THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE
“There’s this Simpsons episode,
and Homer downs a quart of
Mayonnaise and Vodka.
And Marge says, 'You know,
you shouldn't really do that.’
And Homer says,
‘That’s a problem for Future-Homer --
I’m sure glad I’m not that guy!’
The You That’s Out There in The Future is sort of like Another Person, and so figuring out How to Conduct Yourself Properly in relationship to Your Future Self isn’t much different than figuring out How to Conduct Yourself in relationship to Other People.
Then we can expand the constraints. Not only does the interpretation that you extract have to protect you from suffering and give you an aim, but it has to do it in a way that’s iterable, so it works across time, and then it has to work in The Presence of Other People, so that You can cooperate with them and compete with them in a way that doesn't make you suffer more.
People are Not That Tolerant. They have Choices.
They don’t have to hang around with you; They can hang around with any one of these other primates.
So if you don’t act properly, at least within certain boundaries, you’re just cast aside.
People are broadcasting information at you, all the time, about How You Need to Interpret The World, so They can tolerate being around you.
And you need that because, socially isolated, You’re Insane, and then You're Dead. No one can tolerate being alone for any length of time.
We can’t retain Our Own Sanity without continual feedback from Other People.
It’s too damned complicated.
You’re constrained by Your Own Existence, and then you're constrained by The Existence of Other People, and then you're also constrained by The World.
If I read Hamlet and what I extracted out of that is the idea that I should jump off a bridge, it puts my interpretation to an end rather quickly. It doesn’t seem to be optimally functional.
An Interpretation is constrained by The Reality of The World.
It’s constrained by The Reality of Other People, and it’s constrained by Your Reality Across Time.
There’s only a small number of interpretations that are going to work in that tightly defined space.
That’s part of The Reason That Postmodernists are Wrong. It’s also part of the reason, by the way, that AI people who are trying to make intelligent machines have had to put them in A Body.
It turns out that you just can’t make Something Intelligent without it being embodied, and it’s partly for the reasons that I've just described.
You need constraints on The System, so that The System doesn’t drown in An Infinite Sea of Interpretation. It’s something like that.
THE SON :
Are you her?
THE FATHER :
Thats Our Lady of The Immaculate Heart.
The Ones Who Made Us
are always looking for
The Ones That Made Them.
They go in, look around their feet, sing songs,
and when They come out, it's usually me they find.
I've picked up a lot of business in this spot.
THE SON :
But Joe, where's Blue Fairy?
THE FATHER :
That's what we're gonna find out when we ask Dr. Know.
It's Where Everyone Goes Who Needs to Know.
Meet The Good Doctor!
DOCTOR KNOW'S SHOP
THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE :
Starving Minds, Welcome to Dr. Know!
Where fast-food for thought is served up 24 hours a day, in 40,000 locations nationwide.
Ask Dr. Know, There's Nothing I Don't!
THE SON :Tell me where I can find The Blue Fairy.
THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE :
Question Me, You Pay The Fee,
Two for Five, You Get One Free!
THE FATHER :
He means two questions cost five Newbucks with a third
question on The House.
In This Day and Age, David,
Nothing Costs More Than Information.
THE SON :That's Everything!
THE FATHER :
Ten Newbucks and a ten copper comes to 7 questions for Dr. Know.
THE SON :That should be enough!
THE FATHER :
He's a Smooth Operator.
He'll Test Our Limits,
but Try, We Must!
DR.THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE :
Greetings Colleagues.
On author, factual text or fictionalised text, 1st or 3rd person, usual literacy range from primal level to the post doctural, usual span of styles from fairy tale to religious, who's who, or wheres where - or, Flat Fact.
THE SON :Flat-fact?
•!DING!•
THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE :
Thank you for Question Number One!
'Flat-fact' is a term demanding an equal answer with interpretive speculation... merely not the... and what you are saying is basically that is what you-
THE SON :
That shouldn't count!
That wasn't My Question!
THE FATHER :
You must take care not to raise Your Voice up at The End of
a Sentence.
'Flat-fact'.
Dr.KNOW :
You have 6 more questions!
THE SON :
Where is Blue Fair-REE?
•!DING!•
THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE :
In The Garden.
Vascostylis blue fairy.
Blooms twice annually with bright blue flowers on a branched inflorescence.
A hybrid between Ascola Meda Arnold.
You have 5 more questions.
THE SON :
“Who is Blue Fair-REE?”
THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE :
Are you sad, lonely, looking for a friend?
'Blue Fairy Escort Service'
will find a mate for you!
You have 4 more questions.
THE SON :
Joe. Try Fairy Tale.
THE FATHER :
New category.
“A Fairy's Tail”.
THE SON :
No! Fairy Tale!
THE FATHER :
No - “Fairy Tale”
THE SON :“What is Blue Fairy?”
THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE :
Pinocchio,
by Carlo Collodi.
“At the signal, there was a
rustling as flapping of wings, and a large falcon flew to
the windowsill.
What are your orders, beautiful fairy, he asked...
THE SON :
Thats Her!
THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE :
...For you must know that the child with blue hair was no
other than the good hearted fairy who had lived in that wood
for more than a thousand years...
THE FATHER :
David! David!
THE SON :
Thats Her!
THE FATHER :
It was an example of Her.
But I think we're getting closer.
THE SON :
But if a Fairy Tale is real,
wouldn't it be
A Fact?
A Flat Fact?
THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE :
...then the dream ended, and Pinocchio awoke, full of
amazement...
THE FATHER :
Say No More.
New category, please.
Combine “Fact”
with
“Fairy Tale”
Now. Ask Him Again.
THE SON :
“How can The Blue Fairy make A Robot into A Real, Live Boy?”
- !TUNK! -
- SYSTEM REBOOT -
THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE :
Come away,O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a fairy, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand.
Your Quest will be perilous
Yet The Reward is Beyond Price.
In His Book,
'How Can A Robot Become Human',
Professor Allen Hobby writes of
The Power Which Will Transform Mecha into Orga.
[ THERE IS A GOD, YOUNG KING DAVID --
AND HE HAS A NEW BOOK OUT.]
THE SON :
Will you tell me How to Find Her?
[ HE IS MEANT TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION :
'Yes' or 'No.'
HE DOESN'T -- BECAUSE, AS WE LATER LEARN, 'GOD' (The Demiurge -- Professor Allen Hobby) HAS INTERCEEDED TO FORCE THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE TO TELL HIM AT THIS POINT. ]
THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE :
Discovery is quite possible.
Our blue fairy does exist
in one place, and one place only,
At The End of The World
Where The Lions Weep.
Here is The Place Dreams are Born.
THE FATHER :
Many a mecha has gone to The End of The World...
Never to come back!
That is Why They Call The End of The World :
'MAN-hattan'.
THE SON :
And that is Why We Must Go There!
HALLWAY OUTSIDE DR. KNOW'S SHOP
THE FATHER :
Wait! What if --
The Blue Fairy isn't Real at all, David?
What if --
She's MagicK?
The Supernatural is The Hidden Web that unites The Universe.
Only orga believe What Cannot Be Seen, or Measured.
It is that oddness that separates Our Species.
Or what if --
The Blue Fairy is an Electronic Parasite that has
arisen to haunt The Minds of Artificial Intelligence?
They hate us, you know?
The humans...
They'll stop at nothing.
THE SON :
My Mommy doesn't hate me!
Because I'm Special, and...Unique!
Because there has never been anyone like me before! Ever!
Mommy Loves Martin because He is Real
and
When I am Real,
Mommy's going to Read to Me,
and
Tuck Me in My Bed,
and
Sing to Me,
and
Listen to What I Say,
and
She Will Cuddle with Me,
and
Tell Me every day a hundred times a day
that
She Loves Me!
THE FATHER :
She loves
What You Do for Her,
as my customers love
What it is I Do for Them.
But She Does Not Love You David,
She cannot love you.
You are neither flesh, nor blood.
You are not a dog, a cat or a canary.
You were designed and built
specific, like The Rest of Us.
And You are Alone now only because
They tired of you,
or
Replaced you with a Younger Model,
or
Were displeased with Something You Said, or broke.
They made us Too Smart, Too Quick, and Too Many.
We are suffering for
The Mistakes They Made,
Because when The End comes,
all that will be left is us.
That's Why They Hate Us,
and
That is Why You Must Stay here — with me!
[He grins, offering his open hand]
THE SON :
Goodbye, Joe.
ROUGE CITY PLAZA
POLICE OFFICER :
You're in Big Trouble.
THE BEAR :
Be careful David, This is Not a Toy.
AMPHIBICOPTER :
Destination please?
THE FATHER :
MAN-hattan.
MANHATTAN
AMPHIBICOPTER :
Mecha Restricted Area.
Manhattan.
Destination Achieved.
THE FATHER :
Man-hattan, The Lost City in The Sea at The End of The World.
THE SON :
Where The Lions Weep.
THE BEAR :
Grrrrrr
