just a mo

Actually, it’s a waste of time.

But

It doesn’t matter how good your definitions are

but surely

or how intelligent your reasons are

but you’re

or even your maths

oh – so you think you have a better solution?

nope – like i said – it’s a waste of time

but

and the mind, like a dog tugging at the bone you’re trying to wrest from it won’t give up – can’t – mustn’t

mustn’t?

it would be suicide

huh?

were the mind to just call it quits – can’t possibly figure this out – think i’ll go to the pub instead and get drunk – like Ford Prefect before the Earth’s about to get demolished by the Vogon star fleet

only he’s got a backup plan

precisely

so?

...

so what’s our backup plan?

the same as Ford Prefect’s.

Hitching a lift on a Vogon starship?

Can you think of anything better?

I seem to remember them getting ejected into space and only escaping by the skin of their teeth – purely based on the infinitesimally slight chance of being rescued in the vacuum of space by a passing ship.

Yep – that’s right.

Not much of a confidence boost – I think I’ll stick with assuming your wrong – that I can figure things out rationally somehow or other – something’s bound to turn up.

Absolutely. Death is just waiting in the wings – and death solves just about every conceivable problem – except that it doesn’t.

Huh?

Does it – I mean death doesn’t alter anything – dematerialise your matter side of things and guess what’s going to happen – it’s all going to come bounding back in some shape or form – more or less identical in complexity and confusion to where you left off.

Reincarnation?

Conservation of matter

I don’t see why my matter needs to be reconfigured in a new me – why can’t it just be converted by microbes into other biomatter?

It can – but matter ain’t simply matter is it?

No?

Nope.

Then what?

God – do they teach you nothing these days?

Actually they teach us a lot.

More’s the pity. What on Earth’s the point of teaching a lot if they haven’t bothered to teach you nothing

Huh?

The theory of nothing – or nought. You can hardly understand a lot if you have no grounding in nothing whatsoever – can you?

Er…

So you blithely assume that you know “a lot” when you you’ve failed to grasp the basics.

What basics?

That matter as such amounts to nought – that matter is only meaningful because it is a memory device – like a blockchain, if you like, which stores meaning.

Huh?

Matter is a store of meaning.

And what?

And everything – neither the meaning nor memory intrinsic to matter are wiped or lost when matter is redigitised.

Er…

Conservation of matter – neither memory nor meaning can be created or destroyed.

Aren’t you mistaking your conservation of matter with Newtonian Conservation of Energy?

What the hell is energy supposed to be? Did you ever see energy?

Er… not exactly.

Good – because it doesn’t exist – or if it does, it matters not.

then what?

Energy is a given – like life itself. There’s little or no point referring to it per se as it belongs on the other side of things, as in nought – a constant loop – a circle which to all intents and purposes has neither beginning nor end.

Oh.

Precisely.

Then what?

Deal with it. Accept nought – go figure – personify it – anthropomorphise all you like – but accept that there are things and um… that which can’t be discussed, understood or rationalised – without hugely distorting the sum of what we can meaningfully know.

Er…

Because at the end of the day – it’s only worth knowing what is meaningful to know. The rest needs to be left to the night – given pride of place on the dark, the zero side of consciousness – danced at night with drums, sung to the stars, or to God, praised to the heavens and woven into narratives of timeless cosmology – whatever takes your fancy – to ensure that the faculty of reason and sense is able to continue dealing with things that matter – as opposed to the diarrhoea, the nose bleed of metaphysics, dark matter and pseudo-science your current state of unlearning has chosen to engage in.

Oh – so I take it you’re not a fan of dark matter?

Let’s not mess with words – let's call an oxymoron an oxymoron – "dark light" is what you’re really emitting when you puke on the page of enlightenment, rubbing the scabs of unreason to extract the putrefaction known as modern theory – no matter what.

Er… Bit of a broad sweeping statement – wouldn’t you say – damning all modern theory with one single brush stroke.

When the body is infected – your first concern is to fight the infection – only then can you play with abstract ideas – if you even wish to.

Well I think you’re being unreasonable.

Yes.

Arrogant.

Yes.

Narrow-minded.

Yes.

Aren’t you going to even bother to defend yourself?

No.

Because you think you know best?

No.

Then what?

Because thinking and knowing are utterly unconnected. What I think has nothing to do with what I know – or what is.

Uh?

Things – we think things.

And?

All thought is derivative. Left hemisphere – so to speak. Lifeless things that matter not.

And knowledge?

Bear in mind that language reveals far more than we generally choose to see. To know and to think are poles apart. The question is whether you know your own mind. If you do – if you’ve chosen to allow knowledge to seep through your strata of thoughts, beliefs and prejudice – if you’ve chosen to know no matter what it costs – no matter what it takes – then knowledge will compel you to unknow almost everything you hitherto thought you knew – without exception.

It will?

Yes – without a doubt.

Why?

Because knowledge is a well-spring that rises up from nought within – if it is anything at all.

So it’s just a personal experience – you’re saying?

Just?

As in subjective.

It is neither subjective nor objective.

Then what?

It is known – wherein the nought rises up from infinitely deep within to meet the one, the tree, the I through creation – through the quantum field of is, so to speak – and everything you can possibly think, apprehend, know, believe, perceive or name stems, flows, derives from this conjunction, this confluence of matter and meaning, were I fool enough to imagine I could possibly understand or explain whatever it is, may or may not be...

But you have – haven’t you – you’re trying to explain that matter is fundamental to who and what I am, to whatever objectively is – that it’s not just a neutral thing without intrinsic meaning – that this is like Slartibartfast’s bistromath café in which every thing, every occurrence is part of an equation, a calculation, a vast hologram or computer program which is constantly solving or reiterating the sole, fundamental question of life, the universe and everything – aren’t you?

Er… yes, I suppose I am – against my best intentions – I’m uncomfortably forced to admit you’re right.

And might it be true to say that your input is also part of the equation – that you yourself are neither neutral nor abstract – that you cannot help affecting or influencing the quantum field by passively observing it and elucidating its mechanics?

Yes

So what have you done?

Nothing.

Precisely.

Oh my God!

Yes, indeed.

I….

You didn’t mean to, did you, but you have inadvertently released no-thing from its quarantined confinement.

Oh

Pandora’s box – unless

Unless what?

Unless O has attained its majority – is simply bursting out of the egg it’s been incubating within… and humanity, the collective-consciousness is now bringing forth a new nought – an un-ful-ness which comprises all that is – no matter what…

Oh

Indeed Oh.

It’s going to be…

Ssh – you’ve said enough – let’s shift into the Oh me

oh my

the Oh

of mo

and merry

ment if

you’d be

so kind…

i

o

so 

so