Final report installment 2 Isha Mudgal #10

Futurama and the philosophy of evolution and God

Based on S6E9: A clockwork origin

                                                                        Part-2

The last installment ended with Dr Farnsworth being accused of believing in creaturism because he stated that he was proud of how much the nanobots have evolved since he ‘dumped’ them in a pond a few days back. The robots, who believe unquestioningly in robot evolution, are angered by Farnsworth, and a Robo-Farnsworth states that their Earth took eons, not days, to be created. The Professor explains that relative to them, it was eons, but in reality, only a few days had passed. Just as Dr. Widnar resolves to leave her planet similar to what the Professor said, the angry robots then arrest Farnsworth and put him on trial for "crimes against science". Bender represents him in court and in his arguments, states that the Professor is not arguing against evolution, but only claims a small role in beginning it by providing the materials necessary (the nanobots). The jurors leave to deliberate overnight.

The crew wakes up to find that the robots have now evolved into a state of transcendent higher consciousness. They are no longer concerned with the Professor any more, finding corporeal beings altogether irrelevant. The crew then takes their makeshift spaceship home. There, the Professor explains his findings to Dr. Banjo.

The Professor and Dr. Banjo reconcile their differences, acknowledging that both theories have some plausibility and even some correlation. Dr. Banjo argues that what the Professor witnessed was evolution, but evolution set in motion by an intelligent creator. The Professor agrees that it is possible, however unlikely that Earth evolution was set in motion the same way.

We spend so much time trying to argue with each other over the plausibility of evolution or the existence of God when we should be considering all possibilities. We haven’t been able to prove the existence of God, but we also haven’t been able to deny it. We have been able to prove evolution, but we haven’t been able to prove how everything before that came to be (the big bang is still a theory and has yet to be proved). Philosophy teaches us the same lesson and history is a proof of it. The search for truth and facts requires an open mind and the willingness to consider an idea that is unfamiliar and unsure. There were times when people believed everything revolved around the earth and anything else was considered outrageous because there was no way of finding out the truth. Maybe we are at that time of ‘history’ where we are just blind to something because we have no means of proving or disproving them. Maybe someday, years and years from now, the existence of god or creation of the universe will be a common knowledge, like to us is the fact that the earth revolves around the sun.

Some interesting facts and links

·       The title are references to the books A Clockwork Orange (by Anthony Burgess) and On the Origin of Species (by the one and only, Charles Darwin)

·       Read the original text of ‘On Origin of Species’ here- http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1861_OriginNY_F382.pdf

·       A short and informative video about the first humans and evolution- Where and when did humans evolve?

·       “We are the way the universe is experiencing itself”; The big bang

                                          

-Read the first installment of my post here

-Posts i commented on
1. why rick isnt nihilist
2. The process of being a professional dancer

-Isha Mudgal #10