The Hyperion Cantos 4-Book Bundle (147 page)

[The humankind god

evolved/ will someday evolve/ on

a different plane/

in a different medium]

—
Where?

[If you must know/

the square roots of Gh/c
⁵
and Gh/c
³
]

—
What does Planck time and Planck length have to do with anything?

[Kwatz!]

[Once Ummon asked

a lesser light

Are you a gardener>

Yes
it replied

Why have turnips no roots>

Ummon asked the gardener

who could not reply

Because
said Ummon

rainwater is plentiful]

I think about this for a moment. Ummon’s koan is not difficult now that I am regaining the knack of listening for the shadow of substance beneath the words. The little Zen parable is Ummon’s way of saying, with some sarcasm, that the answer lies within science and within the antilogic which scientific answers so often provide. The rainwater comment answers everything and nothing, as so much of science has for so long. As Ummon and the other Masters teach, it explains why the giraffe evolved a long neck but never why the other animals did not. It explains why humankind evolved to intelligence, but not why the tree near the front gate refused to.

But the Planck equations are puzzling:

Even I am aware that the simple equations Ummon has given me are a combination of the three fundamental constants of physics—gravity, Planck’s constant, and the speed of light. The results
and
are the units sometimes called
quantum length
and
quantum time
—the smallest regions of space and time which can be described meaningfully. The so-called Planck length is about 10
⁻³⁵
meter and the Planck time is about 10
⁻⁴³
second.