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Simple Wisdom
Letter to Carl Sagan

To:
Carl Sagan
Bldg 180, Room 205
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, California 91103

Three problems heretofore have hindered the development of teaching of "social morality". Only today can we begin to put together a show like "Cosmos" that has the chance to make those ideas accessible to a television audience. I'll briefly suggest those three things, then I'll ask you to consider doing that show.

  1. We have been unable to arrive at a plausible explanation of the major experiences of religion. The hereafter, etc. With Julian Jaynes' Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind this is addressed.
  2. We have not understood that "consciousness" in the sense of thoughtfulness is an acquired skill much like riding a bicycle.
  3. We have not developed symbols and models that practically, visually and simply explain processes involved in that thoughtfulness. With Hofstadter's Godel, Escher and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid the mechanism is here.

From this foundation it has been my pleasure over the past several years to relook at some of the greatest thinkers of our times who turned their wisdom to the simple daily problems of living--thinkers from science, religion, humanities. From this I've come upon a handful of simple wisdoms that are common to them all whether they knew it or not. I can show how they came to their conclusions and why they were wrong when they were wrong.

Where religions said what to do but not why in human terms, I can provide the why. Where theories of governments have never managed the balance between the individual and society, I can provide a better understanding why they have failed and what to do instead.

Thoreau said many are willing to go after the branches of evil, few are willing to attack the root. Today is the first time we really have the tools to do it. And to do it practically with no illusions of utopian dreams.

I write to you because you advertently or inadvertently have alluded to may of the simple wisdoms in your series. I was pleased and surprised. I'd be please to expand on what I've only briefly touched on here.

Copyright 1998 by Stephen B. Waters. This page was last built on 11/25/98; 4:18:10 PM. sbwaters@rny.com At the moment I am using Macintosh OS to work on this website.