Sunday 5 August 2018

The Incomprehensible

See Beyond Our Ken and History, Paradoxes And Beyond.

Poul Anderson, The Avatar.

Much of the Others' technology is no long necessary because:

"The achievements they seek are more subtle - too subtle for our perceiving. (If you chisel out a statue, your dog sees that a lump of stone is changed a bit in shape.)" (XLV, p. 376)

A few fragments of the Others' perceived reality will not harm Joelle any more than a lecture on relativity would harm an ape. (XLVI, p. 380)

Stapledon: a cat and finance;
Anderson: a dog and a statue, an ape and relativity;
Stirling: a man and a God.

Are there realities that would be that far beyond our comprehension?

The image is only metaphorically appropriate because a tesseract is comprehensible, just not visualizable.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Yes, I believe there are realities that are far beyond the natural powers or abilities of human beings to comprehend. God and the angels, for instance.

Sean