An excerpt from James Burke’s The Day The Universe Changed from all the way back in 1985. Episode 1, The Way We Are.
“They started looking around to see what they could make of the place. To make life a shade better than dreadful. Now I know it sounds strange that I make such a big deal out of something that seems perfectly common sense, taking a practical view of things. But you have to remember that at the time, 3,000 years ago, the rest of the world was heavily into myths, gods, mysteries and other views of nature not designed to tell you very much about the world around, except that nature was none of your business. So when one of these Ionians, a guy called Thales, started asking practical questions about his environment, he was really breaking all the rules. Thales looked at nature with mechanisms in mind rather than magic.“
The Day The Universe Changed
“Mechanisms in mind rather than magic”.
James Burke was the Neil deGrasse Tyson of his time ! This is pure Scientism and his “religion, myth and superstition” gets thrown out. This is a logical error that throws out at least 50% of how the universe works. Call it Quantum Consciousness, call it Universal Consciousness, call it God, call it what you will but the rocks behind James in the video, that he can only see as inert and dead, without life or meaning, are in fact essentially conscious. Not conscious as in they’ll jump up and make you a cup of tea, but conscious as in they are part of a phenomena called the universe that is life from the get go.
That was the mistake. To challenge some of the more primitive aspects of superstition was admirable. But then Science made the mistake of throwing the whole thing out creating an imbalance that has essentially left us with the same problems of that “dreadful existence” that plagued our ancestors. Then it was terrible poverty for lack tractors. Now its computers and high tech plagued by a Pharma Cartel that has, up until now, justified its “high tech” pills with the stamp of “modern Science”. A modern science that has skirted around “the hard problem of consciousness” leaving their devotees believing that an AI LLM is somehow about to spring into self awareness.
Beyond these absurdities lies the hope that both sides will lay down their arms. The orthodox Scientists can put down their “pseudoscience” accusations and the other side can lay down their accusations of materialists being too pig headed and stubborn to look beyond what they know to be true (now I’m having trouble putting down accusations, see what I mean!). After all Science has taken us a long way from the world as it was 3000 years ago to a place that has, mostly, improved because of it.
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