Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

From The Proteus Operation by James P. Hogan (b. 1941-06-27, d. 2010-07-12) (1985, Bantam Books, New York):

"Truth, of course, pays no attention to political needs," Gustav went on, "or to the needs of any other kind of ideology for that matter. What is true will remain true regardless of all the wishful thinking in the world that would have it otherwise. And the purpose of science is to discover what is absolute and unchangeable, inherent in the fabric of the universe and completely uninfluenced by man's passions or by whether or not we even exist at all."

"You make it sound almost like a religion," Cassidy commented.

Gustav nodded. "Albert Einstein -- you've heard of him, no doubt. I saw him once from a distance, you know. Einstein said that scientific research is the only thing that qualifies as a religion. If religion claims to deal with the absolute and the universal, then what could be more absolute and universal than the things revealed through mathematics and physics? But the systems that are called religions, what do they concern themselves with? Words that a person utters -- which god he thinks he talks to. Whom somebody might choose to make love with. What books he reads. Trivial things, things that concern the behaviour of people. There's nothing absolute or universal about that! Who do people think they are to imagine that the universe cares about their antics on this little speck of mud? Only people care about such things. But they persuade themselves that their little problems have cosmic importance." Gustav threw up his hands in a gesture of exasperation. "And these are the people who in the same breath accuse scientists of being arrogant! I ask you! Did you ever hear such an absurdity?"

[OTOH, universal absolutes are not the only things important to people -- religion's focus on people-stuff is useful to many[*] people. But I do love the "what could be more absolute and universal than the things revealed through mathematics and physics?" part.]

[*] Obviously not all people -- religion can be a potent tool but it's not the only applicable tool for how-people-might-live stuff. Still, it's a tool that suits me.]

Some of you may have noiticed that I'm not at Pennsic this year. The rest of you won't have noticed because our paths don't cross that often there or because you don't go to Pennsic. (And some won't see this because you don't check social media from Pennsic.) Anyhow, I'm not at Pennsic and I'm trying not to obsess over that even though it's kind of a big deal -- this is the first one I've missed since 1986, the first one I went to.

I'm not there for a bunch of reasons, any two of which I pobably would have stubborned my way past, but they added up. It's tempting at this point to say I'm having a sucky year, but earlier in the year were my fun birthday dinner and the trip to Cyprus (a very big deal, a very good thing!), so it's more accurate to say I'm having a really sucky summer. I also missed Conterpoint and Baitcon. (I actually got most of the wall-of-instruments loaded into the van for Conterpoint, but wore myself out so badly doing so that I never made it out of the driveway. A week later I finally managed to get it all unloaded again. Frustrating.)

So, since I haven't been writing as much as I ought, here's what's been up, some little things, some inconvenient things, some big-but-can't-tell-how-scary-yet things:

As long as I'm in babbling-catch-up mode ...

• The next Homespun Ceilidh Band album should be getting pretty close to finished by now -- last I heard, all or nearly-all of everybody's parts had been recorded (I made sure to get my studio time in before going to Cyprus) but I don't know how much editing and post-production work there is to do.
• Perrine is overdue for claw-snipping, but Her Adorableness has hidden the %$#^ claw scissors yet again. I'm sure she didn't move them far, but my room is so very cluttered ... (lots of possible things for her to move them under or into)
• A subset of The Homespun Ceilidh Band will be playing at the Battle of Bladensburg event at Riversdale House 2013-08-24.
• I finally got around to reading H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man. Spoiler: the invisible man is a real asshole.
• I'm working on a new composition that's significantly longer than anything else I've written so far, but the process is also going more slowly than usual. This may take a while.

I don't really have a good closing note in mind, and I'm sure I've left stuff out. I'll close with a not-exactly-random musing that's bounced around in my head for a couple of months: do "polymath" and "autodidact" go together more often than not?