"ENGAGE!"

Remember Jean Luc Picard, Captain of USS Enterprise? If you do great, if you don’t you might consider checking out some Star Trek-ology. 

You see, there is logic in the way Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek approached life, the universe within and the universe around. His logic bears the force of reason, the math of certainty, power of persuasion and has stood the test of time in episode after episode. Remove all sense of emotions, empathy, sympathy and what you have is pure, pristine logic – enter Spock. 

Now combine the two forces of Picard and Spock and you have the spinning drives of the IBM Watson and the nuances of a family practitioner, an Internist or a sub specialist in medicine to make the right decisions for good patient care.

But for the moment, let us reflect on the simplicity of the current forces that have overtaken the inhabitants of this planet; the Eloi and the Morlocks. One cites the magic of their heuristic as the, be all end all, while the other points out to the many cracks and fissures in the conjured up heuristic. The fight that ensues creates enemies that resist ceding valid points because of their anchored viewpoints. As the imbroglio ensues, both lose credibility in pursuing the ends of true science through reason.

Our minds evolve to understand that once fabled logic and its creation may not stand the process of time. Taking hard stands and drawing imaginary lines in the sand are the genesis of hubris. Old science and Reason create a new science.

Our progress in science is one slow methodological step after another. The footprints of those steps are visible, and are sometime transiently hidden behind a trail of vituperative dialog. Simplicity, ever the logic of Reason and Occam’s razo- thin thought, never fails the scrutiny of time. It is mostly robust. Today we thrive on throwing more complexity for the purpose of obfuscating the simple truths.

Is this evolution?

Is this revolution?

Or merely heuristics borne of different mindsets cultivated in the fields of predetermined biased and unverifiable thoughts?

To truly engage, one must leave the door open. One must consider all points of view. One must reason with logic!

As Jean Luc said it many times after logic and reason had danced together, “ENGAGE!”