A Socratic Fragment¶
Socrates:
Ah, Abyssos, Mechanos, and Agoros, how delightful to have stumbled
upon you on this fine day.
Abyssos:
No offense Socrates, but could you please buzz off?
Socrates:
What a fascinating way to begin a spirited dialectic!
Abyssos:
We’re working on something here, Socrates.
Socrates:
So then a perfect opportunity for a discussion of the nature of the
Good?
Abyssos:
Our tri-nodal abstract rotary-dynamic cognitive processor is almost
functional, with only a few intricate tweaks left to complete, so we
would appreciate the chance to concentrate upon it undisturbed.
Socrates: You would appreciate such a chance?
Abyssos: Yes, indeed.
Socrates:
It would, then, be a good thing in your opinion?
Abyssos: Most definitely.
Socrates:
Yet you say you would rather think, today, of something other than
the Good, and that it would be good to be allowed to do so?
Abyssos: My emphasis was quite different.
Socrates:
Quite so, my dear Abyssos, but what indeed is emphasis? Is it not
the prioritization of one thing relative to another? The advancement
of a meaning deemed most important? And is it not, then, being said
that it is better for one thing to be heard, than another?
Abyssos:
No doubt you are correct Socrates. Would it be acceptable for me
now to concede without reservation to your argument, bid you a warm
farewell, and return to the delicate technical work with which I am
engaged with my friends?
Socrates:
But that which you would pursue, now, rather than the Idea of the
Good, Abyssos, is it of a better or worse nature than the Good?
Abyssos:
It is hard to know, Socrates, since it is a cognitive engine, and
will in our estimation enable us to reach superior conclusions than
we could reach now, unaided by it.
Socrates: ‘Superior’, did you say …