Mary Shelley's nightmare (Frankenstein) was born of the then Darwinist pomposity that suggested that the "spark" that gives life is none too far away. Today Sci-Fi has recognised the impossibility of trying to play God in those respects, and yet even more pompously advocates a terra-forming gaseous concoction of methane, nitrogen and oxygen as a means of creating the basis for life (Star Trek & the last episode of Dr. Who).
But even then Mary Shelley's work differs from the art form of the now because it can and does remind us of certain wonders of the World and certain enigmas that we hold explained... For example...
To Wonder.
"There, Margaret, the sun is forever visible, its broad disk just skirting the horizon and diffusing a perpetual splendour. . .
What may not be expected in a country of eternal light?
I may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle."
There the hero ( ? cos l haven't read that far yet, lol!) was intent on discovering the fabled north-east passage near the Pole and ascertaining the secret of the magnet.
This passage shook me back down the years to school science.
The Secrets of Magnets.
So long ago I had been taught that the secrets of the magnet HAD been explained.
I had "learnt" that to make a magnet, one needed a fresh piece of iron and another magnet. And that all you had to do was to stroke the magnet over the virgin iron.
And we "learnt" that such stroking aligned all of a multitude of smaller magnets contained within the metal so that all their Norths pointed North and all of their Souths pointed South, in concordance with the linear stroking action of the first magnet.
But we never asked... And were never made to Ask or Wonder... (Until I read this masterly work).
1. Where the first magnet came from? (The proverbial Lode Stone, the mother of all magnets.)
2. How there could be such alignment when we could perceive no movement?
3. And what actually causes the magnet/ compass to point Northwards?
When you actually think about it, these things are not explained.
Explaining AWAY.
However they are explained away by allegory; by the backwards and forwards movement of reasoning from what we can see, into what we cannot.
So we examine how magnets and iron behave on our human scale and suppose it to be likewise on a truly global scale. And then we hold that we have done our job, are fully rational creatures and are masters of the Universe.
The theory of magnets is consistent, in that it assumes that reasonable movement from known to unknown.
"What" "We" "Know"?
So we know that if we cut a magnet into a thousand pieces, we get a thousand other magnets, each with their own Norths and Souths.
And we know that if we file a virgin piece of iron to make iron fillings, that these when they are placed near a magnet behave magnetically and when they are placed on a piece of paper trace a "field".
And so we reasonably, and by extension, believe the Earth and its core produce one big magnetic field. That there is no source that pulls the needle, well at least not at the North Pole anyway. If there is a source then it would be at the centre of our Earth.
To Marvel.
But even if that is so, should we still not marvel whenever we see a needle move?
Because we have not explained anything really. All we have done is observed and related one observation to another.
We have not explained the WHYs of the magnet! Only the Whats and the Whens:
All We Know is What happens When...
- We cut a magnet
- We place iron fillings near a magnet
Period. And that is the sum total of our Knowledge.
The Secrets of the Magnet continue to remain elusive.
Because--
Fundamental Questions
All of the fundamental questions that we can ask about our World, being What When Who How & Why, are all relational questions. The first three ask for a snapshot, an instance in time, and the last two seek to connect those instances to enable us to see causal patterns. Of all of them it is "Why" when it is applied to both man & non-man that implies something BEYOND How (a mechanism); it implies a HIDDEN something, whether it be motive or a greater plan!
And once we admit that, then the reality of a hidden World becomes a given.
Once a Why is admitted then reality can never be solely confined to whats, whens, whos and even hows!
"Why" does not however presuppose an irrational hidden World.
Science, just another Story :-)
Furthermore even after our Science, and before our contemplation into what we have achieved, should we not marvel, that such things can be "related to" and that we can do "the relating"?
And that we can construct a story, a causal map of our reality. Is that not what every theory is, just another story?
Except Science is a story with teeth. Teeth chop, rip/tear and grind. Science gives us the questions to probe and ask. And it is this probing that causes us to ask those vital questions that are the body and soul of technology.
Body & Soul, Science & Technology.
Contrarily, the answer to those questions give us little beyond the impetus to ask still more questions. However it is the search for those answers that gives us technology.
Al-Qur'an.
And that is why God in the Qur'an testifies that HE has made the Universe subservient to us. Because it is HE who has given us 2 eyes and a mouth, and a reasoning mind... That we might see, question and "know"!
Shafi
Reading Frankenstein and shivering in my boots.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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