I am told, and I have only the evidence of those who tell me, that infants are under the impression that things cease to exist when they can no longer see them. So when a baby plays peek-a-boo with you, they are actually playing God: vanishing you from existence then bringing you back. This amuses them.

As time goes on, children begin to believe that things exist whether or not they are looking at them. This opens a whole new philosophical realm. If things I cannot see are still there, then there may be a whole host of things lurking just beyond my sight that I know nothing about. This is where fear of the dark comes from. This is the state that our ancient ancestors remained in all their lives. Praying to things in the sky that other things in the trees and the weeds will not steal their children or destroy their crops.

However, in this modern age when we have dissected and labeled everything to the degree that, as adults, we feel that everything has reason, that everyone around us probably knows what is going on, and that we are the only one that is clueless.

One of the things I have always enjoyed is stories of Sherlock Holmes. I know this seems like a sidetrack, but stick with me here. A person would come to Sherlock Holmes and they would say “I’m missing my diamond broach!” and Holmes would sit there and, often without leaving his apartment, he would figure out where the broach was. The stories assumed that there was logical cause and effect and that everything, even those things which are “missing” or unobserved, were SOMEwhere.

This is not an assumption I tend to buy into. I’ve lost more things than I can recall and as a professional loser, I can tell you that things which are lost do, indeed, appear to entirely vanish from existence.

Speaking scientifically for a moment, you cannot prove that something doesn’t exist, only that it does. It would be absurd, however, to believe that everything imaginable also existed. So it’s clear that there are things science cannot speak on, namely: the unobservable. So this leaves us back where we started. Our range of sight and observation may have extended vastly since primordial times, but it still remains true that our sight is limited, and either things exist beyond our sight which we know little or nothing of, OR things only exist when we are actively observing their existence. What do you have to say to THAT science? I say stick that in your beautifully inlaid, stained mahogany pipe and smoke it!

Also, I stopped observing two sets of expensive DVD’s about a year ago. If anyone starts observing them, let me know so that I can start observing them again myself. Also, stop observing my stuff! That’s breaking the tenth commandment and I am pretty sure it is also breaking the eighth.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 30th, 2006 at 11:37 pm and is filed under Comics, Mulligan Adventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.