The search for the lost paradigm and a metaphysics
Why has a living species, man, developed a sophisticated technology? To spread out and ensure interstellar travel one day. Why has he been given consciousness? It is a regulatory mechanism, intended to allow him to reflect on the long-term consequences of his actions, in order to control this technology. The purpose of man, his "sufficient reason," is therefore to be the driver of a "carriage" destined to transport life to other stellar systems than our own. But is he the passenger of this cosmic ship? Could this "passenger" not be a citizen of a future species, emerging from the human species as a progenitor species, just as it itself once emerged from a simian species. An emergence that would be imminent. Would extraterrestrial ethnicities have already passed this stage, becoming as different from us as we are from our distant cousins, the apes? Would we be comparable to apes in front of visitors?
March 6, 2005
When looking at Earth with "the eye of Sirius," we see ethnicities fighting against each other. In poor countries, population grows rapidly simply because the more children you have, the more chances you have of having your old age supported by descendants. In India, in Benares, there are two thousand widows who have found no family member or new husband willing to take care of them. Therefore, they came to Benares, not because this city has better social services than the rest of India, but simply to die there... of hunger and despair, in total indifference, given local beliefs. It will be better in the next reincarnation, no doubt.
An inverse phenomenon occurs in rich countries.
What is interesting is to compare the ideological-religious platforms. We will not go into detail, but what we must note is that vast ethnic groups live with very different conceptions regarding the afterlife, and in general the meaning of life. None seems able to produce a rational, convincing vision. We live in a swamp of beliefs. In the middle of it is the epistemosphere, the science island, this being, like any thought, an organized system of beliefs. All we can say is that the scientific world does not seem to be doing any better than others. It generates aberrations, such as being able to make a woman of sixty years old become a mother by receiving a fertilized egg from another woman in her uterus. Logically, she should be in the record book. One day, this number may increase. Science without conscience is only the ruin of the soul.
Has science become an "unnatural" or "anti-nature" activity? It seems to be. This techno-science is increasingly devoted to industrial waste. If you think about it, the war industry is the typical example of a disposable product. Are you not impressed when you see a powerful bomber taking off from an aircraft carrier carrying a few "intelligent bombs"? It seems like a waste of oil, raw materials, and absolutely staggering hours of work.
While writing these lines, I recall two memories. The first dates back to 1961. I was a student officer at the air base in Caen. Our training course prescribed familiarization with the handling of a mortar. I don't know if you've ever seen a mortar. It's a simple tube, of fairly large diameter. Let's say eight centimeters for the one we were dealing with at that time. The tube is pointed and rests on a plate, planted in the ground with hooks. You insert the shell, which slides into the tube. At the end of the tube, the propellant charge is automatically ignited. So we were two hundred in line, each holding a shell. No aiming. Each student officer (from a prestigious school) inserted his shell into the tube, and boom! We saw the impact a few hundred meters away, on a nearby hill, a simple puff of dust because these training shells were inert, without explosive charge. I remember it was raining. I was thinking that the price of this shell must be equivalent to the monthly salary of a beginning teacher. There was a guy next to me, a young engineer from Centrale. I said to him, "Would you like to fire my shell?" The other replied, "Yes, why not?" So I gave him mine. When we approached the mortar, the captain saw that I had empty hands.
- But where is your shell, lieutenant!?!
I pointed to my neighbor, the engineer from Centrale.
*- It's him, captain. *
- And why?
- Well, it seemed that he liked to fire two, his and mine. *
The other nodded.
*- Does that mean you refuse to fire your mortar shell?
- I never said that. I'm even ready to fire as many as you want...*
The engineer from Centrale returned my shell and everything went back to normal, under the suspicious gaze of the captain.
The other memory takes me back to that brief period when I was a rocket test engineer in Istres, for six months.
**J.P. Petit on a test rocket. Istres, 1964. **
This is a simple toy. In Istres, we fired devices containing ten tons of powder, foreshadowing future SLBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles. I remember that when these devices worked, I calculated that we would have achieved the same result by filling them with banknotes and ejecting them with compressed air.
Today, we have reached a stage where wars no longer serve any purpose, because no one is right anymore. No military action is convincing today. Unless the military activity is considered an end in itself from an economic standpoint. This plane taking off turns many industries, involves a large number of subcontractors. It kills people, but in a way, it saves jobs. In "The nerve of war," American senators "bless the war industry of the country." God bless the military-industrial complex.
Except for this last justification, everything happening on Earth has become the height of the grotesque. The epic spirit has completely disappeared. History is going in circles. It revives its old patterns. In short, it is completely lacking in imagination.
Personally, I think it's time for a historical pause, asking ourselves what we are doing on this rock, other than eating and mindlessly multiplying. All this must have a meaning.
Let's summarize briefly. On a planet in the solar system, probably similar to a million others in our galaxy, conditions allowed life to appear and develop. How? We don't really know. Can we say something about life that is not lamentable nonsense? I think we can, at least, analyze the phenomenon of the living from a phenomenological angle.
*- The biosphere becomes more complex.
- It tends to increase its relational field. *
It is thought that life first appeared in the oceans. Let's accept that. Then it secretes oxygen from the atmosphere from the CO2 released by volcanoes. Thus, it shapes the conditions to launch a new assault and conquer the emerging lands. Later, ...