by Rog Phillips
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
THE UNTHINKING DESTROYER
by ROG PHILLIPS
Gordon and Harold both admitted the possibility of thinking entities other than human. But would they ever recognize the physical form of some of these beings?
"Hey, Gordon!"
Gordon Marlow, Ph.D., straightened up and turned in the direction of thevoice, the garden trowel dangling in his dirt-stained white canvasglove. His wide mouth broke into a smile that revealed even white teeth.It was Harold Harper, an undergraduate student, who had called.
"Hop over the fence and come in," Gordon invited.
He dropped the trowel and, taking off his work gloves, reached into hispocket and extracted an old pipe. He filled it, the welcoming smileremaining on his lips, while Harold Harper approached, steppingcarefully between the rows of carrots, cabbages, and cauliflower.
Harold held a newspaper in his hand. When he reached Gordon Marlow heheld it open and pointed to the headline. ROBOT ROCKET SHIP TO MARS.
Gordon took the paper and read the item, puffing slowly and contentedlyon his old pipe. His eyes took on an interested look when he came to thereporter's speculations on the possibility of intelligent life on Mars.
Finally he handed the newspaper back to Harold.
"You know, Harold," he said, "I wonder if they would recognizeintelligent life if they saw it on other planets."
"Of course they would," Harold replied. "Regardless of its form therewould be artifacts that only intelligent life could create."
"Would there?" Gordon snorted. "I wonder."
He squatted down, picking up the trowel and lazily poking it into therich soil at his feet.
"That's why I wonder," he continued. "We are so prone to set up tests onwhat intelligent life is that we are likely to miss it entirely if itdoesn't conform exactly to our preconceived notions. We assume that if abeing is intelligent it must get the urge to build artifacts of somekind--pots and vases, houses, idols, machinery, metal objects. But MUSTit? In order to do so it must have hands and perhaps legs. Suppose itdoesn't have such things? Suppose that no matter how intelligent itmight be, it could not do those things!"
"Then it wouldn't be intelligent, would it?" Harold asked, puzzled.
"We are assuming it is," Gordon said patiently. "There are otheroutlets for intelligence than making clay pots. As a last resort foran intelligent being there is always--thinking."
He chuckled at his joke.
Harold held a newspaper in his hands.]
"I've often wondered what it would be like to be a thinking, reasoningbeing with no powers of movement whatsoever. With bodily energy providedautomatically by environment, say, and all the days of life with nothingto do but think. What a chance for a philosopher! What depths of thoughthe might explore. What heights of intellectual perception he mightattain. And if there were some means of contact with others of his kind,so that all could pool their thoughts and guide the younger generation,what progress such a race might make!"
* * * * *
"And so we see," Ont telepathed, "that there must be a Whole of whicheach of us is a part only. The old process which says 'I think,therefore I am,' has its fallacy in the statement, 'I think.' It assumesthat that assertion is axiomatic and basic, when in reality it is theconclusion derived from a long process of mental introspection. It is atheory rather than an axiom."
"But don't you think, Ont," Upt replied, "that you are confusing thenoumenon with the phenomenon? What I mean is, the fact of thinking isthere from the very start or the conclusion couldn't be reached; and thetheoretical conclusion, as you call it, is merely the final recognitionof something basic and axiomatic that was there all the time!"
"True," Ont replied. "But still, to the thinking mind, it is a theoryand not an axiom. All noumena are there before we arrive at anunderstanding of them. Thought, if it exists as such, is also there. Butthe theoretical conclusion I think has no more degree of certainty thanany other thing the mind can deal with. To say 'I think' is to assertthe truth of an hypothesis which MAY be true, but not necessarily so.And then to conclude, 'Therefore I am,' is to advance one of the mostshaky conclusions of all time. Underneath that so-called logicalconclusion lies a metaphysics of being, a theory of Wholes, arecognition by differentiation of parts, with a denial of all but theone part set apart by that differentiation, and, in short, the mostirrational hodgepodge of contradictory conclusions the thinking mind canconceive. This pre-cognition that enables one to arrive at the tenuousstatement, 'I think, therefore I am,' is nicely thrown out by tagging itwith another metaphysical intangible called illusion--as if the mind canseparate illusion from reality by some absolute standard."
"I believe you're right, Ont," Upt replied slowly, his telepathedthoughts subdued with respect. "It is possible that the concept, 'Ithink,' is the illusion, while the so-called illusions are the reality."
* * * * *
"Even without the benefit of past thoughts," Gordon was saying, whackingoff a weed a yard away and nearly upsetting himself, "a mind withnothing to do but think could accomplish miracles. Suppose it was notaware of any other thinking entity, though it might be surrounded bysuch similar entities. It would be born or come into existence some way,arrive at self-awareness and certain other awarenesses to base itsthinking on, depending on its structure, and--" he looked up at Haroldstartled at his own conclusion--"it might even arrive at the ultimatesolution to all reality and comprehend the foundations of the Universe!"
"And eventually be destroyed without any other entity having thebenefit of it all," Harold commented dryly.
"What a pity that would be," Gordon murmured. "For the human race tostruggle for hundreds of years, and have some unguessable entity on Marsdo all that in one lifetime--and it all go to waste while someblundering ass lands on Mars and passes it by, looking for artifacts."
* * * * *
"But that is only the start in the blunders contained in that mostprofound philosophical revelation of old," Ont stated. "After arrivingat a precarious conclusion about existence the ancients were notsatisfied. They had to say, 'If I am I must have been created!' Thenthey go on and say, 'If I was created there must be a Creator!' And thusthey soar from their precarious perch in existence, soar on nonexistentwings, and perch on the essence of evanescence! They do not recognizethe alternative--that to exist does not necessarily imply a beginning.They do not recognize it because they have derived all their tools fromreality around them and then denied the reality while accepting thevalidity of the tools of thought derived from it. And in this way theyarrive at an absolute existence of Something they have never sensed orfelt in any way, while denying all that they have felt and sensed, andgive it attributes which their sense of idealism dictates it must have,and call it God."
"Then," Upt said thoughtfully, "I take it you are an atheist?"
"Certainly NOT," Ont growled telepathically.
"But you implied that in your comments on the conclusions of theancients," Upt insisted.
* * * * *
"But if there are no artifacts," Harold said. "And no signs ofintelligence whatever, how could we ever know that there WASintelligence some place?"
"There must be some way," Gordon said. "I've taught logic at the U forfifteen years now, and I've done a lot of thinking on the subject. If weever reach Mars I think we should be very careful what we touch. Wewould be clumsy bulls in a china shop, not knowing the true worth ofwhat we found, destroying what might be found to be priceless by laterand more careful explorers. Mars is older
than the Earth, and I can'thelp being convinced that there is SOME form of intelligence there."
* * * * *
"I implied no such thing as atheism," Ont insisted. "I merely said thatthe reasoning used by the ancients to arrive at the Creator was the mostslipshod and illogical possible. There was another line used long agothat was more solid, but still very weak. It started out with thestatement, 'I can be aware of nothing but thoughts.' External stimuli,if such there are, must be transformed into thought before I can beaware of them. Since I can never be aware of anything other thanthought, why assume anything except thought exists? You,