Читать книгу The Davey Dialogues - An Exploration of the Scientific Foundations of Human Culture - John C. Madden - Страница 9

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert this or that problem will never be solved by science.

CHARLES DARWIN, Introduction, The Descent of Man, 1871

– Do you really want me to start out with a discussion of creation myths?

It was the beginning of our first session, only a week after my first encounter with the alien voice. I was feeling edgy and insecure, and was still questioning myself on the wisdom of taking on the project that I then thought of as its education. But I was fairly certain that a discussion of creation myths was not a promising place to start our dialogue.

– Please yourself. How you choose to begin our conversation is of great interest to me.

This, I came to understand, was a typical remark. It was at once accommodating and very judgmental.

But I am getting ahead of myself already. I must first tell you how I encountered this strange disembodied voice.

My name is Peter Alexander. I am a retired consultant, latterly employed by companies and governments to provide advice about scientific and technical research. I live in Vancouver, BC, with my wife Margaret. Our two boys have long since left home and are helping to bring up families of their own.

Every once in a while, I like to go hiking by myself. I proceed at my own pace, take any detours I want, and use the combination of exercise and quietude to carry out some uninterrupted thinking.

About two years ago, on just such a hike, I reached a prime viewpoint near the summit of Hollyburn Mountain, one of several mountains that crowd Vancouver from the north. It was time for lunch, so I sat down on a rocky knoll and extracted a special old cheddar cheese sandwich from my backpack. This particular cheddar is a favourite of mine.

It was what tourist guides call “a glorious autumn day”. The sun’s warmth was perfectly moderated by a light breeze from the west as I looked down on the city below me. There was a clear view of the Strait of Georgia to the west and south, its mixture of sky-blue water infused with gyres of muddy-brown water from the Fraser River. Below me, a large blue and white ship stacked high with multicoloured containers was slipping under the Lions Gate Bridge into Vancouver Harbour, likely loaded with industrial goods from China destined for transport by rail to the US Midwest.

I forget what I was thinking. Perhaps I was simply drinking in the view, the fresh air and the sunshine.

I was startled from my reverie by a voice out of nowhere. It was singing an old (but once very popular) song called “Zip-A-Dee Doo Dah”. It was a cultured and musical baritone voice that I heard.

“Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah”, the voice intoned and then added another round of Zip-A-Dee nonsense before going on to observe just what I was thinking, namely that it was a wonderful day and that there was “plenty of sunshine”, all (or almost all) of which seemed to be “comin’ my way”.

Not very inspiring words, but the tune is lively and pleasant, and it certainly got my attention. However something was not quite right with the singing voice. It was masculine, clear and tuneful, but it had a hint of a hollow ring to it.

I turned to look for the singer, but there was no one to be seen. What is more, the voice sounded as though it came from someone sitting beside me. I don’t believe in ghosts or goblins, but I do clearly remember feeling disconcerted.

Soon after the song came to an end, the voice said:

– Hello there. I’m visiting from another universe, and I’m trying to understand yours a bit better. I am particularly interested in you humans, why you congregate the way you do, and why you do some of the peculiar things you do. Would you be able to help me? If so, perhaps we could start with creation myths.

Obviously there were just a few things wrong. As I write these words, cosmologists are by no means agreed that there is another universe completely separate and different from the one they explore so assiduously with telescopes, satellites and ingenious instruments. And those who do think there are other universes believe it extremely unlikely, in fact virtually impossible, that there could be any communication between one universe and another. [See Dialogue 6 for an elaboration on this subject.]

I heard myself speaking.

– You must be kidding! No one in his or her right mind would ask such questions, unannounced, of a total stranger. Anyway, as you likely know, they are complicated questions. If you were to ask a hundred people, you would get a hundred different answers. You’re wasting your time with me and probably with anyone else you may decide to ask. In any case, you cannot be from another universe. So, who or what are you?

– Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! I was a little sudden. Abrupt, you might even say. You are correct that I cannot sit beside you in person, but do your theoretical physicists really say that my voice cannot be heard in your universe?

– Well, I’m not actually sure.

– I thought not.

The voice sat silent for what seemed to be quite a while. Eventually, it said:

– By the way, I enjoy listening to your grandchildren.

– You just keep my grandchildren out of this!

I spoke as emphatically as I could. Now it really had my attention. This was unnerving to say the least. My grandchildren ranged in age from one to nine. I certainly did not want to have them haunted by a personless voice whose intentions were not at all clear.

Up to that point, I had been idly wondering if I was hallucinating. Perhaps the combination of cheese sandwich and cranberry juice had affected my brain. Even if the voice was real, I wondered whether I really cared enough to tolerate this nagging intrusion on my solitude any longer. The voice soothed:

– Sorry again! I won’t bother your grandchildren. I was just thinking though that what I want to learn from you is likely just the kind of information you have been preparing for your grandchildren. Please don’t be too surprised. While I cannot actually see or read anything, my hearing is close to being perfect. I learnt about you by listening to a couple of your friends talking about you. One of them thought you would never finish the book you are writing. The way one of them described the proposed book, I thought it sounded interesting, so here I am. I could perhaps help you by providing just the incentive you need to finish it. I might even help you to draw sensible conclusions!

For my part, I just want to understand how you came into being, and just what motivates human behaviour. There is a lot of history to it, I know, but there does not seem to be a whole heap of agreement on the facts amongst the lot of you. I could use your help to figure it all out!

– Why me? I will grant you that I am writing a book for my grandchildren, but there must be thousands of others like me.

– Of course you’re right. Most of the more than seven billion people currently on Earth share both your curiosity and your love of grandchildren – provided they live long enough to get to know them. Indeed I am already in touch with several thousand others. Since your society has not yet reached any consensus on some important parts of your history, I am left with little option but to talk to quite a few of you humans in order to understand your origins and motivations. Even then I may fail, since none of you may be right, but there doesn’t seem to be much choice! Especially in your case, I see some advantages to both of us from such consultations.

Why “especially in my case”, I wondered.

To add to my bewilderment, I didn’t really believe yet that the voice came from another universe – so what was it, and why was it lying? I realized I needed time to think, so I told it to contact me in a few days’ time if it was still interested.

Silence was restored, but it was not the same silence as before. I got up and paced about. At some point, I set off back down the mountain, though I have no recollection of the return journey, as my brain and I tried to come to grips with this strange experience.

Somehow I knew that ultimately I would accede to the voice’s request. At the time I was still struggling to connect the pieces that illuminate the puzzle of human existence into a semblance of order, both for myself and for my grandchildren. Wherever the voice came from, and whatever it was, it looked as though it could be the trigger to force me to get serious about laying out my version of the salient facts in as coherent and compelling a manner as I could muster. And after all, just maybe it could help me. It certainly seemed to think it could.

Four days later, as I was at my desk answering e-mail and sipping a mid-morning hot chocolate, the voice returned.

– So glad you agreed to help me. When can we start?

– Just you wait a darned minute! There are a few things I need to know before we begin.

I was nettled that it had read my mind so easily. I sensed, but of course did not actually see, a condescending smile on the faceless voice.

– Fire away, but there is not much I can tell you about our universe just yet. Nor would it help you much if I could tell you. You humans don’t seem to understand your own universe all that well. Mine is very different.

– First of all, I still don’t believe you are from another universe. Just exactly what are you?

– Actually, your experts are simply mistaken. I do inhabit another universe. Believe me, this is not the only miscalculation your cosmologists have made.

– Whether or not what you say is true, I need to know more about you. How much do you already know about me? Can you read my mind? Do you know the history of humankind as well as my history?

– All good questions. Let me put your mind at rest. There is not much more to tell about me. Just as you cannot see me, I cannot see you. By a strange coincidence of nature, some aspects of our physics are the same as yours. This means that I can actually hear all the sounds made on your Earth, and, after careful study, I can attribute a source to each sound. I have made a study of all the noise emanating from human beings for what to you will seem like a long time, but for me is a very reasonable space of time. This has allowed me to decode and understand all languages currently spoken on Earth. Having heard your friends talk about you, and then tracked you down, I have been listening in on your conversations.

I could feel the blood rush to my face, as I tried to recall what I might have said that was embarrassing.

– Of course, as I have already told you, I am also holding conversations with others who share your interests.

– So, what would happen to your project if we all got together and gave you the same story?

I heard a hollow laugh.

– Not much chance of that. First of all, you have to find the others, none of whom so far has admitted to anyone that they are talking with me – and almost no one would believe them if they did. Secondly, you would all have to agree on what to tell me. Of course, I would be listening in on your conversation, and, in any case, I can assure you that there would be precious little agreement in the group of individualists I am talking to! You would be as intransigent as any of them.

I bristled at this.

– Nonsense! I don’t read a lot just so I can confirm what I now believe!

– True to a degree, but you are not really very tolerant of views you consider to be unscientific nonsense, are you?

Like most people, I rather flatter myself that I am very tolerant of the views of others, perhaps especially their religious views. I tried to think back on past conversations that might have led the disembodied voice to draw such a conclusion but gave up when the voice said it would like to get started, and could I please tell it how I planned to proceed.

I was ready for the request.

– Before we begin, Mr. Voice From Afar, what can you say or do to prove to me that you are real and not just a sign that I am going mad?

– Yet another doubting Thomas, as some of you would say! About half the people I talk to ask that question. The rest would probably like to ask but are afraid to. Well, the short answer is that there is likely not much I can do to convince you I am real. I have no power to influence events in your universe, except insofar as I might tell you something that would cause you to do something you might not otherwise have done. That being the case, I have to be pretty sure I understand what is going on before I give any advice!

But if you think about it a little, and especially if you decide to continue our discussion, you will likely come to the conclusion that your own mind would be incapable of inventing our discussion. If you think I may be the voice of another human sending messages to you by extra-sensory perception (as some of my other human contacts were inclined to do), you will then have to decide if any other human might reasonably come up with a story anything like what I am going to tell you, and, if you thought they might do so, you should then wonder why they would go to all that trouble.

– Okay, then you won’t mind if I ask you a few questions, like: “Who is your best friend? And what does he or she look like?” “Do you have a sun and moon where you live?” “Do you have literature and art and music?” “Do you fall in love?” “What do you eat? And where does your energy come from?” “Do your children go to sch . . .”

– Wait! Wait! Wait! I can answer most of these questions for you eventually, but not now. Any answer I give you now will be just as strange and incredible to you as what you know of me already.

Isn’t it enough for you to know that what you tell me may have an important influence in helping me to understand my universe? When we know each other better, you will learn quite a bit about me, I promise you.

This was the sort of reply I had expected to receive. In thinking about it after my first encounter with the voice, I had concluded that if I were in its position, visiting another unfamiliar universe, I, too, would not want to disclose very much at first, for fear that my universe could be harmed as a result. I had also concluded that there was not much to be lost from proceeding to the next stage. But the next stage, I had vowed to myself, would be a small step.

– All right, let’s proceed. You’ll have to give me a week or ten days to prepare, and then I will tell you all I know about creation myths. It will take me about an hour. Is that too long and drawn out for you?

There was silence. At length it spoke.

– This time it is you who must be kidding! Make me a break! Your proposal does not begin to provide enough information to explain your wars, your partisanship, your duplicity, your nobility, your avarice and cruelty, your thirst for knowledge or your literature. Yes, your literature, as well. Why do humans write and read books? Did Darwin provide an explanation for that?

Please don’t imagine that I am in a hurry. Time is a feature of your universe, and for you humans I know it can seem to pass quickly. I have no reason to be in a hurry. How often do you think I have heard you expound on Shakespeare and on your revered scientists and philosophers, on the properties of the brain and of DNA, on the nature of your universe and on exciting research on the real sources of human happiness. Are you going to try to tell me that these subjects are not relevant to an understanding of mankind? I think not!

Remember that I cannot read your books and journals; I can only listen in on conversations. Most of these don’t lead anywhere. As often as not, at least one of the speakers is enjoying herself or himself, while the others are too busy thinking about what to say next to listen to what the first speaker says. As a result I am taking in a jumble of information, most of it outdated and repetitive. I need a framework to fit it all into – but useful frameworks are not just hastily assembled beams leaning against each other at odd angles, they are carefully built segments of a larger structure whose overall form is determined by the assemblage of its parts so as to provide the backbone of a living functional structure.

– Hold on! I don’t need a lecture on a framework for understanding ourselves. What you propose is a major task. Even if I were to agree to proceed as you wish, what good would it do you? If you really are from another universe, it will almost certainly be useless – unless you have some evil designs on our universe. I have better ways of spending my time than talking to you. Please just go away and talk to some of the other thousands you claim to be conversing with.

An unworldly strangled sound filled the room, a sound straight from Hollywood. I had an almost uncontrollable urge to laugh at the incongruity of it all. But somehow the mid-ranges of the sound conveyed feelings of anguish and pathos, so I sat motionless waiting for the sound to cease.

– I suppose I should not be surprised to be so totally misunderstood.

The voice paused and then continued, quiet but firm.

– It is likely impossible for you to understand, but our universe has suffered an unimaginable tragedy. A whole species has vanished. Quite gone. This was a species I loved. Its disappearance has caused me great sorrow and great difficulty. I cannot describe to you just how serious this situation is. It never ever occurred to me that such a catastrophe could happen.

Although you humans are not really at all like my vanished, once-noble friends, there are some resemblances. I am hoping that by understanding you better I may come upon some strategy for bringing my friends back from nothingness.

Incredible, I thought, a part of me profoundly moved, and another part just as profoundly suspicious.

– I already know how difficult it is for you humans to believe what I say. That is why I really did not want to mention my friends. Even if you don’t entirely believe me, I hope you will find it worthwhile from your own point of view to engage in a prolonged conversation with me. I flatter myself that you will be rewarded with some important insights into your own condition.

I beg you therefore to tell me about the way your species has gained the understanding it now has of itself and its surroundings. I need to understand how the gradually increasing knowledge about your surroundings and yourselves has affected your behaviour and your beliefs. Frankly, I fear that you humans will suffer a fate similar to that of my friends. I don’t know why I should care, but for some reason that I don’t understand, I do. My loss in my universe is beyond measure. I despair more than a little that you might also disappear from your universe.

So, please agree to continue our dialogue in a meaningful way. You will not regret it! I will come back to learn your decision next week.

Silence again . . . this time I somehow knew I was alone with my thoughts.

The voice had gone even before I could correct one of its very rare mistakes in the use of English. “Make me a break” touched my funny bone. Could the disembodied voice have been mistranslating from another language? It is after all only human to make such an error. But the voice was decidedly not human. Perhaps, I thought, it made the error deliberately to help spare any embarrassment I might feel over its dismissal of my proposal. I shall likely never know for certain.

After a lot of soul searching, I eventually decided to continue with my dialogue with the disembodied voice. In hindsight I shudder to think that I might easily have chosen not to proceed.

So it was that our ten month series of dialogues began.

My immediate problem was to decide how best to begin the real task. The voice wanted to know about creation myths! How could I sensibly convey the long march of humanity through a bewildering variety of gods, goddesses, demons, devils and prophets?

After several, long, solitary walks, I finally put together a starting strategy.