Remember the joy and excitement of the Human Genome Project? A few years back, that is - when the great scientists exclaimed that all diseases would be conquered, that it would be simple as much of the code in the double helix, was in fact `junk` and had no use.

Well.. something like that.

Too simple an interpretation by far of course. Now it seems there is almost infinite complexity in the way things work and the more you look, the more complex it seems. Not `junk code` afer all. But as `ordinary` citizens, did we ever believe it was?

You lay on your back at night - out in the remote regions of the Philippines and the stars blaze overhead - revealed in their true glory by the dark backdrop of the Pacific Ocean.

So much detail that you can feel the wonder of it all - creation, matter being converted in stars and hydrogen gas atoms (that escaped from the Zeppelin as it passed over Wakefield - causing Auntie Nellie to gasp with fear in case it dropped a bomb) now heading for the outer limits.

Can we ever really grasp it all though? You know, actually get as handle on creation, the Universe and the Human genome. The latter perhaps eventually as though we have a Haynes on the Fiat Punto - wiring diagram and all.

What if there`s an error and you have to pull forward and not down?

So that when your genome code is run through the medical repair machine - your left leg drops off - rather than you growing a new liver.

Cos if we can`t allegedly get it right all the time with car manuals - what hope is there?

I mean, every other creature we know seems to have limits to their understanding. Next doors cat for example - It might perceive the world in great simplicity. Eat sleep, catch a bird , play, lay on top of the engine and get covered in oil. But what if it`s perception of reality is so different to ours - that it`s really living in effect, in a different world.

What if the whales have a handle on the universe but can`t tell us? they keep coming ashore to try to write the equation on the beach with a flipper - but we keep shoving em back in.

Why should we assume we can work everything out - given time though. What if the ultimate understanding of the space time continuum is beyond the grasp of our species? - and always will be.

20,000 years BC. "Just pinholes in the sky Bert, don`t drop yer club`

20,000 years AD "eh? - ask a cockroach Bert, they have a new handle on it"

oilrag

Edited by oilrag on 02/07/2010 at 10:04