And_Yet_It_Moves
And_Yet_It_Moves is a text document stored in the THARMAS terminal.
Contents
And Yet It Moves
A fascinating story I discovered in the Archive concerns a great scientist by the name of Galileo. This remarkable man made huge contributions to the early development of science, but was best remembered for becoming embroiled in a controversy with the Church that ended with accusations of heresy, a trial, and him being placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.
The cause of the controversy? He argued that the Earth revolved around the Sun. A view we would describe as self-evident, and which the Inquisition described as "foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical." 416c7761797320626520726561647920746f20737065616 story became emblematic for how society often punishes those who try to push our understanding of the world forward b20796f7572206d696e642c20616e64206 in the modern day.
There's a legend that at the end of his trial, he muttered "and yet it moves." A beautiful idea, but untrue. Because defying society is hard. It comes at a high cost, and not everyone is capable of bearing it.
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What would you have done in his place? What would I?
Comments
| Miranda I think I would have tried to stand up for the truth. |
| Athena It's harder than it sounds. Fighting an authority like ELOHIM is one thing, but when even your friends and allies may renounce you for holding an unacceptable opinion, it takes enormous willpower to continue. |
| Miranda But if nobody does it, society gets stuck. |
Notes
The hexadecimal code 6b for "k" is split between the first two strings and the hexidecimal code 61 for "a" is split between the second two strings.
The translated hex strings are from the Proverbs of Hell in the book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, by William Blake.