The Days of Peleg (59 page)

Peleg nodded as the concept became clearer. The slightest change would drastically affect the outcome, and it was the tiny uncontrolled aspects like initial arrangement and release that generated the appearance of randomness.

Shem reached over and collected the pebbles in his hands.

“Shall we try?” he asked with a grin.

Peleg looked astonished, and half expected him to somehow do just that. But instead, Shem simply deposited the stones with the rest in his bag.

“What I want to ask involves another thought experiment,” Shem said when he had closed the bag. “I want you to tell me what you would think if I were to cast a handful of stones on the floor, and, when the landed, they outlined the first character in your name.”

He paused and raised a finger.

“But then,” he continued, “I collected the stones, tossed them again, and they outlined the second character of your name; followed by another toss which displayed the first character of your wife’s name, and then the next, and so on until the stones had spelled out the names of your wives, children and entire family. How would you explain it?”

Peleg thought for a moment, and then began slowly.

“Well,” he said, “I would have to assume that either you were very skilled at throwing stones, or that you had arranged some trick, say magnets in the floor, or a slight-of-hand illusion that replaced the stones with some pre-designed latticework.”

“Assuming for the sake of our experiment that none of these things were the case,” said Shem. “Would you consider the possibility that that the names had appeared in successive throws purely by accident?”

“Absolutely not,” said Peleg. “Whatever the cause, some form of deliberate intent is involved since they are recognizable symbols with specific meaning.”

“That’s only because you recognize them,” said Shem. “They would appear as meaningless lines and wedges to someone who knew nothing of your language.”

“Still,” said Peleg. “The characters represent a clear pattern that could only be deliberate. One way or another, you must have caused it.”

Shem nodded, and thought for a second before speaking.

“There is one other possibility,” he said, “can you think of it?”

Peleg pondered for a moment. Either the stones in this example were arranged by Shem’s design, or it
was
an accident. He could conceive of no third possibility.

“Perhaps the stones themselves did it,” offered Shem. “Perhaps as they were flying through the air, they chose to change course, select partners with which to collide, and directed their own organization to spell out your name. Just for you,” he added with a smile.

“That’s impossible!” exclaimed Peleg.

“Exactly!” Shem responded, and then immediately demanded, “Why?”

Peleg was taken aback, but eventually responded.

“It’s because of causality, right? Once the path of a given stone has been ‘caused’, the effect cannot be changed. It is locked in, and must continue to its pre-determined conclusion.”

“Very good,” said Shem. “I believe you may ready to handle what is coming next.”

He picked up his bag of stones, and slowly poured them out onto the floor.

“These pebbles,” he began, “represent all of the matter in the universe. And if I were to pick them up and throw them,
that
would represent all of the energy in the universe. Everything in the universe is subject to the laws of causality. Every physical interaction, every chemical reaction, all the motions of the stars and their wanderers, all weather patterns, all geological events. Everything. Every event occurs because a preceding event forced it. The cause could be physical, chemical, magnetic, or even energy waves, but once it occurs, the result is inevitable, unless another force supersedes it.”

Peleg nodded, somewhat disappointed. This was all familiar thinking to him. After Shem’s big build-up, he had anticipated something more earth shattering.

“You’re thinking, ‘I’ve heard all of this before’,” Shem said, reading his thoughts. “But what you haven’t considered is how ‘impossible’ (to use you own word) humans fit into all of this.”

Peleg started to speak, but couldn’t see the connection, so he kept quiet.

“I suggested,” continued Shem, “that the rocks could somehow supersede causality if they had the intelligence to choose against the ‘effect’ and make decisions which were
not
the result of any chemical or physical ‘cause’. The planetarium designed by our friend, Tarshish, could only perform predetermined or causal outcomes, but there was no combination of physical or chemical causes that
forced
him to create it.”

Peleg’s mind was becoming confused as it tried desperately to sort out what was allegory, what was metaphor, and what was reality.

“My proposition is this,” Shem began his pronouncement to unify everything up to this point. “
Intelligence
is that ability to supersede causality and create decisions that are independent of external forces. For example, when you speak, there is no chemical or physical agent forcing you to select the sounds you use. No outside energy is ‘causing’ you to choose your words. When you write, or take measurements, nothing in the universe is forcing you to move your arm, or make the marks that you do. Sure, your muscles move your bones, and they grip the stylus, but your intelligence or ‘decision-making’ guides the end result—much the same as if I controlled the outcome of the thrown stones.”

Peleg tried to think of something to say, caught himself ‘choosing’ his words, and stopped when he realized he was about to utter a sentence that contained the word ‘
Lifeforce
’.

“You want to say something about
Lifeforce
,” stated Shem with a half-smile. “As I’m sure you now realize, since biological life is simply matter, then it must abide by the same laws of causality that the rest of the cosmos follows. Yet, as you can now see, the ability to
violate
that causality exists everywhere within the human experience and is demonstrated in human intelligence. This is a
supernatural
, yet observable part of reality that must be accounted for.”

Peleg’s stomach did a small lurch at the word ‘supernatural’. That was definitely one of the most despicable words at the
Citadel
, yet he had to admit it was being used accurately in this case.

“Human beings have the unique ability to make decisions,” Shem continued, declaratively. “One of the most remarkable examples is the ability to choose
what
to think. You can think about what I’m saying, or choose to think about something unrelated. You can select any idea you wish, and meditate upon it. Nothing is ‘causing’ you to do this, yet you exist in a
causal
universe. In fact, most people refuse to admit it, but we can choose our own emotions, our own reactions, and even our own feelings. Society tells us we can’t help ourselves, but this is a lie.”

Peleg nodded with very little comprehension.

“Here are my questions to you,” said Shem. “At what point in the history of the universe did this ‘intelligence’, this ‘interference with causality’ appear? At what stage was it ‘inserted’ into reality? But before you answer, consider these questions:”

Shem turned away from the stones on the ground, and faced Peleg more directly. Peleg suddenly realized that Bernifal had slipped out into the storm for some unknown purpose. Neither one had heard him leave.

“Does it require
more
intelligence to arrange characters out of stones, or to devise something that can create its own system of writing? Did it take
more
intelligence to create the planetarium, or to create something that can design its own planetarium? If decision-making is an indication of intelligence, how much intelligence does it require to create an independent decision maker?”

Peleg was completely lost as this latest flurry of questions accosted him, but he found himself impressed with Shem’s last question. It was a real tongue twister in Peleg’s language, and Shem had spoken it flawlessly. Peleg shook his head and tried to return to the meaning behind the words. So much unconventional thinking, and so many issues. The image of the shipbuilder-builders entered into his mind, compounding his perplexity.

Shem refocused him.

“The question: When did intelligence appear?”

It was clear that the silence was now permanent, until Peleg chose to respond. He tried to organize his thoughts along with all of the new concepts. He mentally assembled a few premises, and then discarded them until he was able to latch on to one.

Intelligence is exhibited in patterns which cannot occur solely by cause and effect.

A second quickly followed:

Deliberate intent is needed to overcome causality and create meaningful information.

He juggled these in his mind for a few moments, and then a resulting thought escaped from his mouth.

“Intelligence can only arise from intelligence,” he blurted out, and then tried to explain himself. “The only way that causality could be overcome, is by introducing some unimaginable …” he paused before deciding on the right word, “…
agent
into the universe—but …” Peleg was thinking, his words slowing down. “…that agent must
itself
be the result of intelligence...but—
that
agent…” His words trailed off as the infinite regression began to dawn on him.

Shem laughed, obviously excited.

“Please tell me,” he said, almost mocking. “What chemical or physical laws ‘caused’ you to choose those syllables? You have an almost infinite number of sounds or grunts you
could
make, yet you selected those exact sounds—sounds which I am able to turn into meaning. What
made
you do it?”

Peleg felt a flicker of anger. Shem was trivializing his quandary, and seemed to be enjoying it.

“
I
did it,” he said impatiently. “I chose my own words.”

“Yes,” said Shem. “But one of the words you selected was ‘agent’, and I would now like to inform you of the
source
of that ‘agent’.”

Peleg reacted internally to the word ‘source’. It reminded him of Serug.

“As you have now seen,” continued Shem, “a created thing cannot be more intelligent than its creator. Your planetarium cannot be more intelligent than Tarshish (or Thaxad). A ship cannot be more complex than the ship’s builder. A design cannot exhibit more ingenuity than its designer. In other words,
anything
that exhibits intelligence
must
have a greater intelligence behind it. Since we
know
that intelligence exists, we are left with two options. Either there exists an
infinite
succession of minds which exhibit increasing orders of intelligence, or there exists
one
mind with infinite intelligence or omniscience. A
Mind
that knows
all
that is knowable!”

Shem looked into Peleg’s eyes.

“But for that to be possible,” he continued, “this
Mind
would have to know all knowledge in the past and future as well, and to accomplish that, He would have to exist outside of time!”

He paused for a moment, then resumed with a much softer voice.

“Peleg,” he said. “That
Mind
is called the
Creator
, and when He ‘created’ the first humans, he installed a very special ‘agent’ in them. You call it your
volition
, but
He
describes it as ‘being made in
His
image’. The
Creator
gave them the very same autonomous decision making ability that He possesses. They could choose to honor him or choose
not
to honor him. They could choose what to eat and what to think. A very special creation, unlike the pre-determined mechanism of a ship or planetarium.
That
is the point at which ‘intelligence’ entered this
physical
universe; and the
Creator
, who exists separately from His creation, now watches over it, maintains it, and cares for it—as any good creator would.”

The silence resumed as Peleg mentally digested all of the new thoughts which swirled around his mind. Thunder still rolled overhead, and occasionally, a flash of light would sneak into the cave whenever a sheet of lightning illuminated the outside world.

Bernifal arrived, soaked, but carrying a number of squirming fish in a net which he had rigged next to a nearby overflowing river.

Peleg’s thoughts returned inward. His entire self-image had to be re-evaluated. Back when Shem spoke of the Ship-builder Builders, Peleg had imagined himself (with some disdain) to be nothing more than a fancy mechanism on the shelf of some super-creator’s workshop. But now (if Shem’s analogy were to be believed) he was a decision-making rock.

A troubling thought occurred to him, though, as he considered the possibility that Shem’s
Creator
was real. This Creator, in a very true sense, might consider Himself to be the
owner
of His creation. He might have requirements or demands on humanity—or more specifically—on Peleg himself.

“Is this ‘volition’ what you were speaking of when you said humanity ‘rebelled’?” asked Peleg.

Shem’s head jerked, apparently pulled away from his own reverie. He smiled with a kindness Peleg had not yet seen.

“You are getting ahead of me,” he said. “But yes, they abused the ‘agent’, the gift of their free volition, and chose to reject the
Creator
. You see, having volition is a tremendous and terrifying responsibility. What if you make a wrong choice? The decision is permanent and the consequences are irreversible. All they had to do was accept the
Creator’s
guidance in their decision-making, but they chose instead to run their new world on their own. Naturally, the
Creator
respectfully obliged, but the consequences were disastrous.”

“The curse?”

“Yes,” said Shem. “The curse is simply the
Creator
removing himself from our affairs, unless He is specifically invited to intervene.”