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Thought Experiment: Mary in the Black-and-White Room*
Some things lock in competition, like an earthquake and a kiss. While a decision is waiting to be made, neither side of the argument progresses. The earthquake, though eager to prove its claim, shows valiant restraint; the kiss? It knows the power of bitten tongues. Such stand-offs as these precede most gains (stance of knowing too much and fearing too late). The tongues, shaking along with the house, say nothing shattering at all. With progress, not only earthquakes but kisses will be predicted. The last fine line between feeling and fact will choose a good point, and end. Flattery will continue to make us immortal in the difficult years between the first word and the lost. * In which Mary, herself a palette of grays, inhabitant of a universe void of color, gains access to the complete scientific story of what makes red red—and reads it.