Space-ships And Time Machines Are No Escape

If There Is A Lesson In Our Story It Is That The Manipulation, According To Strictly Self-consistent Rules, Of A Set Of Symbols Representing One Single Aspect Of The Phenomena May Produce Correct, Verifiable Predictions, And Yet Completely Ignore All Other Aspects Whose Ensemble Constitutes Reality.

...the Cosmology Of A Given Age Is Not The Result Of Unilinear, "scientific" Development, But Rather The Most Striking, Imaginative Symbol Of Its Mentality- The Projection Of Its Conflicts, Prejudice And Specific Ways Of Double-think Onto The Graceful Sky.

Space-ships And Time Machines Are No Escape From The Human Condition. Let Othello Subject Desdemona To A Lie-detector Test; His Jealousy Will Still Blind Him To The Evidence. Let Oedipus Triumph Over Gravity; He Won't Triumph Over His Fate.

Chemically Induced Hallucinations, Delusions And Raptures May Be Frightening Or Wonderfully Gratifying; In Either Case They Are In The Nature Of Confidence Tricks Played On One's Own Nervous System.

One May Not Regard The World As A Sort Of Metaphysical Brothel For Emotions.