"Human biological science is incomplete.”
“We like it that way, Professor! I don’t want to be unemployed.”
A brief moment of good natured laughter descended upon the room of finely dressed colleagues from different fields —some with more achievements than others but all respected in their niches nonetheless.
“Ah, don’t worry about that, I believe we are billions of light years away from coming up with a theory of everything.”
Though many in the room disagreed with this point, they chose to ignore it since the professor was known for dishing out indisputable scientific facts one black eye at a time.
“What I mean is that philosophically, our biological science is incomplete.”
He stopped on stage and traced his forefinger in the air. The room progressively darkened and only a number line from zero to positive infinity, extending beyond the confines of the room could be seen. Then a projection of the known universe faded into existence spanning the whole room, marvels of augmented reality in full display. Then everything begun to compress to a single light point at zero.
“Before the big bang, there was no up, there was no down, there was no side to side.
There was no light, there was no dark nor shape of any kind.
There were no stars or protons to collide.
And furthermore to underscore this total lacking state, there was no ‘here’, there was no ‘there’ because there was no space.
And in this endless void which can’t be thought of as a place, there was no time and so no passing minutes, hours or days.
Of all the paradoxes that belabor common sense, this one’s the greatest. This time before events.
How we got from nothing to infinitely dense. From immeasurably small to inconceivably immense.
But before we get distracted from the question at the start, let us take a moment and marvel at when math becomes an art.”
The single point of light dimmed further till nothing but the number line remained. Then suddenly, the line extended from the zero point to the opposite direction and negative numbers formed into infinity.
Everyone waited to see what came next but nothing happened even after waiting for minutes.
“The world made sense without the negative side of the number line. I don’t know what existed before zero. A tree doesn’t have a negative number of apples on it.
But mathematics isn’t dead. A hypothetical world is created where the physical world fails. A world formed of negative numbers. A fictional world formed to help us derive, index and innovate the physical world—the world formed from positive numbers—. It frees us from the confines of the physical world. We can fly and set sail because we have a hypothetical world supporting us in understanding our physical world.
Physical science is beautiful because they dare be open minded about the existence of something unseen. Our biological science on the other hand, focuses only on the physical world and refuses to conceive the possibility of a hypothetical world.
The rules that govern our biological science are structured in favor of learning only about the physical world. This is the metaphorical ‘positive side of the number line’. For us, biology is mechanical. Everything that is in us, everything that makes us, ‘us’, must come from our DNA. We are combinations of the our parents’ DNA and nothing more. Everything that we think and remember is also stored in our brain. We don’t understand how it works, but we of the Biological sciences have faith that however those jumble of nerve endings work, is all there is and nothing more.
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This is my proposal to lead the Biological sciences into a revolution no lesser than that of the Physical science. Let us dare to explore our own version of the negative side of the number line. Alright?
The brain needs the eyes to perceive the visual, equivalently, the soul needs the brain to process thought.
I propose that the brain is the metaphorical "zero on a number line" and the soul world is part of the "negative side of the number line". In my hypothesis, the brain is the intersection between the spiritual and the physical.
Without the eyes, the brain won't know about the existence of the visual. With damaged eyes, the brain cannot explore the visual but it knows of it’s existence.
Without the brain, the soul cannot explore thoughts. With a damaged brain, though the soul is incapable of exploring thought, it’s still free to explore other aspects that aren't damaged such as pain, suffering, dreams, joy, intoxication. The same way, damaged eyes does not stop the brain from exploring sound, pressure, scent or taste.
I suggest, that we explore the spiritual by coming up with ways to perceive it. The soul lives in the spiritual and interacts with the physical by using the brain. Why not start with dreams?
I understand that this is a tall order. Trying to understand that which does not obey the conventional Biological laws seems impossible. ‘The sun rising from the north’ kind of impossible, not ‘draw a square circle’ kind of impossible. A physical impossibility, not a logical one.”
The lights in the room at some point had come on but no one clapped. An awkward silence descended, until one person started clapping. But no one joined in. The clap however never faltered and just kept going until the professor walked of the stage.
——
A young man was seated on the rails that kept people safe from falling off a cliff and into the ocean that relentlessly beat against the rock. His legs idly swinging as he scrolled on his phone.
“Joe, are you okay?”
A man, casually dressed in artier that screamed ‘Old money’ walked up to the rails and leaned.
“Hmm, Oh, Mikey, yeah. Peachy. I just created a twitter account.” Joe said, then with a sigh he dropped the phone over the cliff and into the ocean, “After seeing what goes on in people’s minds, I suppose I understand why peasants weren’t allowed to learn how to read and write.”
Mikey chuckled, “Don’t take it to heart. Stupidity isn’t an intellectual problem, it’s more of a moral one. Someone uploaded your presentation, have you seen it?”
“No. I’ve lost respect for what people think. Their opinions have become irrelevant.”
“Well, telling people to imagine something greater than their god is asking for a lot from them. Scientists worship data. They will ignore anything that can’t be observed and recorded. I suggest you evolve your mathematics to index the Spiritual because these people may be stupid but they are still brilliant intellectuals. You can’t make progress alone, Joe.”
Joe looked thoughtful as he stared at the setting sun. He didn’t care for its aesthetic beauty or for it’s scientific and mathematical beauty. What he found beautiful instead, was that it was happening. The sun was setting. It set the day before, it set a thousand years before and it would probably set again the next day. It was beautiful because it was happening.
Mike had no idea what Joe was thinking so deeply about, but he felt in his gut, Joe had no intention of involving others. Though he sat on that rail, his mind had already walked off the cliff to explore a world that everyone else rejected.
——