Its is obvious from historical evidence that the more something is definitely impossible the higher the possibility is that it is definitely possible, but it may be very difficult for the awareness, capability, politics, or religion at that point in time.
I'm not saying that all that is not possible is possible, I'm just very suspicious of those that state that anything is definitely not possible, particularly when we do not know how much we do not know.
Whenever we learn a little more, or discard a constraint system (be it political or religious), we will apply what we learn until it becomes commonplace and is taken for granted.
Applied technology devices or systems always start out very large, complex, and expensive when we first apply newly learned technology. Have you ever seen the size and price of the first computer, photocopier or microwave oven? When we find that the application of new technology can produce financially beneficial results, we will research, develop, and apply that technology to allow us to maximize the financial potential by maximizing the instances of the application of the technology.
Humankind's advances typically come from accidents or cross-overs, i.e. whoops or I wanted this but got that.
In other words, be a skeptic for what is possible, not a skeptic of what is not possible.
I also like the simple human psychological process for creating and reinforcing impossibility - what is not fathomable, is not possible, and is therefore to be avoided to reinforce the impossibility, even in light of physical evidence of possibility.
What else more easily explains the vast difference in unit sales of Palm Pilots versus Windows CE Palm-size devices? Most people find fathomable, and even have fondness for the commodity technology of a Palm Pilot device, given its simple set of capabilities (no color, no sound) and capped potential for additional simultaneous capabilities (max 4MB memory). Windows CE Palm-size devices are shunned by Palm Pilot purchasers as it is their steadfast belief that it is not possible to do so much more, simultaneously, in roughly the same size device for roughly the same price.
It is this extremely strong avoidance of the unfathomable that I believe is the basis for the majority of efforts of those trying to prove that things are impossible rather than possible.
I'm happy to at least live in a period of time where only scientists desperately struggle to formulate why something is impossible, and that science fiction is allowed to be disseminated without first requiring proof, or without requiring approval from political or religious leaders. In an earlier time, I would probably be beheaded, strung-up, drowned, burned at the stake, thrown in a dungeon, expelled, put in an nut house, or at least labeled a heretic.
In our time, I'm just a techno-geek that is weird.
Monroe Wyatt Pattillo, Jr. (MWP)
monroe.pattillo@monroepattillo.com
Site installed: 09 Jan 97 by MWP
Site updated: Sunday, 12-Jun-2005 09:40:16 EDT by MWP