How did it go?
It's not that bad. He said, "I'm thinking of a word. Which word am I thinking of?" So I said, "If you've chosen that word randomly, then I'd follow suit and any choice I make for the answer would be the correct one, because you can't expect determination after offering randomness - not fair."
That's right. And...?
He just nodded and showed me the source that he had probably chosen the word from:
Your limited view of the evolutionary scale of life prevents from you the understand the relations among Ethics, Logic and Technology in terms of such scale.
As I understand it, we make choices according to a preference and the preference is often based on a difference. The difference in the font pre-selects the words
Ethics, Logic and
Technology. Which one out of those three words do you think is likely the word that he was thinking of?
I think none of them - he doesn't work that way. The context of the source ties those three words to the evolutionary scale. You need to look at the evolutionary scale - that's very likely the extended source of the words that he picked the word from.
I found out that there are quite a few renditions of the evolutionary scale, but they are not identical to each other! That makes another case of choosing from, don't you think?
That surely does. Do not despair though. Think of the evolution as a whole divided into distinct evolutionary steps/parts. Look if your collection includes a rendition that is related to the concept of the whole.
https://www.nescent.org/sites/evoviz/Holistic
Yep, that could be the one! The URL of the entire page ends with the word Holistic - a word that is derived from the word "whole." Now link those three words
Ethics, Logic and
Technology with three terms in the rendition - make the link 3=3 according to the type of font. If such a linkage exists, you got the likely source of the words that he chose one from.
The linkage is right here:
Bifucate - Reticulate - Potentially Immortal.
Oh, I got that! If the preference in choosing is based on a difference, then I choose the word Bifucate, because it's the only word out of the three terms that is misspelled - the correct word should read Bifurcate and not Bifucate. Am I right?
I'm afraid that it would be a tempting but premature choice. He doesn't work that way. Look carefully. Those three terms that include one misspelled word are parts of the whole that the author calls STURUCTURE.
But that word should read STRUCTURE! Do you think there are actually three misspelled words in the whole rendition and he picked one of them to think of?
No. He doesn't work that obvious way. Look at both misspelled words. Don't they have something else in common?
BIF
UCATE <-----> STUR
UCTURE.
What do U C?
That's mighty funny. Both misspelled words have the letters U and C right in the middle.
Okay. Now the letters that are responsible for the misspelling: the word BIF()UCATE is missing letter R, and the word ST(U)RUCTURE has additional letter U included. What did you say when he unexpectedly showed up?
I asked him... I said, "Who R U?"
That can be hardly a coincidence, right?
No. I bet my sandwich that he was looking at this particular rendition of the evolutionary scale when he conceived the secret word puzzle. Tell me, how much ignorance would it take not to regard those big coincidence letters U, C, R, U as parts of the whole word he was thinking of?
A lot.
I believe that some choice-narrowing adjustment needs to be made. According to the set theory, {U C R U} = {U C R}, because identical items are not welcome in the set membership. If my intuition doesn't fail me, the word he was thinking of contains a sequence of letters made of U, C and R in any order.
Okay. So I make a list of all words that apply to your hypothesis.
NO!
Why not?
Because you need to have a criterion of choice ready before you commit yourself to the making of such a list. Otherwise you infect the problem with an avalanche of reductionism the way the famous mathematician David Hilbert did. Besides, he doesn't work that way.
So how does he work?
I think he used an association that is visible in the drawing to come up with the word he asked you about. Look about 7 o'clock from the misspelled word STURUCTURE. See the arrows there that form a cross?
Aha! I think we got that word: CH
URCH. Just don't tell me that he doesn't work that way - that a church isn't a structure with a cross on top of it.
Something bothers me. The word STURUCTURE is misspelled -
it contains additional letter that doesn't belong there - and the word is the whole made of parts BIFUCATE - RETICULATE - POTENTIALLY IMMORTAL. But the error in BIFUCATE is the opposite to the mistake in
sturucture; that means,
bifucate is missing a letter.
True. But what does it mean? Like that the devil is in the details?
It very likely means that the error in the word
structure symbolizes an error in the three evolutionary segments. In other words, the sequence of the three terms is wrong.
That's nonsense! The evolution is a pretty tight scientific theory. Just read again what's written in the web page that features the rendition of the evolutionary scale:
The Scope of Evolution within the Structure of Science.
Just free your mind of your simian inheritance and look at the correct order: BIFUCATE - POTENTIALLY IMMORTAL - RETICULATE.
The term Potentially Immortal must be in the middle. That's due to
and the word that contains the sequence made of the letters U, C and R in any order is
CRUCIFIXION. Go and tell him that you got that word he was thinking of. Btw, did he mention what would happen if you miss?
No.
So? You got nothing to lose. Go.
------
Heavenly Father?
Yeeeees?
I came to see you... I got that word you asked me about.
Oh. Well, have you chosen wisely?
I was choosing as wisely as I could.
That's good. You know that if you miss, the Gates of Hell will close behind your no good soul.
Huh????!!!!!
So what is the word I was thinking of? Come on, lemme hear it.
The...the...the... word is CRUCIFIXION.
Sorry, that's not the word I was thinking of.
No??????
No. The word I was thinking of was TWENTY-ONE.