Paradox Point

          Who is the Shipbuilder?           Contra Plato             One of the main conceits of Plato’s dialogues is “the one who knows”, and who therefore should rule. He put this doctrine in the mouth of Socrates; an unlikely location, given Socrates’ disbelief that anyone knows anything – except of course Socrates, who at least knew that he knew nothing.           Though Socrates himself did not think himself the one who knows, some of his friends thought that of themselves; particularly Alcibiades the treasonous narcissist, and Critias the ruthless tyrant. They thought they should rule; but neither proved worthy to the task.           But who is the one who knows? Let us specify matters to clarify the question. Therefore imagine a ship being built, in some ancient G...

          The Limits of the Miraculous     Given a large enough sample size, improbable events are statistically likely. This plus the human mind’s tendency to read meaning into events makes inevitable the sporadic outbreak of the seemingly miraculous.   But the trouble with miracles is that the people demand two opposite things from them. A miracle must be uncommon, but it must also be reliable. A ritual that rarely works is of little value to the believer; but one that always works is no miracle at all. Any sufficiently reproducible magic is indistinguishable from technology.   In John Brunner’s fantasy novel, “The Traveler in Black”, the title character wryly noted that the sorcerers of his world are caught in a dilemma. Their spells are powered by chaos; but they must organize those spells to make use of them, and thus destroy the very chaos that gives them power.   So too with miracles. If the w...

          Pride’s Pravda   The difference between belief and Belief equals the difference between truth and Truth, which equals the difference between pravda and Pravda. The latter is for things called ‘faiths’, but which I call ‘Prides’, as in ‘mortal sin’ and ‘pack of apex feline predators’. Every religious faith tends to become a Pride, and every nationalism, and every ideology. It can be hard to tell the difference between a faith and a Pride. One rule of thumb is that a faith can laugh at itself, but a Pride dare not. Capital-B Belief in the Truth of one’s Pride makes sense, in a Stockholm-syndrome way. But it’s wise to leaven your heartfelt loyalty to your Pride’s Pravda with a bit of prudent hypocrisy, just in case the inevitable collapse happens on your watch.    

         The Passion of the Santa         Late at night, when everyone was asleep and dreaming, Sogwa got out of bed. She jumped to the floor and went to the crack between the bed and the wall.         Sogwa crept behind the bed. She knew that eight steps away from there was the door into dreamland. Her plan was to go from dreamland to the City That Only Kids Can See, in the Land of the New Light.         She planned to go there because of something Grandma Marge once said. Grandma Marge had said that a single ray of that New Light, if only you could bring it home, would dispel the darkness of the world’s mind.           Sogwa took eight steps to dreamland. Sogwa stepped to the left, then she stepped to the right. She took one step forward and one step back, at right angles to the previous two steps. Then sh...