinctions, which is what you as a species have been doing, and which is why you are at constant war, and which is what we are here to fix, hence the unusual mass common sanity that we have elicited from your current planet's leaders. Simple."
"Let me call my boss, just a moment... he says no, you cannot enter."
"Why, because we did not call ahead?"
"Just a second... yes."
"Then tell your boss to expect a call from the President in two minutes..."
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"OK. You may all enter. Is anyone expecting you?"
"No, sorry. We are here randomly. Get the Director down here. We will need a guide."
"Do you have security clearance?"
"Do I need to have the President make another call?"
"'Yes..."
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"Hello, Director."
"Hello, Mr. Thinker... and hello, kids. Sorry about the delay, I wanted to do a little research on you first..."
"We understand, it is only natural in a place like this, isn't it..."
"Yes, haha. Do a little 'research'. You have a sense of humor. Let's hope your seriousness is as impressive..."
"What we need to do here is ask a random sampling of your scientists and engineers questions, but not just any questions, and not technological questions..."
"So sensitive information is not an issue... then what kind of questions are you going to ask them?"
“Critical questions. Questions that they should have asked themselves already, but haven’t. Questions that need adequate answers. Enter us. Now ask me what field of inquiry these critical questions will come from…”
"What field of inquiry will your questions come from?"
"Philosophy."
"Of course. Philosophy."
"Yes."
"So you are here... to spread your philosophy?"
"The lack of a truly enlightened philosophy is the critical failure at your facility, and on your entire planet, so yes. What else could be more critical?"
"Better technology?"
"I think we should spend a little time with YOU, Director. May we?"
"Sure. Are you hungry? We can do this over lunch. Our expense... but..."
"But?"
"Are your kids well-heeled?"
"Ha! I've heard that term, from the British back on my home planet of Earth, in that only well-heeled kids get into prestigious learning institutions..."
"So British culture is not a Meritocracy like American culture is?"
"You know about Earth?"
"Yes, from a military perspective. This is a military R&D institute, after all."
"Our author has worked at an R&D institute, just so you know. As for the British, they apparently are not a Meritocracy... they value attitude more, it seems... which makes sense in a way... it is a different approach, if elitist, and Diversity is a good thing... though America has its failings, since corruption and nepotism detracts from pure meritocracy, even there..."
"So you are not here to impart better technology to us?"
"No, since how you use that technology depends on your life philosophy, and, as the wars indicate, is woefully lacking."
"So 'enter you'..."
"Yes."
"What would you like to know?"
"Your current overarching, life-guiding philosophy."
"What the hell is that?"
"You've just answered our question. You do not have one. Do you find your 'philosophy of life' ever-shifting?"
"Come to think of it, yes. Why?"
"Because it would not shift if you had OUR philosophy, which is a solid mental tool with which to perceive the world. A lens, if you will, made out of thoughts and ideas and concepts that have been tried and tested for years now. Ask us what its main value is..."
"What is its main value?"
"The Ultimate Value of Life."
"What is that?"
"Consciousness, though it has been refined to Enlightened Higher Consciousness. Now, just as a challenge, if you have doubts, try to deny it without using consciousness..."
"You have me there. So, 'consciousness'... and not 'life'?"
"No. Our view is that all life aspires to attain Enlightened Higher Consciousness, since that is the level that returns the best odds of survival in this harsh and deadly universe."
"Hmmm... that is BROAD thinking... the entire universe, you say?"
"Yes, which includes Infinity and Eternity."
"Broad, indeed... what about infinity and eternity? Eternal life?"
"No, that is not possible if eternity exists. The best we can do is to continuously struggle to continue to exist, perpetually."
"Won't that get boring?"
"No. There is a solution in nature for the ennui of eternity..."
"What is it?"
"The solution to the ennui of eternity is... can you give me a drumroll..."
DRUMMMMMMMMM
"Thank you. The solution is... Infinity."
"Oh. Well, that makes sense... so there are an infinite number of new things to encounter out there..."
"Not exactly..."
"Oh? Then infinity will fail us..."
"Maybe. I was referring to matter and energy..."
"What about them?"
"Just because nothingness is infinity, which is what infinity really is, it does not mean that there is an infinite amount of matter and energy in existence. It may be finite. For example, if the universe had a beginning, then it is not infinite... but fear not. There is so much out there that, if it is finite, we can cross that bridge when we get to it, since we have PLENTY to do in the meantime. Now ask me what that plenty to do should be..."
"What should that plenty to do be?"
"Addressing Broader Survival. Another way to describe it is to ever-increase our sphere of security in this infinite and eternal harsh and deadly universe. Now ask me why I say that we need to 'secure' our security..."
"Because it is not secure?"
"Thank you, yes. That is the assumption that this philosophy makes, based on Verified Knowledge, and, failing that, Statistical Probability based on Big Data, especially for the 'soft' sciences, which statistics and Big Data harden somewhat; and failing that, scientific and mathematical theories about reality that have stood up to a lot of scrutiny, and that, in some cases, have been successfully engineered to, which is a good litmus test for a theory's correctness or not, and, failing all of that, scholarly work, which gives us our best guesses about reality."
"That was a mouthful, Mr. Thinker."
"Yes, and it WOULD be sad if I had to use my mouth as a communication tool..."
"Why? What are you using, then?"
"We are literary characters in a short story. Say hello to our author... over there..."
"Hello... Author."
"Hello, Director."
"So, Director, as a literary character, I, the Galactic Thinker, communicate with the written word. That way I can not only address a larger audience in space than I can with my mouth, but also in time, i.e. I can communicate with those not yet born, those in the future. So, with my mouth, I would be addressing a far smaller audience, and one that would not hear a word that I was saying, since they would be thinking about my moving mouth instead!"
"But we have videos..."
"Yes, and they are filled with distractions, and they are SLOW compared to reading."
"We also have audio..."
"That also has too many distractions, and it is also slow."
A question, Mr. Thinker..."
"Yes?"
"Why doesn't the author just stop our wars?"
"Because the point of these stories are not to solve problems with supernatural powers, but with clear, deep, and broad, extended reasoning, which is one of the Strategies of Broader Survival, which, like the philosophy, will always be a work-in-progress."
"But it is solid..."
"More than any other philosophy."
"Sounds fair enough... but can that be done?"
"What?"
"Stop wars with clear, deep, and broad extended reasoning?"
"Hell yes! Right, kids?"
HELL YES!"
"Now ask me for an example of why science without a good guiding philosophy is a BAD thing... for example, ask me why we need a good life-guiding philosophy before we need warp drive for the vapidness of space..."
"Why do we need a good philosophy before warp drive?"
"Because, without a good overarching, life-guiding philosophy, which has not existed yet, enter us, you will be driving warped and vapid minds into space faster than the speed of light."
"Woah!"
"I will drop the mic now."
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"Well, kids, did you enjoy our mission?"
"HELL YES!"
"Hmm... do you think that was a good mental exercise?"
"HELL YES!"
"Do you think our philosophy stood up to the test?"
"HELL YES!"
"Hmmm... do you..."
"HELL YES!"
"NOW QUIT ACTING LIKE KIDS! On second thought, enjoy your childhood, it is fleeting... I actually lamented that when I was still a kid, noting that I was only going to be a kid for a short time compared to how long I was going to be old... don't worry, I will watch out for you until you reach a full measure of sanity."
"Gee, thanks, Dad."
"In case you are lacking enough, which, to your credits, I doubt, since you are all enlightened already."
"You will have to explain to our reader what that means specifically in our cases..."
"It means that you are all above destructive capriciousness, as well as destructively lashing out cluelessly at your clueless surroundings..."
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"Dad?"
"Yes, kids?"
"What if our philosophy actually ends war on that planet?"
"Then great, potentially enlightened minds will not be killed by war."
"What if they become enlightened with our philosophy?"
"Then they will make Broader Survival their #1 Top Priority in Life."
"Hahaha..."
"What?"
"You were redundant!"
"How so?"
"#1 and Top are the same thing, Dad."
"So they are... but I liked the extra emphasis..."
"So, Dad, should we explain to the reader why making Broader Survival Life's '#1 Top Priority' is critical to survival?"
"Sure. Something new and valuable may come from your effort..."
"It is like this, reader, broader issues of survival affect all of our prospects of survival, even at lower levels such as securing base animal needs like food and shelter. Now, since we live in advanced societies, we can easily secure our base animal needs, which means, instead of running around like clueless fools, which is what you and everyone on your planet is currently doing, you would instead turn your attention to broader issues of survival, which we now know exist courtesy of relatively recent advances in Verified Knowledge, the higher, broader portions of which are provided by science."
"Why did you mention science, and higher, broader portions, kids?"
"Because you do not need science to tell you that the door in front of you is real. You have your personal senses and reasoning faculties for that. But, in understanding the curvature of spacetime, for example (which should really be changetime you damn fool clueless physicists)…”
“That should be ‘spacechange’, kids!”
“What? Oh, right. That was a good example of the damage that emotions will do to communication, verbal or written, wasn’t it…”
“Yes.”
“Well, in understanding space-change, you need science. Your personal senses and reasoning faculties will fail you at that deep level of reality. First, you will not sense it, and second, not knowing it exists, you will fail to apply reason to it, such as using it in engineering or considering it when thinking about survival."
"Very good, kids. I think some new and valuable insights DID come of your effort..."
"What?"
"Mainly, a slightly different perspective on the limits of our personal senses and reasoning..."
"What, that we need science and its methodology, and extremely high mathematics, in order to understand the more complex aspects of reality, and not just if a door is real or not?"
"Yes, to understand the extremely deconstructed nature of the physical world that science provides."
"So more complex cause-effect relationships?"
"Yes. A handy thing to know when dealing with survival. Better than myth, armchair speculations, and elaborate systems of institutionalized make-believe."
"What about the social world?"
"That is an entirely different can of worms! Yet science does try to unravel the mysteries, even there..."
"But it has failed so far..."
"Yes, but a new science offers promise, Cognitive Science, as well as microbiology, not to mention chemistry and physics and, I suspect, a host of other disciplines... but come, this short story is getting too long. It is time that we return to our nest..."
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.
"Dad?"
"Yes?"
"When do you think we will fly away from our nest?"
"When your wings are strong enough..."
