The Paradoxical Nature of Knowledge

with leaden packs.

  The car cruised down the small street pausing only briefly by a complex of dorms before continuing through a quiet neighborhood. He turned down one of the streets then stopped in front of a cozy house. He opened the doors then glanced back at her.

  “This is the right address right?” he asked as she looked at the mailbox remembering the address from her father.

  “Yeah this is it.” she agreed as she got up then walked pass the rows of seats, standing by the door.

  “Thank you,” she whispered before she stepped carefully down the steep steps.

  “No problem it’s my job. I just hope this is the right house because I get them confused sometimes.” he admitted.

  “This is defiantly the right house.” she told him pleased for having her photographic memory.

  “Well I have to go but if this is not the house just knock on the door and I am sure that the professor, who lives here, will help you find Professor Rivera.” he suggested as she nodded then walked up the sidewalk, up to the front door.

  “Thanks again.” she told him as the doors closed and the odd car pulled away.

  She knocked lightly on the door when she heard someone approaching. She waited as the door was pulled open. There was a man standing in the doorway. He was just like her father described him. He had kind eyes and dark curly hair.

  “Who are you? Are you lost?” he asked her gently as she nodded.

  “My parents are dead and I don’t have anywhere to go.” she admitted as he opened his door a little wider then stepped aside.

  “Well you are welcome to stay here until we find a place where you belong,” he offered as she smiled at him, pleased for the first time since her father died.

  Future Outcomes

  Maria sat on the rug, staring at Snickers, which was slumped forward with its round head lowered. The toy’s once soft fur was course and there was a small hole in its side where the dart struck it. Its nose looked worn and its glass eyes were scratched. Its collar had lost its definition, acquiring an unpleasant fuzz. It was the last thing that remained of her mother, of her parents. It was all that remained of her old life.

  She looked up at Rachel, her great grandmother, when she smiled down at her encouragingly. She had patient eyes and a playfulness about her demeanor that reminded her strongly of her mother.

  Rico entered the room then stood beside his wife as they both looked down at her on the floor. They briefly caught each others’ eye as Maria watched them confused.

  “We have been considering your situation and we have talked to the local police to confirm that your records could not be found so since you have been here awhile and you are settled in…” Rico began as Rachel smiled, almost bouncing in her seat.

  “I have been here for one week and five days and eight hours and thirty seven minutes and fifty nine seconds but I am fond of this place and the both of you.” Maria agreed, adding definition to the word awhile.

  “Sometimes it is like you have a little computer in your head.” Rico pointed out playfully.

  “We want to adopt you. You can be a Rivera if you want though I guess your name wouldn’t really change since your last name is already Rivera.” Rachel cut him off as Maria stared at them, her heart fluttering with excitement.

  “You want to adopt me?” she asked, stunned by the idea of finally being granted a family, of being raised by her great grandparents.

  “Yeah after our son moved out we missed his company. It would be nice to have you around.” Rico explained as Maria smiled widely.

  “Um yes, of course,” she accepted as both of them looked to each other, beaming with emotion, squeezing each others’ hands with uncontained pleasure. Maria picked up Snickers, finally feeling at home, finally feeling free of her troubles.

  “I know I joke about Maria having a small computed implanted in her brain but I wonder if an artificial processor really could be inserted into a human’s brain to aid the brain’s ability to process information. What affects would such a thing have?” Rico began, lost within his own thoughts, as she blinked slowly thinking of the Artificial Cerebral Processing Chip.

  “I know I am not an inventor but it is not impossible. There is a camp on Mars and the particle that affects the properties of gravity has been discovered. I know it a long shot but I am sure it could be done. I could test its effect on mice.” he explained as she nodded.

  “It is definitely possible,” she agreed.

  “How do you know?” he asked confused by the amount of certainty in her voice.

  “Impossibilities are just outcomes that can’t be properly explained.” Maria stated as they both stared at her, stunned while she fondled Snicker’s collar, knowing that her presence in the past has already created the future that she sought to escape.

  It seems that human knowledge is often fragmented, clouded by the novelty of the future that awaits us. It is not that our world is ruled by chaos but that the deterministic forces that shape the future are greatly unknown, hidden beyond our sight, hidden by a lack of data, for we can only know the world as being as it is but we struggle to imagine what it one day might be. We often forget that the universe was born of change, of a restless productivity that never ceases. The universe is still growing, its systems becoming more complex as the universe matures. New mysteries arrive to replace the old as the restless universe reluctantly reveals its secrets. Structure arises out of chaos as the deterministic forces that guides the fate of us all is realized slowly over time by experiencing the current state of the world, forgetting that the universe is still being created, forgetting that all of its wonders have not yet come.

  For how can humanity know of the future when the present is still unfolding before us? How can chemistry be envisioned before the creation of atoms? How can ecosystems be envisioned before the arrival of organisms? How can the complexity of the brain be envisioned before the formation of the neuron?

  How can one anticipate the conclusion when one lacks all of the premises? How can humanity use information that it never possessed, that the universe has not yet revealed? It seems that the universe will always retain a certain amount of mystery, that there will always be unknown information to uncover, for reality is still unfolding itself, humanity is still growing, and who is to say if we will ever acquire enough data to be certain that our knowledge of the world will never be contradicted, that our scientific theories will ever be proven to be more than very informed guesses about the unknown, claims of the true nature of the universe in its entity.

  We wish to understand the world, to master it, which is a basis in itself. We believe that if two events always coincide that one must be contingent to the other, that they must form an interdepend relationship with one another, but simply recognizing such a relationship does not explain the interplay of the invisible ties that bind them. It is possible that our need to understand the world has blinded us to the fact that our world is filled with unobservable forces that we can only speculate about. Even though we are heavily armed with the means to describe and test the strength of dependency of many different factors, we may never know the nature by which these factors are bound, we may never know if our theories are indeed true for the certainty on which these theories are based can never be absolute. Facts are merely an illusion constructed within the minds of men who dare to imagine a world completely within their grasp, who fear the questions that can never be answered, who fear such oddities as Maria Rivera.