Another Paradox

Northern cardinal: Ashbridges Bay, February 2022

To start the conversation, a guest for dinner on Thursday night asked "should Canada send lethal weapons to Ukraine?"

"Aren't all weapons lethal?" said another guest.

"No, not all weapons," said Bruce. "There's rubber bullets, mace ..."

The talk went from there. I didn't have a lot to contribute, because these days I've been staying away from the news ... news about the threat of war in Europe, about this century's antebellum American politics, about the convoy protest. I'm avoiding reading these stories because they just make me anxious. 

Instead, I've been reading fiction. I mentioned Ted Chiang a few posts ago. His story collection Exhalation includes "The Great Silence", a poignant fable narrated by an endangered Puerto Rican parrot noting the irony of humans destroying its home to build a giant telescope to search for signs of nonhuman intelligence .... 

The narrator mentions a famous African Grey parrot named Alex. A human researcher working with Alex demonstrated scientifically that the parrot not only understood the words he spoke, he also understood abstract concepts like colour and shape. Alex died suddenly. His last words to his human friend were, "You be good. I love you." 

Chiang's parrot narrator seems to feel the same way about the Fermi Paradox as I do, insofar as we both find it odd that humans direct their curiosity into the heavens when there are so many rare and precious beings right here who we all should try to get to know better. Before we completely destroy them. Before we destroy ourselves.

You be good. I love you.

Karen

Marna Clarke's last masterwork, framed and hung in pride of place.