The Power of Story

What does the author mean by saying, "We are in a new age"?

We are undoubtedly fully in the age of the cell phone, and our lives have been fundamentally and forever changed by technological developments.

What example does the author give to demonstrate that cell phone technology reaches even remote places?

Looking across the lake and up in the hills, the author points out a red light that is a cellular tower. Although the bandwidth is low and reception is not great, the area is covered.

When was the transistor invented?

1947.

What historical transition does the author associate with the invention of the transistor?

With the invention of the transistor in 1947, we left behind the industrial era and entered the information age.

How did developments in transistor technology change computers?

Developments in transistor technology allowed the computer to shrink.

How does the author compare a modern cell phone with the computer used by NASA to land the first men on the moon?

Your cell phone has more computing power than the computer used by NASA to put the first men on the moon.

What three technological milestones does the author use to demonstrate the rapid pace of change?

The Wright brothers first flew in 1903, the transistor was invented in 1947, and humans landed on the moon in 1969.

How long after the Wright brothers first flew did humans land on the moon?

Only 66 years.

Why does the author argue that we need a new story?

We need a story that will tell us who we are at this time in history, includes all the new things we have learned, tries to be more complete, and does not leave anybody out.

Why can the old stories from the last age no longer adequately guide us?

The old stories cannot tell us what we are supposed to be doing now or what our purpose is.

How did the religion story contribute to an earlier historical revolution?

The religion story facilitated the agrarian revolution.

What developments helped bring about the Industrial Revolution, according to the author?

The invention of the steam engine, coupled with the wealth pilfered from the Americas.

Why was a new story required during the Industrial Revolution?

A new story was required to facilitate the massive societal upheaval brought about by the Industrial Revolution.

What two industrial stories does the author identify?

Capitalism and socialism.

Why does the author argue that capitalism and socialism are both industrial stories despite their alleged contradiction?

Both encourage the land-based serf to leave the farm and move into the city to work in factories. Both promise to improve the life of the worker.

What did capitalism promise the industrial worker?

Capitalism promised that, with hard work and luck, the worker could work his way up a proverbial ladder of success and become a tycoon.

What did socialism promise the industrial worker?

Socialism promised the serf freedom to work in a factory, a decent salary, benefits, and a pension.

What do both capitalism and socialism depend upon, according to the author?

Both depend upon the exploitation of the Earth's resources.

How does the author compare capitalism and socialism through the example of cutting down the last tree?

A capitalist will cut down the last tree if there is money to be made. A socialist will cut down the last tree so long as the worker doing the cutting belongs to a trade union.

What role do stories play in shaping our conscious world?

Stories are how we derive our conscious world, our understanding of ourselves, and our understanding of our place here.

What does the author argue about the existence of rights in nature?

Rights don't exist in nature. Rights are stories we made up.

What examples of claimed rights does the author give?

The right to not wear a mask during a pandemic, the right to say horrible things about people on social media, and the right to a gun.

What do people often claim is the source of rights?

When asked where rights come from, people often say they came from God.

What does the author argue is the best claim to a right?

The best claim to a right is that it exists in legislation.

How does the author describe the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms?

The author calls it a beautiful story that should win the Governor General's Award in fiction.

Does the author believe the Charter is useless because it is a story?

No. Despite its fictional nature, the Charter is the best we can do right now. Stories about rights help balance things when we organise society.

When do stories about rights become a problem?

They become a problem when people believe that rights are somehow fundamental, exist separately from us, and need to be defended with violence.

What is the author's argument about the story of evil told by fundamentalists?

Evil is just a story. We made it up. It exists nowhere other than in our minds.

How did the author's original Nehithaw way of understanding approach good and bad?

Everything was good and bad at the same time.

What must happen for the separate concept of evil to emerge, according to the author?

We must create a dichotomy, breaking what we see in nature into two and making the two opposites.

Why does the author argue that separating good and evil serves no useful purpose?

The concept of separate good and evil drives division and conflict. It gives us something to fight against and allows us to name a thing or a people evil and go to war against them.

What natural examples does the author use to argue that evil does not exist in nature?

A bear takes a fish, and an eagle scavenges roadkill. These are natural acts, neither good nor bad.

How does the Aswan Dam illustrate the difficulty of classifying something as good or evil?

The Aswan Dam in Egypt helped farmers irrigate, but reducing the nutrients flowing down the Nile into the Mediterranean Sea harmed the sardine fishery. The dam might have been good for farmers but an evil for fishers.

What figures does the author give for the decline in the sardine fishery after the Aswan Dam?

The sardine fishery fell from 18,000 tons in 1960 to 460 tons in 1968.

How does the author use the tar sands to illustrate competing perspectives on good and evil?

People come from across Canada to work in the tar sands. To them, employment and high wages are good. To Aboriginal people living downstream and subjected to higher rates of cancer as a result, the tar sands are a death sentence.

What conclusion does the author draw from two decades of working in the criminal justice system?

The author says they have never met anyone they would classify as evil, although they met people who were so unhealthy they were a danger to themselves and others.

What does the author argue about things we believe are absolute facts?

Even things we believe are absolute fact are merely the best story we can tell about ourselves right now.

Why does the author describe science as a story-generating machine?

Science has its basic tenets rooted in story and is essentially a story-generating machine.

How does the author describe the changing story of the universe and gravity?

The original Christian story placed man at the centre of the universe. Copernicus changed the story to one where Earth orbits the sun. Newton retold the story to include gravity. Einstein modified the story about gravity with relativity. Quantum physics retells the story in impermanence, and the Higgs boson story gives solidity to the impermanence.

What does the author predict will happen to scientific stories in the future?

Fifty years from now, the story will change when new ideas replace existing ones. Fifty years after that, it will change again when even newer ideas emerge.

What is the best science can do at any given time?

The best science can do is give us the most compelling story available about ourselves, our planet, and our place in the universe.

Why should we not regard the best available scientific story as incontrovertible truth?

At some point in the future, the story and the truth we rely upon today will change and be replaced by a new story.

Does the fact that scientific stories change diminish the validity of science?

No. Science still provides the best possible story available today, and we can rely on it to make decisions while knowing that the basis of our decisions is only the best presently known.

How does the author use old vehicles to illustrate the changing nature of the best available technology?

When old vehicles were built, they were the best available. They used distributor contact points that could be cleaned with sandpaper and eventually replaced because they were designed to burn out.

What was the purpose of the condenser in older vehicle ignition systems?

It reduced the rate at which the contact points burned, but it did not eliminate the burning, so the points eventually needed replacement.

How does the author compare older ignition systems with modern vehicles?

Modern vehicles use electronic ignition instead of distributor points, but electronic ignition is also on its way out as we move to electric vehicles. The best available technology is what we have right now.

How does the author describe science textbooks and the subjects of scientific studies?

Science textbooks are good collections of stories, and the subjects of scientific studies are likewise story.

What does the reading claim about the universe itself?

The universe itself is possibly made from story.

What does the reading say about quanta?

It describes quanta as discrete units of energy and refers to quarks as the foundational building blocks of matter, including dark matter and antimatter.

What does the reading say happens to subatomic particles before they are observed?

In their normal state, subatomic particles are in superposition until they are observed. They are, in effect, everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

What does the reading say happens to a particle upon observation?

Upon observation, the particle collapses to a single point. This is known as the observer effect.

How does the author apply the observer effect to everyday reality?

The author suggests that the universe exists because we are aware of it.

What objection did Albert Einstein raise about the observer effect?

Einstein famously asked whether the moon was not there when he was not looking at it.

What does the author suggest about combined human consciousness?

The author suggests that our combined consciousness might generate the illusion of physical reality and that the universe might exist because we have a story that says it does.

What does the author include within the universe besides distant galaxies and expanding space?

Earth, the author, every living thing, and everything else are part of the universe.

What does the author suggest about the existence of living things?

The Earth's biota, every living thing, and humans potentially exist because of story, at least according to what the science story seems to be telling us.

How does the author compare science with God?

Science is a story, but so is its supposed antithesis, God.

How long does the author say organised religion has been used to hold societies together?

At least 10,000 years.

How does the author interpret the God of the Old Testament?

The author suggests that the God of the Old Testament seems designed by agriculturalists to explain problems such as drought and pestilence.

What biblical passage does the author use to suggest that God is a story?

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Why does the author argue that the idea of God as story does not diminish God?

Words and stories are very powerful. They generate the illusion we experience as reality. Recognising God as story takes God out of the physical, absolute world and places God in the infinite possibility available in story.

How does the author contrast two conceptions of God?

"God is a rock" versus "God is the story that made rocks possible."

How does the author's interpretation of "In the beginning was the Word" change the conception of God?

It puts spirit into the concept of God and changes the story of an old man with a beard, sitting on a golden throne, dropping manna with one hand and throwing lightning bolts with the other, into a story of infinite possibilities.

How long has science been around, according to the author?

About 500 years.

How old is the universe according to the figure given in the reading?

13.772 billion years old.

Why does the author argue that science cannot be expected to understand everything about the universe?

Science has only been around for about 500 years, and in an infinite universe there will always be infinite unknowns.

What does the author mean by the Great Mystery?

The Great Spirit, the Creator, and the Great Mystery refer to what is unknown and also what is unknowable.

Does the author identify as an atheist?

No. The author accepts that powerful forces are at play beyond human comprehension but is not bound by a narrow biblical conception of God or a single story about God.

What does the author say about the reader's response to the examples of story?

The author says to take what can be used in a good way and leave what cannot be used in a good way. The reader decides what to take from the examples.

How does the author describe God and human beings at this point in the reading?

God is a dynamic story, and so are we.

What does DNA stand for?

Deoxyribonucleic acid.

How does the author describe DNA's function?

DNA is an alphabet to write life with.

Which scientists does the reading name in connection with the discovery of the DNA double helix?

Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins.

What prize and year does the reading associate with the discovery of the DNA double helix?

The Nobel Prize in 1962.

What four-letter alphabet does DNA use?

A, T, G, and C.

What does the author say can be written with the four letters of DNA?

The story of every living thing on the planet.

How have humans begun to rewrite the story of life?

Through genetic modifications of plants and animals.

What does the author say about humanity's understanding of the story of life?

The story of life is ancient and complex, and humans have only just started to read it and understand its language.

What will understanding the story of life help us understand about human relationships?

It will help us understand that all humans are related to one another.

How does the author extend the idea of relatedness beyond humans?

All humans are related to the other life forms with which they share the planet.

What percentages of DNA does the reading say humans share with other organisms?

Almost 99 percent with chimpanzees, 80 percent with dogs, 60 percent with bananas, 50 percent with cabbage, and 16 percent with lettuce.

What does the DNA story explain at a cellular level?

How humans are related to every other life form on the planet.

How does the author connect Indigenous knowledge with the DNA story?

Aboriginal people have understood their relationship with everything around them for a long time, not through the double helix but through their spirituality.

What does "kakithaw nawakomakanak" mean?

"All my relations."

When does the author say "kakithaw nawakomakanak"?

After finishing a prayer.

What does the author remember when saying "all my relations"?

The author remembers being related to the being they are praying to and to everything around them.

What are the Standing Nations, Four-Legged Nations, Flying Nations, Swimming Nations, and Crawling Nations?

The Standing Nations are trees; the Four-Legged Nations are four-legged animals; the Flying Nations are birds; the Swimming Nations are fish; and the Crawling Nations are insects.

What principle about the importance of human beings does the author express through Indigenous spirituality?

The author remembers that they are not more important than any other life form in nature.

Why does the author say mathematics is story?

Numbers are not real; they are useful concepts used to describe relationships. Equations are sentences that describe processes.

How does the author explain 1 + 1 = 2 as a story?

The numbers are nouns, and the plus and equals signs are verbs. Equations are stories written in numbers that describe processes.

What does E = MC² mean in the reading?

Energy equals mass times the speed of light times the speed of light.

How long ago did Einstein first tell the E = MC² story, according to the reading?

Well over a hundred years ago.

What does the author say about the E = MC² story?

Despite advances in quantum and astral physics, the story about energy, mass, and light has remained undisputed. It has survived so long that it has become a legend.

What other language does the author identify as a way of telling stories?

Music.

How can music communicate concepts without words?

Musical sounds can transmit concepts of beauty, pleasure, rage, sadness, joy, and grief. Skilled musical communicators can tell wordless stories that communicate ideas and concepts even to unskilled listeners.

What musical alphabets does the author identify?

Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti, or the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.

How does the author describe storytelling in visual art?

Good visual art is about storytelling. The story evokes emotion and communicates meaning to the viewer.

Which two paintings does the author use as examples of visual storytelling?

The Scream by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch and the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.

What does The Scream demonstrate about visual art?

It tells a story that evokes strong emotion.

What makes the Mona Lisa's smile famous according to the author?

The story that infuses the Mona Lisa's smile is what makes the painting famous. Technical ability makes it possible to tell the story, but the story is what speaks to us and remains with us.