Cosm

Indeed, high-blown rhetoric plus uncheckable consequences were the two sure signatures of the crank.

But these were mere passing irritants. Deeper were the systemic troubles. She stressed the many unknowns; the media wanted sharp answers to huge questions, preferably in a compact one-liner. She tried to emphasize the progressive questioning of her method and how all answers were provisional, awaiting confirmation; reporters liked zippy adventure and exciting guesses with, of course, striking visuals in primary colors.

To peer through the quick stubble of mathematics and see the wonders lurking behind was to momentarily live in the infinite, beyond the press of the ordinary world where everyone else dwelled in ignorance.

Einstein said that the only incomprehensible thing about the universe was that it was comprehensible. But resorting to God forgets what biology says—that our minds came out of the physical world, y’know, through evolution of early brain stems and neural systems to higher levels of complexity.

The barely awake public, trained to the attention span of a commercial, thought that science had two children: either consumer yummies, served up by the handmaiden of technology, or else awesome wonders like the beauties of astronomy. The unsettling side they largely ignored, unless for the momentary shock value of, say, swollen insects doing disgusting things. But the root promise of science was of a world unshaped by humans. The expanses of time and space that stretched out from the human community were terrifying, and most avoided even thinking of them.

One of the better aspects of aging was that she no longer practiced dragging on cigarettes before the mirror, striving to get the right dissipated look, or tried on sunglasses until she found the kind the latest hip singer wore. Had she really worn those mirrorshades? Perfect holdovers from the Me Decade, because they let the viewer watch himself.

Thing about crazies is, they’re crazy. You can’t even understand them in retrospect.

Physicists had abandoned God long ago and hoped that firing repeated questions at nature would get to the truth. What scientists really believed in was that the think-check-think-again style of scientific method would yield some species of Truth.

“Boy, do I hate these holier-than-thou types.”

“Clerics.”

“Anybody who tries to hem science in, tell it what it can and cannot do. Boundaries are best defined by pushing against them. Expanding our horizons, our sense of wonder.”

She smiled. “There’s nothing holier than wow!?”

There were the usual anxieties, starkly revealing the uneasiness that ordinary intellectuals had with science.

He whispered, “Honey, it’s good ol’ love makes the world go round.”

“Actually, it’s inertia.”

Minds embodies in strange shapes would still find themselves sharpened against evolution’s ceaseless whetstone.

What challenges would they face? In the end the universe as a whole was life’s ultimate opponent.

That mood had persisted when she finally got home and, unable to sleep, watched some TV. It was as usual, a cacophony, which combined with the other audio media gave a disposable pop culture that made every moment but the present seem quaint, bloodless, dead.

Well, this was what dads were for: saying the unsayable when you needed it.

Given a choice between existential despair and rapt religious fervor, her crowd chose marijuana.

Government doesn’t often move quickly, but when they do, it’s like an elephant stampede.

Science’s success did not need a God to explain it; the world was enough.

He watched her putting away bacon and toast.

“I remember breakfasts like that.”

“First Law of Thermodynamics still applies. If you eat it, and you don’t burn it off, you sit on it.”

“You burn it, looks like. Exercise?

“Worry. Saves time and you don’t have to shower.”

Teaching was all very fine, but research made the heart sing.

A damned big clue, but pointing at what? When in doubt, get some numbers.

Prolonged exposure to journalists made her distrust any news report; they got matters wrong so casually, even the simple ones.

Only senators and simpletons thought science took place in neatly drawn boxes.

Ours is not to reason why, ours is to measure and report—the experimenter’s credo.

She sighed. “We’re just guessing.”

“When you have a Ph. D., you call them hypotheses, not guesses.”

“Ummm,” Alicia said, trying to be polite. “Still sounds like we’re just making this up as we go along.”

“We are.” Max grinned. “Invent, then check. It’s really the only way to make progress.”

Data always overruled theory.

Outside the Sea Lounge were ranks of motorcycles, mostly Harleys. Through the open windows she could see a jammed crowd raising beer glasses to the monotonous thump of the live band. Being Harley guys, they were of course rebels, rugged lone wolves, individual spirits, as was obvious because they were all wearing the same jackets and jeans, bandannas and sunglasses, big brass belt buckles and tattoos, probably even the same underwear.

“Law of the universe,” she said. “The longer the menu description, the worse the food.”

The ship of theory could set sail on tides of mathematical grandeur and hope alone, but only data could fill its sails.

To believe anything so far-fetched, I’d have to see a solid calculation.

The desire to find something could provoke what she called “wantum mechanics,” fishing a result out of nothing but noise.

Engineers never liked the unexplained, whereas physicists lived for it.

Information wants to be free—remember that old saw? Some truth to it, only it’s backwards. This isn’t an information economy—we’re drowning in that—it’s an attention economy. That’s what everybody’s vying for.

When in enough doubt, let your subconscious work on the problem.

The problem with the unknown was its lack of road signs.

She was grateful for something more than smooth, meaningless phrases. Better, the man had not reverted to the hedged-in, minimize-possible-damage style. And the first of all the commandments shall be: Cover Thy Ass.

Her eyes flipped down through the usual scandal, gossip, and politics, noting that there didn’t seem to be much difference between them anymore.