Zeitgeist-Musical
A semi-dark factory shop. Machinery noise in the background.
Dramatis personae: PHYSICISTS, ENGINEERS, PHILOSOPHERS, the WORLD, the COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT, the HOLY GHOSTS of physics, I MYSELF, an EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL GNOME.
Distributed over the entire stage are groups of PHYSICISTS and ENGINEERS, who are busy with work on strange machines.
Downstage on the right several PHYSICISTS attempt to cram the WORLD into a bed bearing, in golden letters, the legend SO32. The bed is too small. The WORLD puts up a desperate resistance.
The PHYSICISTS sing:
We love the groups! We love the groups! The groups are in, the world is out!
Then they proceed to cut off all extremities of the WORLD. It now fits into the bed. It is dead.
The PHYSICISTS sing:
We've done it! We've done it! We knew it could be done!
The PHILOSOPHERS sing:
The being of being is the nihilation of nihil.
Noise from the background. The COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT refuses to appear on the stage. Some PHYSICISTS drag it onto the stage and do violence to it. It runs away and tries to escape. Once more a group of PHYSICISTS assaults it. Again it is raped.
The HOLY GHOSTS of physics move to the forestage and turn to the audience.
They sing in chorus:
In the name of the Holy Secret of Quantum Theory! Don't depart from the straight and narrow path of Uncertainty, of the reduction of the wave function and of the action at a distance!
But I say:
In the name of the Holy Enlightenment! Do you long for the secret or for clarity? Do you long for absurdity, for non-local effects, for the many worlds? Or would you rather have the solution to the puzzle?
The PHILOSOPHERS sing:
The nihilation of being is the beingness of nihil.
The COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT is raped again.
Some ENGINEERS have taken the dead world from its bed and, after it, fashion a jointed doll.
They exult:
How much more beautiful it is than the ugly old one!
The HOLY GHOSTS sing:
In the name of Holy Mathematics! Don't permit yourselves to be dazzled by the brightness of understanding! Safety is to be found only in mathematical figures! Though the heavens fall and the world perishes, figures will be our salvation!
But I say:
In the name of Holy Reason! Do yo want to be confused, figure-muttering observers of the unfathomable or cognizants of the real world?
The HOLY GHOSTS clamour:
And what about our successes? Where would you be without us! For all your pure cogitation, without us you would still be squatting in some cave and picking off lice!
But I say:
Success is not tantamount to truth!
The HOLY GHOSTS by now are in a state of great excitement. They are all shouting at once:
Nonsense! We are going to win out! We are quite close to our goal!
But I say:
The curse of destruction rests upon you! In rational frenzy you are going to destroy everything!
A terrific uproar breaks forth. The HOLY GHOSTS chase ME across the stage. Some PHYSICISTS wave their instruments about in an agitated manner. Most of the ENGINEERS carry on with their work impassively.
The PHILOSOPHERS sing:
The negation of the negation is the pure negativity of the self-comprehending comprehension.
A gusty wind rises. It turns into a gale, then into a full-fledged hurricane. The entire scenery is swept from the stage.
Change of scene. A tranquil, but strangely unfamiliar landscape.
I sit together with the EXTRATERRESTRIAL GNOME on the shore of a yellow gleaming lake.
The EXTRATERRESTRIAL GNOME asks:
Do you think there are extraterrestrial beings?
I say:
No, I don't believe so. Let's go for a dip in the lake.
