GRGR (5) PK and other threads knotted into one another

[David Morris]

rj:
>In this case I think Point-boy's concerned that
>Mexico's form of objectivity reduces the scientist's
>role in the social realm (as an oracle/God, i.e. Pavlov,
>whom he venerates in Biblical terms - what was David
>Morris's great pun about that?) to that of a mere
>number-crunching bookkeeper.
---------------------------

It was:
>>Pointsman's motive seems to be self-aggrandizement.
>>Is he a zealot, seeking to enshrine Pavlov's god? (Hee Hee)
>>Is he a genuine searcher?

I think the real difference between the two (which may not really be so far
apart) is their need for CONTROL.  Pointy wants to be able to control the
future.  Up 'till now, Mexico has been content to watch it happen according
to its own patterns.  The funny thing about Pointy's efforts in the
"spiritual" framework is that his desire to "remove all hope" of humankind's
ability to slip out of the noose he's fashioning.  His "god" is the machine,
his "hope" is the mechanization of humanity.

---------------------------
Paul Mackin:
>[snip] But here's a scientific question.
>What exactly does Pointsman think he is studying?
>That is, is Slothrop a case study of a general
>phenomonon or is Slothrop some kind of universal
>with only one particular --tying in with the
>only-one-of-everything idea?
>[snip] Not knowing what Pointsman is up to makes
>Roger very frustrated. Pointsman would like to be
>doing pure science but he has been poorly trained
>to do experimental biology or psychology.
---------------------------------

And coincidentally from the same earlier post:

>>Pointsman seeks a "breakthrough" into uncharted
>>lands of psychiatry, a discovery which will lift
>>him to the realm of the gods.  He seeks it through
>>a mind pushed "ultraparadoxical" or maybe even beyond...
>>Pathology, the abnormal, the extreme is examined to
>>observe the mechanics of disease AMPLIFIED, to see
>>if keys can be found to "adjust" the machine.

Science, especially that of biology and psychology, has constantly sought
out the extreme case, the obscure patient whose pathology is so bizarre or
intense, as a way of studying the causal mechanisms.  This is what Pointy
thinks he has found in Slothrop.