The older I get, the more I appreciate the movie 2010. You space movie fans out there might remember that 2010 was the mid-80s sequel to Stanley Kubric’s classic 2001. In 2010, a Russian space ship blasts off for Jupiter, as to find out just what all the weirdness was about between Discovery and HAL 9000 (which are still orbiting Jupiter at the start of 2010). Well, the joint Russian-American crew gets out to the big gas planet and figures things out, more or less, after an encounter with an “alien force” being channeled through David Bowman (the astronaut who was killed by HAL in 2001). But there isn’t enough fuel left between Discovery and the Russian ship to get everything back to Earth. So they have to improvise, using Discovery and HAL as a booster stage.
Yea, the older you get, the more you realize that we’ve only got so much fuel, so to speak. We can only get so much done. Are you expecting me to add the usual clause here, i.e. “so make the best of it” ?? Nope, I ain’t gonna say that. Because who knows what the best really is. We’re here to learn to appreciate that question, but not really to figure out the answer. By the time we would figure it out anyway, it’s probably too late! All we can do is hold out hope that there is something more than what we can sense, and that our trials and travails will have some meaning in that broader context.
Well, that’s my two metaphysical cents for tonight.
Jim,
I must admit that such movies do not set me to being philosophical. Instead when the year predicted actually comes–remember “1984” which seemed so very distant when I read the book at the time–things turn out to be much more subtle in real life than depicted in the book/movie.
There certainly is no doubt that the older one gets the “less fuel” one has. But I see that as no reason to be less productive in one’s life.
And as to “holding out hope that there is something more than we can sense” perhaps it would help if one realized that while science has its contribution to make toward who and what we are, a good dose of realization that science does not have the ENTIRETY of the truth may help the situation.
Which tho’t sets me to thinking how annoyed I get by scientists who seem to think that they have ALL the answers; they somehow substitute for “God” in their hubris. Science is simply PART of the answer to who and what we are. The metaphysical (and psychological and even [gasp!] the spiritual–however perceived) have a contribution to make to who and what we are.
MCS
Comment by MCS — June 28, 2008 @ 12:57 pm
Jim,
I must admit that such movies do not set me to being philosophical. Instead when the year predicted actually comes–remember “1984” which seemed so very distant when I read the book at the time–things turn out to be much more subtle in real life than depicted in the book/movie.
There certainly is no doubt that the older one gets the “less fuel” one has. But I see that as no reason to be less productive in one’s life.
And as to “holding out hope that there is something more than we can sense” perhaps it would help if one realized that while science has its contribution to make toward who and what we are, a good dose of realization that science does not have the ENTIRETY of the truth may help the situation.
Which tho’t sets me to thinking how annoyed I get by scientists who seem to think that they have ALL the answers; they somehow substitute for “God” in their hubris. Science is simply PART of the answer to who and what we are. The metaphysical (and psychological and even [gasp!] the spiritual–however perceived) have a contribution to make to who and what we are.
MCS
Comment by MCS — June 28, 2008 @ 12:57 pm