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Information InFiltration. The Anti-Blender Consortium.

[new] No one can see the whole world. (Avg. Score: none / Raters: 0) (#4)
by Eric Hughes on Tue Sep 30th, 2003 at 05:17:40 AM EURODISCORDIA TIME
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For the best illustration I know of why no one should feel obligated to understand the entire world (of which the web is only a fraction, but large enough to induce the same feeling), read Borges's story "The Aleph". The protagonist finds, in a dark basement, an image of the entire universe, an ikon through which he can view anything he cares to. He finds himself, though, drawn to the most intimate facts, of the most emotional character. This is not a tragedy, merely inevitable.

If I could wish upon the world a single insight I have, it would be that mankind is finite--finite in spatial and temporal extent, finite in perception and understanding, finite in each of the unbounded ways it's possible to be finite. Seeing that-which-is-larger-than-anybody should be an opportunity to experience the sublime, not the dread of inadequacy.

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