Words&Dirt

“‘My Stupidity and my Skepticism are two sides of the same coin, and are of a very particular kind, which is carefully thought out.  John Locke was of the same mind, and set it down in words better than I ever could.  To go into it here would be half an hour’s digression; suffice it to say, that as a result of being near men like Newton and Leibniz, men like Locke and I are all too keenly aware of the limits of our own intellects, and the dullness of our own senses.  And not only ours but of most other people’s, too.  And as a result of studying Natural Philosophy we have got glimmerings of the immensity and complexity of the Universe that were not available to anyone until of late, and are known only to a few now.  The imbalance between the grand mysteries of the Universe as opposed to our own feeble faculties, leads us to set very modest expectations as to what we shall and shan’t be able to understand––and makes us passing suspicious of anyone who propounds dogma or seems to phant’sy he has got it all figured out.  Having said which I must concede that if anyone can figure it all out, it would be these two; and so I’ll listen, provided they confine their discussion to topics that are interesting.’

‘And what would you denominate interesting, Doctor Waterhouse?’ asked the Princess.

‘The two labyrinths.’

Caroline and Leibniz both smiled; Newton looked stormy.  ‘I do not know what this is meant to signify.’

‘Doctor Leibniz mentioned to me long ago that there are two sorts of intellectual labyrinths into which all thinking people are sooner or later drawn,’ said Caroline.  ‘One is the composition of the continuum, which is to say, what is matter made of, what’s the nature of space, et cetera.  The other is the problem of free will: Do we have a choice in what we do?  Which is like saying, do we have souls?’

‘I’ll agree with Baron von Leibniz at least to this point: these are interesting questions, and so many spend so much time thinking on them that the similitude of a labyrinth is well taken.’

Daniel reminded them, ‘The Princess has requested that this discussion be productive of a better System of the World.  I put it to you that the latter question––free will, and the spirit––is, as far as that goes, the more important.  Myself, I am comfortable with the notion that we are Machines made of Meat, that there’s no more free will in us than there is in a cuckoo-clock, and that the spirit, soul, or whatever you call it, is a færy-tale.  Many who study Natural Philosophy will arrive at the same conclusion, unless the two of you find a way of convincing them otherwise.'”

––The System of the World, by Neal Stephenson, pg. 678-9

“Don’t limit yourself right from the start; instead, think big, and don’t let the details of how you are going to do it affect your first drafts.”

––This is Not a Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming, by Dave Szulborski, loc. 1496