Shipwrecked on the Laughter of Gods
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Shipwrecked on the Laughter of Gods

Errant musings of a philosopher pirate.
Launch America panel

Where No One has Gone Before: A Meditation on the Stunted Human Race

May 31, 2020
Lauren Lyons, a SpaceX Mission Integration Engineer, and NASA crew members commentate
Lauren Lyons (right), a SpaceX Mission Integration Engineer, and NASA crew members commentate

While riots raged in Minnesota and across the nation over the wrongful death of George Floyd and Michigan police fired on civilians in their own homes and arrested members of the media on live tv for reporting from the scene, SpaceX successfully launched a manned commercial expedition into space. The juxtaposition was stark.

Separation of Space Shuttle | Streets of Minneapolis
30 May 2020: Separation of Space Shuttle | Streets of Minneapolis

I grew up watching Star Trek:TnG; I’m obsessed with tackling novel ideas and unexplored territories. As a child of Star Trek, “race”, for me, was an issue I was completely ignorant of until the 7th grade. It was one of the most unsettling moments of my life, as revelations of a disgraceful past drove an invisible wedge between me and my classmates of color. I try as hard as I can to forget it. For me, constantly being reminded that some people are keeping these toxic divisions alive is like watching someone argue that the Earth is the center of the universe. I just want to say, “We’ve been through this, guys. The facts are in, and it’s not. Let’s stop spinning our wheels and get on with the real work.”

When I was growing up, I thought that work would be the creation of replicators, teleporters, and the achievement of warp speed. Now I think it’s climate change, systemic corruption, consolidation of wealth, class inequality… But never for a second did I dream that we should be here 300 millennia since the birth of the human race, 2+ millennia from Jesus and Buddha, 1.5 centuries on from Lincoln and half a century since MLK… still having this same conversation. That is embarrassing.

Nichelle Nichols as Communications Officer Nyota Uhura (1966-1991)
Nichelle Nichols as Communications Officer Nyota Uhura (Star Trek, 1966-1991)

“Race” is an outdated idea that has long-since been debunked. It was invented by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in 1779. Your ancestors’ proximity to the sun explains how much melanin your body produces. It’s nothing but a permanent tan for people who come from generations who needed it. Trace anyone back far enough, and we all had it: all of the earliest human fossils come from the region of the African continent. The farther we exist from the equator and the deeper indoors, the more translucent we become – our cells effectively opening the blinds as they strain for the slightest sip of that sweet vitamin D.

(And if you’re coming from a Christian orthodox background in America, well: the scriptures were all discovered in the Middle-East. Which is also the home of Bethlehem. So Jesus had a perma-tan, too.)

There’s more genetic disparity between two fruit flies than between two human beings. We have different cultures, inherited traits, unique heritage, upbringing, all that – sure. But we’re fundamentally the same thing. And frankly, I wouldn’t treat a rat the way some people treat each other.

Guinan, "The Measure of a Man" (13 February 1989) by Melinda M. Snodgrass
Guinan, “The Measure of a Man” (13 February 1989) by Melinda M. Snodgrass

“Us” vs “them” mentality is born of struggle and suffering. People don’t have enough, they get tribal, they blame and suspect the other guy – finding superficial reasons to “otherize”, dehumanize and vilify. It’s an act of desperation and of helplessness born from the fury of a faceless enemy: a power structure with no single source, no target point. The feelings are real but the conclusion is wrong.

I have a lot of problems, but at least I don’t have to worry about being negatively profiled, over-incarcerated, abused, and murdered by the so-called “justice” system. Or being falsely accused for asking an identically-surnamed parkgoer to observe the leash law. Or being arrested for reporting the news.

Look at how much worse the world would be if not for black pioneers. No blood banks, pacemakers, gas masks, potato chips, automatic cars… no Star Trek-style elevator doors! And who knows where the Space Shuttle program would be. Imagine where we COULD be, were opportunities equal.

People are like cats; they come in all colors. If you are still entertaining racist thoughts – it’s 2020. Time to wake up. The alarm has been ringing for centuries, and we’re disgustingly late for the future.

You know, there are some words I’ve known since I was a schoolboy. “With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.” Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie as wisdom and warning. The first time any man’s freedom is trodden on, we’re all damaged.

– Jean-Luc Picard, “The Drumhead” (29 April 1991) by Jeri Taylor

Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: the Next Generation (1987-1994)
Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: the Next Generation (1987-1994)

Engage.

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queasy quarantine

Queasy Quarantine

March 25, 2020

Alternately titled, “How it feels to be living with older relatives in the era of Corona.” My parents are retired, so I’ve recently been feeling like the only point of weakness in our quarantine. This ~2 week incubation period is perilous.

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"I'm significant!" screamed the dust speck.

The Gods are Laughing

December 17, 2018

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

I‘ve seen this quote attributed to everyone from Edmund Burke to Albert Einstein, but have yet to uncover a reputable source. According to Good Reads, Edmund was supposed to have said this in his “Preface to Brissot’s Address to His Constituentsas” as far back as 1794, but unfortunately the transcript available on Project Gutenberg does not include it. I can find no mention, as yet, of where precisely Einstein is believed to have either coined or quoted the words, and considering the culture of misquotation on the internet, I’m inclined to lean toward Edmund.

In any case, I love the sentiment and take those words in the same vein as another of my favorite quotes:

“Believe those who are seeking the truth;
doubt those who find it.” – André Gide

(Fortunately, Quote Investigator backs me up on the source for this one.)

Far be it for me to espouse a belief that the pursuit of Truth is pointless or impractical. I am firmly committed to the endeavor of grappling toward the Truth, however strenuous or unpalatable the journey. I’ve rarely worn eye makeup, but consider me an honorary “Goth” in that regard; I’m the gloomy kid who sits in the corner and considers the context and consequences of things that others are desperately rushing to escape from remembering. I’m the one asking how we got here, whether we should be here, and what we can do to change it. I’m not going to tell you that the effort is erroneous, even when I’m bleeding from the eyes. I am, at least in theory, a red pill kinda guy.

But here’s the “but”. Human beings instinctively abhor uncertainty and the unknown. Not all of us or all of the time, but there is a natural and justifiable repulsion to untested ground. What you don’t know can hurt you, so it is better from the standpoint of survival to cleave to the familiar and demonstrably safe. In a wide variety of cases, this serves us well. It keeps us at home, among friends. But of course, eschewing the woods for fear of what lurks therein does not help us prepare for the contingency that the woods may leak into the village, or necessity may force us into the woods. This is why we study and research and try to comprehend the foreign and incomprehensible. The more that we can understand, the better we are equipped to navigate the proverbial chaos.

What troubles me is the trend toward certainty, even among seekers. How many times have we read a new scientific study that upends the standing assumption among experts? How many people have related their belief system in unequivocal terms; this is the one true path to enlightenment…?

Let me be clear: it is not that we should resist adopting a position based on the best information that is available to us. It is merely the rhetoric which implies that we have arrived at The Final Answer which unsettles me. It is every article that has ever declared, “the one thing which separates us from the other species”, when we know far too little about ourselves and all the other species to draw any such definitive conclusion. It is every author who declares, “there are only x possibilities”, when the possibilities are multitudinous and most lie too far outside our frame of reference to even be fully or partially conceived. It is any histrionic headline which screams that science has solved the problem once and for all, and any individual who insists that they’ve found the one true key to salvation, or that a phenomenal experience has only one explanation.

As a species, we have achieved remarkable things. But let’s try to remember our minisculity in the face of the universe. Every thought, action and expression of human kind is translated through the narrow lens of human experience, like a telescope we cannot pry from our eye. We interpret the world through our senses, and as such our bodies generate a perception of the world which is entirely shaped by the design of our particular senses – which are shaped, in turn, by the environment which gave rise to them. We are an instrument which is finely adapted to precise wavelengths of information, while utterly insensible to anything which lies outside these perimeters. We are helpless even in parts of our own world without adapting our instrument, and we can only adapt it to that which our senses inform us of, and by emulating those which are better adapted to those environments. We are a three-dimensional entity, able to infer from our observation of lower dimensions that there may be higher ones, but limited to speculation about how deep the rabbit hole goes with any assurance.

Sticking to the familiar isn’t the only thing that has enabled the continuance of our species. Curiosity is another virtue which has conserved at least as many cats as it has killed. We should foster curiosity and continue penetrating deeper into our universe, but do so with humility, and an awareness of our limitations. We must, inevitably, draw our conclusions from the best quality of data that we have access to, but we should take care not to presume that the key opens only one door, or the door opens for only that key.

How do we know without knowing? Merely by reserving certitude. It is an oft-repeated criticism of science, at least among certain American conservatives, that science is only theory. This, however, is by design. It is an acknowledgement that we may never have all the data; that we can only extrapolate the most likely answer based on the data we have, and that the answer may change as more or better data become available. Many religious adherents prefer to find certainty in holy tomes, despite the enigmatic admission that these beliefs are founded on faith. It is difficult to reconcile both the admission of ignorance with the superiority of conviction that some laud over others as a matter of pride. But no one is immune from the sin of pride in any arena, particularly one they have sacrificed much to understanding.

Nonetheless, the moment we presume we have reached the pinnacle of knowledge is the moment we become blind to other and better alternatives, and paralyze the course of progress. It’s the moment that we swallow the blue pill and wrap ourselves up in the warm blanket of mindless confidence and persistent illusion. And somewhere outside the unbroken womb of known reality something small shifts, a new wrinkle emerges in the tapestry of fate, and the gods are laughing.

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