Logic's Labors Lost (or "Use It to Lose It")

"Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end."

                                   - Vulcan Proverb

I get reminders every so often that life is not abstract. It doesn't usually stick with me, which is why I get reminders every so often. Sometimes the reminder stays with me just long enough to miss a chance for abstraction to be relevant.

Sometimes I have to walk through the abstract to remember what's practical. That's what I'm doing today. Sorry.

It's a cold and lonely walk, but I prefer it to the consequences of not going... consequences known colloquially as "incapacity for parallel reasoning," and "bliss."

We humans are (among other things) reasonable and logical creatures. Hell, we invented logic. Our supposed mastery of technology indicates a measure of rational thought, even if our use of technology often indicates the lack of it.

Case in Point. The Japanese won't surrender, so logically...

Like all sciences, logic is a tool. There are certain tools for certain jobs, and using the wrong tool for the job results in broken tools and shitty work. You don't try to use a socket wrench as a hammer any more than you would use the Theory of Evolution to explain the cause of a volcanic eruption.

Well... You could, but the answer would make less sense than a second-season Kids in the Hall sketch.

To better understand the universe, a few brilliant bastards have - over the last several hundred years - come up with a reliable way of asking the universe about itself, and of understanding the answers it gives us. That's science, which is divided into the various scientific disciplines (mathematics, biology, physics, chemistry, astronomy and the endless list of subcategories and children thereof).

Not a comprehensive list. Do not attempt.

The sciences all theoretically dovetail somehow (although from what I can gather, nobody has quite succeeded in explaining how physics can be unified, let alone all the sciences). They all ask very different questions, but ask them the same way & interpret the answers the same way: logically.

Funny thing about logic is, it is itself a science, and the unifying factor between all the other ones. Without logic, science goes straight to hell. Even mathematics - the universal language - has limits to what it can describe. With Logic, all things are possible.

All things but consensus.

Logic reduces all things down to the irreducibly simple and undeniable - the Axiom. From there you can understand patterns of galactic movement, the great diamond machinery of the sky. You can see without seeing the intricate relationships between atomic microcosms - galaxies so small they can hardly be said to exist at all.

We didn't invent the wheel. We reverse-engineered it.

It will also lead you to the realization that galaxies and molecules are in many ways the same, with perhaps only a difference of scale or point of view - a significant difference for us, negligible for science.

Same goes for the axel. Reverse engineered.

It isn't all fun though. Logic tells us things we don't want to hear. It can summarize your circumstances and tell you to do unpleasant - even unconscionable - things to change them.

Case in Point 1: I'm in college and I hate it. Been here two weeks, and already realize I'm categorically in the wrong fucking place. Already spent 15,000 borrowed dollars to find myself surrounded - with a few notable exceptions - by cynics, fascists and idiots (all different people, btw). Logic gives me 3 options: Walk, Die or Stay the Course.

I stay the course until I want to die. Then I walk.

I'm pretty sure there was another option, but damned if I know what it was.

Logic might tell you it's a good idea to buy lottery tickets if you're poor. It might tell you that you need to find a job/better job/big score before you lose your home/family/right to gamble.

It can tell you that your enemy is about to destroy you, and that you have to kill him and his whole family to survive.

Worse yet, it can be wrong about any of those things. After all, logic isn't really anything more than a comparison of premises. Unless you're completely psychotic, you know what it's like to suddenly realize one of your premises is wrong.

"Phelps residence. Who's calling and why does God hate you?"

You thought you'd get a good job on graduating with a highly specialized and somewhat impractical degree.

You thought the lottery's odds were better.

You thought your neighbor had WMDs.

You didn't realize you were the cynic/fascist/idiot.

Without meticulous and conscientious application of the scientific method, logic also goes straight to hell.

See you in another present...