Born of the Ones and Zeroes
Computers as an example of Consilience
Consilience, according to an old coot of a scientist that has decided
to loose his idea of the term upon the world at large, means literally
a 'jumping together' where entirely seperate methods of seeking
the truth of the world arrive at the same conclusion. Quite a noble
idea, this consilience, something we certainly would seek, would
hope to find, hearing just that.
E.O. Wilson, however, is not interested
in noble ideas. He has spent his entire life dealing in cold, hard
facts. And so, rather than leaving the word at that quite broad,
very acceptable definition, he goes on to attach an entire worldview
which he thinks that we should all share.
Consilience, to those who have heard him
talk about it, is not so much a 'jumping together' of truths as
an idea that all of these truths are destined to do just that, simply
because there is only one truth in the universe. As scary as that
thought is to many people in our current world, he may just be right...
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