Opinion/Editorial
INCONCEIVABLE!
If one were to take a piece of string and run it around the barrel of a tin can, cut it at the point where it comes together on one side, and then use a second piece of string to measure the distance across the top lip of the can one would sit there with two pieces of string, one approximately three times the length of the other. The longer piece of string would serve as a measure of the circumference while the shorter would serve as the measure of the can’s diameter. Dividing the smaller string (by measured amount) into the larger string (again by measured amount) would yield a value we call Pi. Pi works out to be 3.1415 (on out to at least ten trillion more numbers today) no matter what the size of the circumference and diameter of the circle being measured. Ten trillion is how far computer people have taken the division problem, always seeking a final ending number or amount to make Pi a finite number. Quite obviously, even though ever more powerful computers will be used to arrive at numbers in the quad or quintillions, Pi is very likely to never have a final completing number.
There is so much in our lives that is similar to the never-ending pursuit some of society goes through in attempting to come to a final resolution or completion, as it is called today. There will never be “completion” to the division problem pursuit of Pi. Thanks to the brilliant work of Stephen Hawking, we know there are black holes out there in the universe gobbling up all sorts of space junk, planets, and even stars. We also have about the same probability of ever finding out what happens to what gets sucked into a black hole as we do in coming to completion concerning Pi. Nothing comes out of a black hole except some eerie weird X-ray junk at the poles called Hawking radiation. We don’t get to know. We don’t get a resolution. And not having a resolution is difficult for all members of the madly curious and ever-investigating species called Homo sapiens.
There has never been peace in the Middle East, at least not in all of known history and even history gleaned from through the application of such disciplines as archaeology and anthropology. There is never likely to be peace in the Middle East. Despite the common knowledge of historic mistrust, violence, and downright misery of the cultures living throughout the Middle East, almost all of humanity cannot accept the simple fact that discord is as much a part of Middle Eastern cultural experience as the earth, sand, caves, and winds of that entire region. Human beings do not accept the impossible. If science, tradition, or even holistic, anecdotal, or dream solutions do not work then most humanity turns to religion for meaningful resolution. Humans claim to accept the impossible but actually, like the brilliant genius portrayed in the movie Princess Bride, when things go against all established understanding or perceived fact, humans do not find them impossible. They find them inconceivable.
Acting upon the difference between those two words separates humanity from all other species. The impossible is to be accepted, set aside, and respected for what it is. The inconceivable is to be investigated further to find out what foundation might have caused the use of it in the first place.
Humans would not accept the sound barrier as a barrier. Humans went at breaking it until they did. And yes, at one time, for some time, the sound barrier was thought to be impenetrable. Nuclear fission and nuclear fusion were long assumed to be impossible reactions for humans to create on Earth, but everyone knows that this was done and continues to be done regularly. Those things were not impossible, not for the type of humans who do not accept impossibility. Those things were inconceivable to them, so they went to work. The same kind of people are studying the inconceivable likelihood of going faster than the speed of light. They are working on the inconceivable likelihood of transmuting any element to any other element.
One day, possibly in the lifetime of someone reading this article, humanity will no longer eat fruits, vegetables, or other animals. We’ll eat transmuted rocks made to be what those foods once were. Humans will travel to the galaxies and the universe instead of highways made of hardened rock powder (concrete) or congealed oil (asphalt). It is important not to give in to the impossible, even if going against it requires a deeper belief in any sort of God. Faith is nothing more than not accepting the impossible. It is only inconceivable that God does not exist.
Humans are things of great wonder when such things are to be considered. And you, reading this, should congratulate yourself and those around you for never ever giving up on the impossible.
