Poem on Narrowing definitions

We split atoms

To find God

We map neurons

To find consciousness

yet we’d be silly to dissect words into letters

To find meaning

Perhaps the sum of it’s parts creates a new whole

Just as letters create words

Just as words create new meanings

Just as words together create sentences

Just as the meaning of a sentence is different from the meaning of a word

Perhaps the answer is not finding the finite

to define the infinite

but rather leaving the divine undefined

Epilogue

The pursuit into the narrow is equally important as the pursuit into the wide. Just take a break every now and again to look at the both the forest and the trees, to note each pebble and the mountain.

Take a slice of time, a moment, to note yourself and the Universe.

And of course, we split atoms for other reasons than to find or define god or the universe or whatever. There’s plenty of reasons to do things. So I’m not prescribing an absolute intention on any of the activities above. Consider it a civil liberty to broadly speak a conjecture on what we’re doing, Higgs-boson or not.

Words Mean Things