"So we all work for the Great Machinist?"
You got it!
The three spokesmen disagree on pretty much everything else. They each round up their supporters for a pep talk. Don't listen to those other clowns. They're lying about the GM (Great Machinist) but I know the real truth. Oh and by the way, the GM wanted me to give you guys some new rules.
Don't eat this. Don't touch that. Don't work on this day. When you give thanks to the GM (which you should be doing every day) make sure you do it this way. Don't wear this. Don't eat that either.
And most importantly, don't hoard money. You can't take it with you when you die! Give it to the GM instead.
Most people do as they're told. The machine is too complex and dangerous to ignore. It still lashes out at us regularly, killing and maiming without remorse. Which is weird because according to the spokesmen the GM really loves us. He has a strange way of showing it.
It's not for us to question how the machine works.
We disagree. We think it's precisely our duty to figure out the machine. That's why we climb the fence every night. Equipped with flashlights, measuring tapes, and notepads, we study the machine obsessively. We stare at the little pieces hanging above our heads and track their movements. We scrutinize the machine's smallest components beneath microscopes, and every time we think we've identified the machine's most basic building-block someone comes along with a bigger microscope and sends us back to the drawing board. Every component is made up of smaller parts, and those parts are made of smaller parts, and those parts...
You get the point.
Even those who do as they're told and leave the machine alone make startling discoveries. They study the human body and find that people, like the machine, are made up of various parts. Different organs serve different functions; they pump oxygen into the blood, regulate digestion, collect and organize data, etc.
"I am the sum of my parts, the culmination of systems and organs interacting in various ways. I am a meat machine."
And what happens when these meat-machines interact with each other? They become components in a greater whole, a system, a network of limbs and minds. Doesn't it sound like we're pieces of the mysterious machine too?
Hey fuckers! You're not messing with the machine, are you? I thought I told you only the chosen ones can do that. The spokesmen and their cronies lock us up, set us on fire, or throw big rocks at us. But it's too late. We've hit the truth on the head. We press ahead, fueled by curiosity, pride, certainty.
By now we can pry the machine open. We peer inside and guess what? There's no Great Machinist, just tiny gears and gyres engaged in a complex dance. Every piece of this wondrous device appears to be governed by basic laws, mechanistic rules that translate into mathematical formulas.
"See! There's no GM in there."
Liars! The GM works in mysterious ways. You just can't see him, that's all.
***
Our universe is a mysterious machine whose ultimate function is unknown. Maybe it doesn't have a purpose. Maybe it just is. We may never know the answer but there are plenty of things we do know about it.
The universe has a structure. Its various parts--stars, black holes, planets, and interstellar debris-- interact with a set of mechanistic laws to create solar systems, galaxies, clusters, and super-clusters.
I say mechanistic because they are reliable and constant. Even our ancient ancestors could predict the movement of the stars with great accuracy, all without advanced computers or telescopes. Using these laws as our guide we have been able to determine the speed of light, the distance between far-fetched stars, the age of our universe, and much more. Studying this mysterious machine of ours has yielded all that you see around you today: skyscrapers, smartphones, space-shuttles, satellites, cars, etc.
If the universe truly is a giant machine, what does that make us? What role can our species play in such a massive cosmological system? For now, a very minor one. Our interactions are limited to a tiny piece of the machine: earth.
Our planet is also the sum of its parts. Oceans, continents, plant-life, atmosphere, plate tectonics, weather patterns, the animal kingdom, and the human race are all interconnected. It is only humans, upon gaining self-awareness, who think themselves as separate from the whole. We explain our place in the universe by means of anthropomorphism when in truth no such explanation is required.
Mother Earth birthed us in her watery womb and Father Evolution did the rest. We are made from the same building blocks as everything else in the universe. We aren't separate or distinct in any way. Believing that the universe was made especially for us, that we have a right to subjugate and abuse our planet, is a disastrous fallacy that could very well lead to our annihilation.
From the sub-atomic to the macro-cosmic, everything operates in an orderly fashion. All matter is arranged in a neat hierarchy. Everything is made up of the same basic building blocks and underlying those there is a set of quantum coding not unlike the 1's and 0's of computer programming.
Likewise, how can we expect to thrive and evolve beyond this pale blue dot if we're all working against each other or worse, against the planet which houses our species?
Exploitation serves the few while cooperation serves the many. Don't let the spokesmen--be they religious, political, corporate, or media--lead you astray. We're all connected, pieces of the universe trying to interpret itself.
The sooner we come to grips with that, the better.
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