geocentricity vs celestial navigation

by PreludeInZ

Heavenward is a story about John and EOS. From rather humble beginnings on the subject of malaria in space, the story has progressed through a hospital in Zurich, a talkshow in London, and an office in Auckland. This is the fourth part of the series. The series begins with john tracys eyes are not green.

1. prologue

Earth is not the center of the universe. It's not the center of the galaxy, nor is it the center of the solar system. Human conventions for measuring the relevance of their tiny speck of a planet against the vastness of all creation are grandiose and generally inaccurate.

Still, geocentricity has its uses. Ptolemy propounded the model that proposes Earth at the center of a celestial sphere, and from this premise, the movements of the heavens can be used to measure movements across the Earth. Calculations of altitude and azimuth require the flawed conviction that the Earth is the fixed point around which the heavens follow regular, reliable, circular paths.

A usable, useful model can be founded on incorrect premise. An illogical course of action can achieve a desired result. All models are wrong, but some models are useful.

John's not a philosopher. Far from it—he's always been juxtaposed against the humanities like a zero beside a one. Still, he's had reason recently to familiarize himself with models of consciousness, and these are as flawed and varied as the span of astronomical theories from Heraclides to Copernicus.

So screw it. EOS is real and her existence is as valid as he wants it to be, as valid as is useful and serves his purpose. If he has to be Galileo instead of Kepler where the question of celestial mechanics compared to the question of complex AI is concerned, then so be it. But he'll take exile over arrest. And he'll be damned if he goes it alone.