204.00 Paradox of the Computer

204.01 Scientific entry into the present realm of nuclear competence was accomplished with the awkward irrational tools of the centimeter-gram-second (CGS)[^3] measurement and the Cartesian XYZ 90-degree coordinate system. But the awkwardness had to be corrected by Planck’s constant to produce reliable, usable information. The development and adoption of the great computers has now relieved humans of the onerous computational tasks entailed in the corrective processing by the irrational constants necessitated by the ineptness of the arithmetical rigidity of arbitrarily exclusive, three-dimensional interpretation of Euclidean geometric mensuration. These irrational constants interlink the many separately evolved quantation techniques of the separately initiated explorations of the many separate facets of universal experiencefor instance, biology, crystallography, or physics are called separate, “specialized” scientific inquiries by academic departments and surrounded by no trespassing signs and electrically charged barbed wire. Because these tasks are being carried by the computers, and men are getting along all right on their blind-flown scientific pilgrimages, realization of the significance of the sensorially conceptual facility of dealing with nature that is opened up by synergetics has been slow.

204.02 It is a paradox that the computer, in its very ability to process nonconceptual formulae and awkwardly irrational constants, has momentarily permitted the extended use of obsolescent mathematical tools while simultaneously frustrating man’s instinctive drive to comprehend his direct experiences. The computer has given man physical hardware that has altered his environmental circumstances without his understanding how he arrived there. This has brought about a general disenchantment with technology. Enchantment can only be sustained in those who have it, or regained by those who have lost it, through conceptual inspiration. Nothing could be more exciting than the dawning awareness of the discovery of the presence of another of the eloquently significant eternal reliabilities of Universe.