Where Do The Ducks Go In Winter? And ants, in summer?

There is a ‘function palace’ opposite my ‘portion’ in Vidyanagar called Raj Gardens. This being the festive season – the month of Sravana – there are a lot of weddings and other festivities for which it is booked half the days. On other days, the cops park their jeep and motor bikes there and hang around generally, ready to move into action in case of trouble in their jurisdiction. I wonder where they park their vehicles and themselves when there is a function (for which Raj Gardens is booked). My brother, who visits with us often, told me that they park it under a tree shade elsewhere. But his glib answer doesn’t satisfy me: of course they park it elsewhere – but where? Elsewhere is no place…

I am reminded of Holden Caulfield, in Catcher in the Rye, who wonders where the ducks in the lake in central park of New York go in winter when the lake freezes over. A bit of science I learned at school tells me that water at -4 degrees Celsius expands, and so the fish hang out in the -4 degrees C. zone during winter. It is called the anomalous expansion of water. Science has no answer, just a name, for the odd behavior of water. But ducks cannot get into that zone. J D Salinger, the author of Catcher in the Rye, doesn’t offer any explanation for Holden’s question. It still keeps me sleepless some nights.

Science is a bunch of glib answers

Physics (or the physical sciences) is said to be different from biological sciences in that the former is explanatory and the later is taxonomical. I question that kind of classification of the sciences. The anomalous expansion of water is an example of a glib ‘explanation’ by physical scientists; how did they explain the strange behavior of water at -4 degrees C.? By giving it a name, which is the same as primitive societies giving names to the elements: Varuna, for the rain god, Vayu, for wind, and so on. That was a different ‘explanatory’ level from what ‘modern’ science has to offer.

So also the big bang. There was nothing in the beginning of the universe (in space and time). Christian theology created a God to ‘explain’ how things came to be (and Thank God we have a day off every week ever since). The physics professors theorized a Big Bang: what the heck is that? Another name…

The naming of a cat is a difficult matter – said T S Eliot. The naming of inexplicable things in the physical world is an easy matter. What stops a ball rolling on a smooth surface? “Friction” – pat comes the answer. It is just another name. Physics is all about giving names, and finding parallels. Two things are attracted to each other – they are unlike poles; they hate each other: it is because of their having the same charge. What is charge? Charge is that which makes somethings repel each other and some other things attract each other. All these are mere names, and definitions or tautologies.

The sun rises in the east. But what if the sun rises in the west one fine morning? Well, you will call that the east!

What is beyond names?

Beyond names, there is mathematics. There is engineering. There are machines at work, there is power supply and water going up in pipes instead of sinking into the earth. All these things make our life comfortable and that is why we are crazy about science and technology. That is also called Performance Theory. But more on that in a later piece.
At the same time, science and technology have given us the nuclear bomb (such a horror), ‘accidents’ at nuclear reactors (Chernobil), gas leakage that killed millions (in Bhopal), 9/11 (and hijacking as a method of screwing other people’s happiness). The Unabomber, who was against science and technology also used the very same technology to attack people. Science is a double-edged sword. And humans are not capable of such a weapon.

The less science we have all round, the better off we will be. I think Gandhiji said something of that sort. In fact the fewer humans we have on earth, the better for the planet: that is what the Voluntary Human Extinction Society tries to propagate. I am not a card-carrying member of that society, but there is something in what they say: check out www.vhem.org.

Tailpiece: Where do ants go in summer? Ant-arctica.