by dada » Mon Aug 29, 2016 6:31 pm
There's something to be said for curiosity though, isn't there?
Is wanting to know how the universe works simply driven by the desire to manipulate it? 'Master' it, gain power over it, case closed, the end?
I want to know what's at the bottom of the oceans, and in the farthest reaches of space. I personally would like to understand how the subatomic world does its thing. Chances are knowing these things won't get me anything but satisfied curiosity. Probably raise more questions. But I'd still like to know. I like to learn.
I'm learning how to run a seventy year old printing press, and everything that goes with that. I'm not doing it to have power over it. Or to put it on my resume. It doesn't win me cool points to be used as capital, it's not a turn on for the ladies (generally). Maybe I'll have an opportunity to apply this knowledge some other way in the future. And maybe not. Just figuring it out is enough for me.
And who really knows. Maybe in spite of all our pessimism, there will be some mind-blowing discoveries that turn the world that we take for granted upside down. Benefit the human species someday far in the future, provided we make it there.
My question is, are we ready for big positive changes. I don't think we are. Say someone figures out how to turn water from polluted to pure. So big industry can turn up the sludge dial. I don't know how I feel about that.
Or the singularity happens, but the disembodied AI in the sky is friendly, actually helpful. Be weird, right?
Maybe something even crazier, beyond science fiction. The scientists open a portal to the best of all possible worlds, do some sort of synchro-entaglement shit, and collapse all the other dimensions. Suddenly we're in the best of all possible worlds. Damn. What would we do? We'd probably figure out a way to fuck it up. I have faith in us.
Both his words and manner of speech seemed at first totally unfamiliar to me, and yet somehow they stirred memories - as an actor might be stirred by the forgotten lines of some role he had played far away and long ago.