Interview 1: Clare Overlei (Puppybug) discusses the book “Essay on the Limited Usefulness of Science” with its author.
Puppybug: Hello, today’s interview is a bit strange for me. It’s with the author of the book “Essay on the Limited Usefulness of Science”. The trouble is that the author himself invented me and that I am one of the characters in the book. Perhaps Mr. Tom was certain that I would always behave as he wished. But I must assure him now that I will live my own life, regardless of what suits him and what doesn’t. For obvious reasons, I won’t hide the fact that we know each other quite well. Since I’m used to calling all of Daddy’s friends and co-workers “Uncle”, I’ll call you Uncle Tom. I’ve been doing that since we met, actually. I hope you don’t mind.
Author: I ‘m fine with it, Puppybug. I’m glad you decided to do the first interview in this series with me. It’s actually a great honor.
Puppybug: Good. So first question. Right to the point. Why did you install me in a book about the proof of a general statement? Actually, I’m still a quite young girl, and on top of that, you made me constantly twelve years old. You simply forbade me from aging. Isn’t that embarrassing, Uncle Tom?
Author: Of course, it is also meant to be a joking diversion from the more serious issues discussed in this book. Some people like a crazy comedy and others find it embarrassing. In my early youth, I liked the short comedy for children, in which a very famous and typically Czech puppet figure performed. I remembered this comedy sketch when I was trying to prove somehow the overly general statement about science. Such proof is also a problem for experienced experts.
When the essay was almost finished, I officially asked the copyright owner for permission to use this character in the essay. However, the rights holders did not agree with it. By mentio-ning or even using that copyrighted puppet character, I would have exposed myself to unplea-sant legal complications. I had to respect the owners’ wishes and replace the copyrighted cha-racter entirely with a character I invented. This is a bright twelve-year-old girl who calls herself Puppybug. She does not present any copyright problems for me at all, for obvious reasons. I also had to come up with a simple background scene – a word sketch comedy that would in no way copy the scene with the original character and at the same time fit well into the context of the whole essay. Whether I have succeeded in this, at least a little, is for the readers to judge.
Unfortunately, I’ve somewhat violated the authenticity of the essay. That joking proof of the examined “statement” with the original protected character I actually sent on May 24, 2021, at 8.26 pm to the private email address of one of my “literary” colleagues. It was a purely private matter. Just for the momentary amusement of the colleague and friend. I didn’t know at the time that it would turn into a book.
But there’s another reason why I included you as the character of a handy teenager in the book and its website. I assumed the critics would be a little more lenient with little Puppybug than they were with me.
You do realize, Puppybug, that your parents are part of the modern world aristocracy and are incredibly wealthy. Your father is the companion and close friend of many of the world’s most influential people. What you allowed yourself to do as a little girl do at the Global Space Forum Annual Meeting, only you, the child of true aristocrats, could get away with. You and “aristocratic” children like you will decide in the near future whether it is possible to extend that window of time, at least a little, in the era of modern science, when the existence of “normal” people in the style of the early 21st century will still be possible. For the world aristocracy and the local one have their only Achilles heel in their children. What will your dad, the all-powerful planner of the new world order, do when you tell him you don’t want his wonderful new world? But I understand that some sociologists don’t see it that way at all. And maybe they don’t even realize that they’re even bigger skeptics than I am.
Puppybug: That’s enough about me, Uncle Tom. I have other questions ready. I’m interested in this. How did the idea for this essay come about?
It occurred to me to put together my rather extensive email correspondence with the well-known Czech sociologist Petr Hampl on the topic of the usefulness of science into some kind of literary unit. After various bizarre attempts, I chose the form of an essay. I gradually added to the essay the statements and suggestions of people whom I highly respect. I have also relied on some well-known publications dealing with the subject of science, which had already attracted my attention in the past by their philosophical reflection.
Puppybug: How do you know Petr Hampl?
Author: Sometime in 2018, I accidentally discovered the first Czech edition of his book Breached Enclosure in a supermarket. I was intrigued by it, so I threw it in the shopping cart with rolls, yogurts, and oranges. After reading it, I have concluded that it is the best book in the field of sociology and philosophy of all time and that it simply cannot be surpassed. I decided to send the author an email to congratulate him on such a great piece of work that opened my eyes. Although the book has also been published in English, its uniqueness and importance have not yet been fully appreciated.
I was lucky enough to have Petr Hampl reply to my first email. Thus began our occasional and sometimes quite heated correspondence. I have also had the honour of meeting Petr personally on many occasions and we have become almost friends. Petr also helped me with the publication of the Czech version of this book and wrote an excellent foreword to it.
Puppybug: Why is this essay dedicated to Professor Václav Klaus? Isn’t it impertinent?
Author: Professor Klaus himself is innocent in this. In 2021, I did not know former President Klaus personally at all. I know that his personality is considered controversial by many people. However, I consider him to be the only contemporary Czech politician who has the gift of strategic thinking in politics.
In 2021, Václav Klaus celebrated his 80th birthday. I didn’t know what I could give to such a well-known, successful, and multi-talented man except for sincere congratulations, so I symbolically dedicated one of the first versions of the essay to Mr. Klaus. He is a man who is inextricably linked to our independent state. The Czech Republic is to some extent his “child”. I saw in the former president one of the last remaining guarantees of our state’s independence.
Mr. Václav Klaus made me very happy when, on May 4, 2022, he personally attended the launch of the Czech version of the book, in the well-known Olympos tavern in Prague. I could not have been more honoured. Even if Sir Winston Churchill himself had been there, I would not have been more pleased.
Puppybug: Why do the different sections of the Czech version of the essay have English titles?
Author: It’s been more than 40 years since I graduated from high school. I haven’t really been into essay writing since then. So I had to look at the basic structure of an essay and a search engine found for me a very clear and illustrative essay structure in English. It occurred to me to leave the English terms for those sections in the essay. In this case, the idea of the Czech writer, poet, critic, politician and journalist, and great humorist Karel Havlíček Borovský (1821 – 1856), which he expressed in his epigram, became true:
“Originality: There is nothing like originality! Everyone desires it.
People walk over the bridge,
but I will go through the river to the mountain ridge.”
Puppybug: Why do some considerations in the essay diverge in different directions and seem so disorganized?
Author: Because we had such a wide-ranging discussion in email and personal discussions with Czech sociologist Petr Hampl and also with experienced IT expert Petr Houf. I was also greatly influenced by the excellent publications and lectures of Jaroslav Petr, a well-known biologist and bioethicist in the Czech Republic (e.g. lecture entitled Genetically Enhanced Humanity). I cut a lot in the preliminary version of the original text and tried to make it as short as possible, but I was sorry to throw out some passages. It turned out to be quite a hard nut for me to reconcile these small and disjointed units into a literary unit. Then there was the fact that I discovered a wonderful essay by of Czech-German political scientist and economist Petr Robejšek, “How to get out of it”.
Apart from myself, four other people participated in the essay’s realization. They are four guys whom all have the name Petr (in English Peter). So they are “Four Peters”. The resemblance to the heroes of Dumas’ novel The Three Musketeers is not purely coincidental. The three brave musketeers were, along with d’Artagnan, also in fact four. All four experts (Four Peters) eventually allowed me to publish their unofficial opinions in the essay. However, it is important for them not to be named in the essay next to paraphrases of their ideas. The reason is that in some parts of the essay I am formulating a text in which I incorporate quotations selected by me from their unpublished text.
Puppybug: So it’s quite comical, they’re like the four musketeers and you’re like the fifth – Dumas? Or are you more of a caricature of the Count of Monte Cristo?
Author: Alexandre Dumas has truly been a favorite author of mine since childhood. To compare oneself to this great man would be shameless even for renowned authors. The character of the Count of Monte Cristo in the world-famous novel had long experienced an emotional ambivalence somewhat similar to mine. With the Musketeers, you probably mean the old well-known TV sketch on Czech TV, where the popular Czech singer Karel Gott and the Czech comedians Sobota, Šimek, and Nárožný beautifully performed a sketch about five theater Musketeers, who all have a double role, because they have to play themselves and even their horses.
Puppybug: How did you cope with the fact that you were working with the opinions and suggestions of relatively well-known people that were not officially published?
When officially published statements from the media or books are included in the text of the essay, they are always accompanied by citations or the relevant source. However, opinions and suggestions that have not been officially published are also important for the essay. I probably would have had to invent some of them if those authentic unofficial statements had not been used, because they fit my conception of the essay quite well. The essay is designed so that the unpublished statements are not attributed to a specific real person, who thus actually remains somewhat anonymous. That is why I do not use double quotation marks around the quoted unpublished text, as is otherwise customary. The reason for using parts of private email correspondence is that I have found nothing better, more spontaneous, and beautiful to express some thoughts and feelings. It is the authenticity that I like.
Puppybug: Are you sorry that the essay was so poorly reviewed by respected literary experts?
I’m not that sorry. I was writing this essay easily and without visible effort. I guess that makes it all the harder to read after me. I don’t really write essays for a living. Because, I mean nothing in science and literature and want to mean nothing, I can afford the luxury of flagrantly violating all publishing rules and good literary manners. I’ll leave it to the reader to choose for himself where in the essay the fun ends and the serious business begins.
The essay helped me to think a bit and to clarify some seemingly “strange” things that are manifesting themselves in science, technology, and society today. I concluded that it is all a completely natural development. This fact filled me with renewed peace and extraordinary joy in every minute of life. Even my reprehensible desire to take revenge on irresponsible scientists is almost completely gone. They are not responsible for the indirect consequences of their scientific activities. More precisely, they are not responsible for them “de jure”.
Puppybug: Well, time for our interview just ran out. We don’t have a second to spare. Thank you for the interview, and hopefully we’ll meet again at the microphone sometime.
Author: Thank you very much. Have a nice day, dear Puppybug. Goodbye.
Puppybug: Goodbye, Uncle Tom. Clare Overlie for the Czech section of the radio Backbone of Europe.
