The Information Age is the outcome of technology,
Accomplishments beyond the most sophisticated dreams
Of philosophers, of sorcerers, of Andalusia kings,
Too busy conquering, then building new domains,
For knowledge seeking, not in vogue, an idle enterprise,
Previous to the stunning rule, the mandate of Islam.
The sinuous contrivances of clergy, east and west
Confused the faithful, formulating dark officialdom.
Thus science and the accretion of its culture globally
Came slowly through Crusaders, the taking of Toledo,
The Renaissance, the printing press, enabling the unauthorized
A common language to devise, consensus, methodology.
The Age of Understanding awaits inauguration.
Would the Information Age could lead us to envision
The ways and means to contemplate horizons far beyond
The dictates of a rigidly prescribed reductionism,
To grasp the relevance revealed from
Minutiae deciphered, not disconnected parts.
From the Hidden One, the Immeasurable, have come
The integral abettors of intelligent design,
Riding like an arrow on the wind, brisk and free,
The multiple and intricate, then artfully combine,
Yielding algorithms, codes in tidy panoply,
A blueprint both convenient and sublime.
We carry it within, in the nucleus of each cell,
Every organism rigged with threaded recipe
That carried us millenniums to shores of fruition,
Invertebrates to Einstein in the blinking of an eye.
Impossible this quantum leap devoid of volition,
Of decision to deliver the transcendent, sentient soul.
A fanfare over time of unbound creativity,
Building blocks arrayed in precise, unyielding order,
Mutations intervening in accordance with substantial need,
Apropos of climate, yet invariant through time,
Those dainty double helixes have prompted each and all,
Producing orchids, ostriches and clever human kind,
To occupy the realms reserved for consciousness and knowing,
The barriers being impassable, forbidden to the un-endowed.
Without the understanding of the logos that propels the seed,
Transcendence will continue as a fabled misconstrual,
The laden tree with luscious fruit, an unintended clemency.
Ignorance and knowledge will as always breed their kind.
Thus, lame donkeys carry us to unconfirmed conclusions,
A chain of reproduction from the factories of the blind.
As myriad codes envelop, information everywhere,
A maelstrom of computed files, statistics, figures, formulae.
Drowned in data, sucked into the void of turbid proposition,
Teetering on contingency, we sink into the abysm.
The human genotype, blessed with universal grammar,
Strives to comprehend, to find a common alphabet.
A paltry stock of two allowed few elements to thrive,
The secret to unfolding order skirting formulae.
The Source of Being then entered with the missing twenty-five,
The crucial combinations that equip the bird with wings.
No fortuitous encounter could enkindle such a thing.
Knowledge, understanding, two threads to be entwined
By nimble hands acquainted with exquisite tapestry,
Undaunted by the lattice work required to encompass
All elements, to clarify abstruse complexity,
Will bind the hearts and minds, a marriage meant to be.
Gleanings have been given of a language still unused,
A syntax now evolving from the gibberish of the crib,
An enzymatic modus operandi destined to abide,
To turn the disconnected sounds into a flowering symphony,
Syllables to sentences, a life pulse that potentially
Engenders prose or poetry, iambic flow or frantic rap.
The instrument extraordinaire, pointing toward particulars,
As well as generalities, with purpose and resolve,
Bound by lines, well-defined, in fixed morphology,
Adept at the complexity of sequences enmeshed
In vast variety, will bestow the understanding
We are bidden to wholeheartedly accept.
A conference infused with hallowed fragrances
Will foster comprehension beyond the quantum edge,
Where prized separate views ally in one united truth.
Submission is required, perseverance, longanimity
Severance, to merge, to purge the pride of erudition.
Humility and patience turn the guesswork into certainty.
To circumvent adversity, outsmart impediments,
A resolute battalion interlocks in joint decision:
They listen to each other, they think collectively,
As rays of the sun and waves of the sea, a solid wall,
Disengaged from all propensity, admitting ambiguities,
Awakened to reality, not as disparate, but one.
All the fonts of knowledge will be keenly scrutinized,
The test of truth at every turn untiringly applied
In the light of Revelation, liberating energies,
Bearing fruits of wiser deeds, collective enterprise.
The tender seed responds to conditions in the soil.
With purity of motive, with love and harmony,
A new creation germinates, proliferates and grows,
Ripens to maturity, an unimagined synthesis, decidedly
Superior the sum to every one of its component parts.
The reticent encouraged, the loquacious self-contained,
Every voice in unison agrees in universal tongue:
The dawning of the age of understanding has begun.