Omega (35) "I don't really understand how that is," Beta objected. "I'm sure my life hasn't been that much improved by knowing that space and time bend under gravitational force, or that the entire universe was originally just a perturbation in infinity. I'm sure that my life would be just as happy and profitable if I thought the world was as flat as a pizza, only six thousand years old and that the moon was made of green cheese." Pandora laughed. "What an absurd idea! The fact you know that these things aren't true tells me that you surely can't be serious. Without a knowledge of quantum fluctuation, time reversal and solid light how could our society possibly exist? We now know that the universe is a very different thing to that which we perceive on a daily basis: both more fundamentally simple and more complex." "I'm afraid I have to agree with your guide there," remarked the equine voice of the Unicorn whom I'd met a few days earlier in Gotesdene and who appeared from behind us. He trotted along on his dainty cloven feet, radiating an apparent golden sheen, reflected off his horn and mane. He lowered his head slightly, shook it from side to side, and then levelled it to meet his eyes with ours. "Good afternoon, again, young man. You have indeed travelled a long way in your search for the Truth. Do you hope to find it here in the Academy?" "I'm not sure," I admitted. "It certainly seems a more likely location than the Suburbs, where I gather the Illicitists are heading in their own quest. I would have thought that a place like the Academy, where so many brilliant minds are gathered in the whole-hearted pursuance of different aspects of the Truth, would be a far more likely place to find the Truth than streets and avenues of semi-detached houses and manicured lawns." "What are you doing here?" I couldn't help asking. "Well, I'm not here on a quest like you," The Unicorn laughed. "And your young lady friend? Are you also seeking the Truth with our Suburban friend?" Beta nodded shyly, clearly in some awe at the sight of the Unicorn. "I don't know if we'll find it here. It does seem such a big place." "Yes. If the Truth were here, you could spend a very long time finding which room it was hiding in. No, I'm here as a guest of the Academy's scientists because of the rather long term perspectives I have on historical events. It's amazing just how much interest they find in the things I've seen or witnessed. What was the weather like in the eighteenth century? Did Francis Bacon write King Lear? Did the Mediæval Chinese use silicon chip technology? Was Crete anchored in the Atlantic ocean? How big was the ozone hole after Mount Vesuvius exploded? All fascinating stuff." "I dare say there are scientists interested in you as an individual," remarked Pandora admiringly. "You've lived such a long time, haven't you?" "A very long time. Well, samples of my genes have been studied to exhaustion and my horn is forever having to struggle to replenish the samples scraped off it. Some people still question whether I even exist. Some argue that I am extinct and others that I am physically impossible. And some even say that as a mythological beast I shouldn't be here at all. It's all very interesting. I sometimes wonder myself if I exist. What do you think?" "You look - and feel - real enough to me!" Beta remarked running her fingers along the length of the Unicorn's very firm horn. "Well, appearances can be very deceptive you know. It could be that I am indeed not real. That I am nothing but the product of generations of imagination, thrown together from elements of different animals like elands, lions, horses and goats, and turned into a symbol of hope and nostalgia. It could be that I am real and that none of you are real. That this guide here is nothing more than an astrological motif. That you, my dear, are only a fantasy of incongruity in a modern age. And that my Suburban friend is nothing but a vehicle for everyone else to reflect their existence through his nullity. It could be that the City is nothing more than a mythical location in a mythical modern age." "That's nonsense!" Laughed Pandora. "There are no doubt levels of scale and abstraction in which one can doubt the solidity of real life. But if there is anything of which I am certain it is that I exist, and it would seem absurd to me that the world around me didn't exist. How can any sane person deny this? It is on this fundamental premise that all empirical research is built and the foundation on which science and technology is based." "I don't believe that the world could possibly be such a complex and frightening place if it weren't real," Beta elaborated. "I know it all sounds pretty fantastic: all this stuff about parallel universes, fragmented spacetime and multidimensional moëbius bands. But I'm sure that it is as real as we are. And you as well, I'm sure." The Unicorn tossed his head from side to side, as if shaking off the suggestion of his lack of reality. He raised it and addressed me again. "So, how do you like the City? I'm glad to see that you took my advice and came here after leaving Gotesdene. It's very different from the Country, don't you think?" I nodded. "It's difficult to believe we're in the same realm. How can there be so much wealth here and so little in the Country? And things are so expensive here! How can that be?" "I'm sure there are people in the Academy who could answer your questions far more authoritatively than me. Isn't that so?" "Indeed, there are many experts here who have thoroughly studied the disparities of the City and the Country in all sorts of disciplines," confirmed Pandora. "There are Economics professors who argue that the cause is the greater degree of economic activity in the City creating a disproportionate amount of wealth, which reinforces itself by creaming off all surplus economic activity from the Country to satisfy its requirements for labour and resources. There are Sociologists who say that the City is the natural product of the need for people to gather in large units thereby concentrating greater opportunities in the areas of greatest population density. There are Archæologists who would argue that the City is the manifestation of civilisation and without it there would be no science, no technology and no culture. There are Political Scientists who warn that the concentration of wealth in the City is a danger as it bleeds dry the resources of the Country to feed its needs, and that eventually the process must result in an event in which the Country collapses economically and drags the City down with it. There are others who say that the City is merely a phase of society and that eventually the process will go into reverse and that the City will become depopulated and units of production will shift into the Country as technology removes the economic advantage of geographical proximity." "I daresay there is a theory for every individual working in the Academy!" Laughed the Unicorn. "However, I spend a great deal of time in the Country - as I do in the City - and it worries me how the Country can survive as it is for very much longer. I fear that it is fast gaining all the detrimental side affects of City life and precious few of its benefits. And as long as those in the City remain so apparently wealthy (even if their money buys so little) then those living in the Country will feel increasing resentment. And while there is mounting dissatisfaction there is also a real risk of major social upheaval." Pandora smiled. "Perhaps, if we're discussing the City and the Country, we should be in the Geography department rather than the Physical Sciences. I live in the City. There seem to be quite enough problems here without needing to worry about the Country. A lot of it is just economic activity. Nothing in the City can keep pace with it. As soon as a road is built to correct yesterday's traffic problem, it becomes totally congested. Optical cable links are put down to allow everyone to access audio and video services at low cost, but there isn't enough software to fulfil the quantity and quality of the hardware. Laser controlled car alarms are installed at the same time as portable lasers are developed which render them totally ineffective. Applications are invited for jobs at a faster rate than skills are developed to do the work. Businesses collapse just after the premises are built because yesterday's demand is today's redundancy." "Things do change very fast in the City," the Unicorn agreed. "I can barely recognise some parts of it from the last time I visited. Green fields become housing estates. Slums become industrial parks. Railway stations become supermarkets. Department stores become multi-storey car parks. And the pollution! It seems to change all the time. Once it was coal smoke and ordure. Then it was petrol fumes and nuclear radiation. Now it seems to be noise and ultraviolet light. My head just fills with the smells, sounds and stress of the City: clogging up my nostrils and leaving black grease between my cloven hooves." "Where does all the pollution come from?" Wondered Beta naïvely. "Ultimately it comes from the Country and from abroad," the Unicorn replied. "The raw materials are imported into the City and converted into petrol, polystyrene, newspapers, plastic bottles and street lighting. This in turn is discarded as waste - sometimes solid, sometimes liquid, sometimes gas, and sometimes as specks of dust floating above the street. Then I don't know what happens to it all." "It gets returned to the Country," Pandora answered, without a hint of irony in her voice. "That's where all the rubbish heaps, nuclear dumps and sewage farms are. You don't want all that foul stuff polluting the City, do you?" "So, it gets returned to where it came from in a different form to how it was sent," Beta mused. "I suppose that's only fair. Perhaps it can be sent back to the City later." "Only if it's cleaned and made properly sterile," sniffed Pandora dismissively. "Life in the City is bad enough with its traffic congestion and overcrowding." "The City may be a very stressful place, but I love it," the Unicorn added. "It's such an exciting place. The world would be a sorrier place without it. This is where all the culture is, where all the shops are, where all the money is. It has to be somewhere, and this is it. However, I'm just a visitor. I would never wish to live here for very long. When I come to the City, I never stay much longer than a fortnight, and then I'm away again. Back to the Country or elsewhere. I see the City growing and growing. Expanding by acquisition and growth. Rather like this Academy. The buildings grow ever taller. More and more of the Country is sacrificed to accommodate the hunger for land. Roads penetrate deeper and deeper into what were once pampas, dense forests and marshland. And as it expands, the City's heart becomes increasingly derelict as yesterday's technology becomes today's industrial wasteland." Beta frowned. "Are you implying that the City will eventually swallow up all the Country?" "I can't see that happening at all!" Laughed Pandora sceptically. "There's an awful lot of Country. And big though the City might be, - and bigger still as it may well be in the future, - it couldn't possibly expand that much." "You say that," the Unicorn argued sadly, "and there must be truth in what you say. The City needs a world beyond it to survive. There must be sources of raw materials beyond its boundaries and places for food to grow and oxygen to be photosynthesised. But I've seen the City double and double generation after generation. I remember when all this didn't exist: the tall buildings, the busy roads, the night clubs, the underground trains. I remember when the City was just a small village of Celtic peasants fishing in the river and hunting mammoths. I've seen the City grow to be a small town, and then grow ever bigger, swallowing up other villages and towns, paving the dirt-tracks with tar macadam, laying railway tracks through ancient palaces and digging underground sewerage canals beneath cathedrals. I've known places famous for picturesque waterfalls and herds of wildebeest which are now buried under skyscrapers, underpasses and flyovers. If the City does indeed grow at its present exponential rate then surely, by all the rules of geometric progression, this nation will become just one vast City from border to border, from shore to shore and from deep beneath the ground to high above the sky." "That can't happen!" Pandora objected. "Before then the whole edifice would have to collapse. It can't expand too far or too fast without exceeding all the available resources, and stretching its ability to service its needs beyond its capacity to do so!" The Unicorn nodded sagely. "I'm sure you're right. I'm sure you're absolutely right! However, I'm hungry. Would you like to join me for a meal in the Academy's excellent restaurant?" Beta protested about the cost, but the Unicorn dismissed her objections. "It's no problem to me to afford it," he assured us. Pandora and he led us along a series of corridors and down several storeys to the refectory which was a large hall of tables, chairs and an extensive counter serving sandwiches, snacks and hot meals. A few people were scattered about the tables, many wearing white coats, and chatting over coffee and biscuits. We selected some sandwiches and drinks at the counter and the Unicorn paid the barbary ape who was serving at the till. We sat down at a table, with the Unicorn standing to one side, chewing on clumps from the trough of hay he'd ordered for himself. "So, young man, do you think your visit to the Academy has brought you any closer in your search for the Truth?" He asked, strands of hay drooping from his lips. "Or do you think that the Illicit Party is correct in seeking the Truth in the Suburbs?" "I'm not sure," I replied thoughtfully. "We haven't actually found the Truth here, and I get the impression that there may be too much disagreement amongst the distinguished professors and academics as to what the Truth may be, for it to be likely to find it here." "In any case," Beta interjected, "we were advised by someone we've recently met to follow this Rupert and search for the Truth in the Suburbs. We were told that there would really be nothing lost by doing so." "Indeed not," agreed the Unicorn. "Though it does seem the most unlikely place in the entire universe for it to be. And aren't the Suburbs exactly the place from which your search began? What point is there of retracing your steps?" Before I could answer him, we were approached by a chimpanzee in a white coat carrying a clipboard and with a pencil protruding from the chest pocket. "Ah! There you are!" She exclaimed to the Unicorn. "I was hoping I'd meet you. I'd like to introduce you to a colleague of mine, Doctor Dixhuit, who would like to discuss your observations of Mediæval crop rotation." She indicated a colobus monkey. "Could we possibly trouble you for a few moments?" "Certainly you may," replied the Unicorn amiably. "Anything I can do to further the cause of knowledge." He bid the three of us farewell and trotted off out of the canteen between the two simians. Pandora observed him leave, and then turned towards us with a small frown. "Excuse me, but am I right in understanding from your exchange with our artiodactyl friend that you two are searching for the Truth just like those fanatics from the Illicit Party?" We nodded. "It seems a very worthwhile pursuit," Beta explained. "Indeed it is," our guide agreed, "but not one I would have thought to be pursued merely by wandering about. All of us in the employ of the Academy are seeking for the Truth ourselves, but none of us would seriously contend that it can be discovered just by walking about the City or even the Suburbs. The Truth is a much more abstract and intangible entity, and its eventual discovery is much more likely through the process of scientific enquiry." "How does that work?" Beta wondered. "Quite simply by the process of postulating a hypothesis and demonstrating its truth or falsity. The Truth by its very nature is something which must lend itself to logical proof. It must be something for which there can be ultimately no countervailing hypothesis which can be proved to also be true. There can only be one Truth, otherwise there would be no value to the pursuit of logic." "But isn't science to do with observation and experimentation rather than pure logic?" Beta persisted. "Naturally. If a hypothesis is true, it must be possible to demonstrate its truth by reference to the real world." "Is it necessarily the case that the Truth can be shown to be true by such means?" Pandora raised an eyebrow. "What a bizarre idea! Are you suggesting that the Truth is in some inexplicable way divorced from the real world of scientific enquiry? Can you be seriously implying that the Truth is not ultimately a physical and actual attribute of the universe? What arrant nonsense. The Truth will ultimately be shown to be nothing more and nothing less than a single equation which unifies the general and special theories of relativity with the behaviour of the fundamental quanta of which the universe is made. What else could it be? The universe is here. It obeys certain absolute laws. Those laws determine the universe, and the universe in turn has the properties of manifesting these laws. All the Truth must be is the mathematical expression of this. What else could it be?"
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