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One day you open the door to your dwelling, and there is a neatly wrapped package on your doorstep. The wrapping paper is nothing special, other than it is your favorite color. You smile and look around, seeing no signs of who may have left it. You pick it up, and bring it inside. You open the package and are filled with joy at its unique contents. Just what artifact was within the nondescript wrapping paper is irrelevant to this thought experiment; all that matters is it makes you very happy to possess it. There is no card, note or other method of identification for who gave you this one-of-a-kind present. You examine it closely, and begin the process of trying to deduce who could have given it to you. You wonder. Who knew I would like this so much? Who do I know who could have been so thoughtful? You already, deep inside, feel as though this particular present is the best one you've ever received in your life, yet you have no conclusive idea who it is from. You start calling friends and relatives. You progress to coworkers, neighbors... anyone you imagine could have been responsible for the gift. No one takes credit for it, and no one has any idea who it may have been. You stare at the artifact and ruminate even deeper about it. Perhaps someone else can help figure things out? You look up a phone number for a proper authority, and make a call. A special agent for a certain agency shows up at your residence at the agreed upon time. She takes a while to examine the artifact, then makes some phone calls. Experts from many different scientific fields arrive, as well as some philosophers and seasoned police detectives. They all converge at your residence for about a week. Many speculations arise about the origins of and giver of this artifact. Some explanations seem entirely outlandish, but most of them seem plausible, some even probable. But at the end of the week, tired and weary from endless speculation, everyone leaves and you are once again left alone with the artifact. You stare at it and wonder. How is it possible that someone could give you such a thoughtful, wonderful present, then refuse to make themselves known? Worse still, how disconcerting that you can't figure out who gave it! And here is the gist of the thought experiment: Faced with the prospect of never finding out for sure who gave you the gift, what do you do? Do you: 1. Give up trying to figure it out and just enjoy it? 2. Attribute it to someone, whether or not they ever step forward, in an attempt to make sense of the gift? 3. Throw your hands up in resignation, and decide since there is no trace nor evidence of the giver, that the best course of action is to pretend the artifact just appeared spontaneously on your doorstep, against unbelievable mathematical odds dictated by the physical laws of your universe? Let's see how each course of action plays out. With action number one, you are responsible only for appreciating something without knowing its origin. It seems somewhat unreasonable to assign fault for something as innocent as simple gratitude. With action number two, you are responsible for, at worst, having an imagination and a desire for reason in the world. Your "myth" does not destroy, impede nor even affect whatever the official investigators choose to offer as explanations, and it does not negate the identity of whoever actually did give the gift. In other words, you can't reasonably be faulted for attributing the gift to the wrong person, if the actual giver decided not to make himself or herself known. With action number three, you have completely robbed the giver of the credit for giving you the artifact that gave you so much joy. At best, you are guilty of ingratitude and arrogance; how serious those traits may or may not be in the greater scheme of things is not truly known. ################################################ This thought experiment is not intended to solve any great mystery; there are some puzzles that may never be solved in our existence. It only serves as a subtle reminder that in our attempts to make sense of our universe, our true motivations will always be revealed by our actions, regardless of how we may characterize them. And those motivations are the keys to our destinies, regardless of our individual doctrines. |