Physics, Poetry, Poverty & Primates: A Poem
A "theory of everything",
The physicists say,
Will tie things together,
In a marvelous way.
Leave the universe to us,
As we sort out the puzzles,
Then we'll hand it all back,
And take off your muzzles.
The chemistry wizards,
Have a similar view,
It's all just reactions,
Kneel down at our pew.
That's fine for hard sciences!
Biologists grumble,
But life's too complex,
If we reduce it, we'll fumble.
We've too much to do,
Classifying new bugs,
Your crazy new schemes,
Will sweep truth under rugs.
Where's that leave us?
Softer scientists wonder,
As we ponder the actions,
Of evolution's big blunder.
Homo sapiens, that is,
Who can't be contained,
By neat little rules,
This ape is fine-grained.
Sociology and psych,
Have few patterns, you see,
More detail is required,
Please, increase our fee.
You hard types are suffering,
From stiffening categories,
You're missing the point,
Go back to your laboratories.
The math-heads just chuckle,
You're derivative, all!
The fundamentals are here,
Just give us a call.
We'll graph things & plot things,
Do statistical tricks,
Use imaginary numbers,
If the real ones don't stick.
Now secular people,
Nurses, doctors, and more,
Draw from all the above,
In assisting the poor.
But it's not very helpful,
With challenges ahead,
To have colleagues a'squabblin',
And the hungry unfed.
It sure would be sweet,
In some far remote future,
In some far remote future,
If the disciplines united,
Knit together with suture.
How nice to discover,
In perusing the lit,
New findings suggest,
We're progressing (a bit).
Physics, increasingly,
Though still a tough chore,
Waxes more philosophical,
As if soft at the core.
Research in mathematics,
Though rigorous in form,
Is as dicey as any,
Almost fuzzy and warm.
Biologists resuscitated,
A once discarded thought,
'bout the ways proteins fold,
There's fewer than ought.
Chimps can't write Shakespeare,
Literati have noted,
Yet whales can do verse,
Human egos seem bloated.
We deride animal instinct,
And regard our own kin,
As thoughtful and free-willed,
So, why the chaos we're in?
We've epidemics of virus,
Of fungus and spore,
Bacterium and prion,
And, perhaps, even more.
Like unsafe drug use,
And disposal of waste,
Hurting mostly the indigent,
From priorities misplaced.
We say to each person,
"Stop unhealthy decisions",
While ignoring group patterns,
Does our model need revisions?
Methinks we have free will,
Just a smidgen at best,
But only what's left from,
Subtracting the rest.
Some systems self-organize,
Second Law notwithstanding,
If this includes humans,
We'll have a rough landing.
As soft sciences harden,
And the hard ones go flaccid,
May the downtrodden profit,
And rough waters turn placid.
So let's work together,
I can learn much from you,
And, maybe, just maybe,
We'll muddle on through.
Given the audience,
I should mention god,
Lest Oasians think,
“That poem is odd.”
However, there ain’t one,
It has been “revealed”,
So we’ll do the work,
Or … our fate is sealed.