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de Steensplinter  —   Geology and a cosmology of the obvious

2. prologue

notes 2    English translation by H.J. MacGillavry:      A fence of boards with space between      through which the landscape could be seen -      An architect who saw this thing      came suddenly one evening      and took the space away with him      to build a great house, neat and trim.      The boards, however, stood bereft      with nothing left in every cleft.      A hideous and gruesome sight.      The State withdrew it overnight.      The architect escaped away      to Afriq- or Amerikay. 3    J.M. Burgers, 'Experience and conceptual      activity, a philosofical essay based upon      the writings of A.N. Whitehead',      MIT Press, 1965, pages 9-10. 4    E. Schrödinger, 'My view of the world',      Cambridge UP, 1964. previous    contents    next page (website version 2.30 - august 2007)

prologue      Es war einmal ein Lattenzaun,      mit Zwischenraum, hindurchzuschaun.      Ein Architekt, der dieses sah,      stand eines Abends plötzlich da -      und nahm den Zwischenraum heraus      und baute draus ein grosses Haus.      Der Zaun indessen stand ganz dumm,      mit Latten ohne was herum.      Ein Anblick grässlich und gemein.      Drum zog ihn der Senat auch ein.      Der Architekt jedoch entfloh      nach Afri- od- Ameriko.      (Christian Morgenstern - Galgenlieder) 2 Modern physical and/or philosophical cosmologies disregard two important classes of evidence: • On one side there are "the notions of our thinking, the notions of value, the notions of purpose and of intention, of responsibility and of having a task". (J.M. Burgers) 3 Dissatisfied with this situation, E. Schrödinger turned to scholastic Vedânta, in which all creation is thought to be illusory and all is Brahman. 4 • The second evidence disregarded is that all material records - such as particles, elements, stars, nebulae, the continental crust we walk on and all furniture, curtains and books in our living-rooms - result from processes that took place in the past. No records result from processes still to come. Some physical cosmologies forget the boards (of the `Lattenzaun'). They take all the `Zwischenraum' (space between the boards), with which they build a great abstract house. They furnish this house with particles, strings and branes or with polyeders as pixels. Or they leave it empty and erase the spiritual phenomena and material records from their models. Then they need a life-line, to bring back some vitality and they need causality to give it direction. First they disregard the evidence - and then have to smuggle it in again. continued

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