Russell's Teapot

[assault]

Russell's Teapot is an analogy formulated by the philosopher Bertrand Russell.

Being silly, of course, it could be real in a fantasy world (with the serial numbers filed off, naturally).

This raises some questions:
Who put a teapot into space, and why?
How could you (find and) recover it?
Why would you want to do that?

Just considering the recovery - it would take some serious magic to do so. One possibility might be to use some kind of being that can travel through space to do that - perhaps a nightgaunt or some denizen of the Outer Darkness. A vehicle that could travel "out there" could also work, but such things are difficult in most fantasy worlds, even weird/silly ones. There are other options - no doubt people will come up with some.

 

The obvious point is that there would have to be a very good reason to do so. Since serious magic is involved, the benefit would need to be at least as serious.

 

So what could the teapot be?

It could be a Djinn "bottle", or a similar prison for some other being. The being in question would have to be more powerful than the nightgaunt or whatever was used to recover it if do so was to be worthwhile.

Alternatively, or as well, the teapot could be decorated with images/information of a kind that it would be worth concealing in such a radical manner.

And of course, it could be used to make tea. Maybe not ordinary tea - perhaps an elixir of life or immortality, or something equally awesome/dangerous.

Or maybe just tea. Perhaps the Best Tea in the World. But that could be dangerous too...

Anyway, there is today's silliness. I'm sure other people can come up with other ideas related to it.

[Scott Ruggels]

You would have to explain the premise to us non academics.  

[name_tamer]

"Russell's teapot is an analogy, formulated by the philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), to illustrate that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making empirically unfalsifiable claims, rather than shifting the burden of disproof to others.

"Russell specifically applied his analogy in the context of religion. He wrote that if he were to assert, without offering proof, that a teapot, too small to be seen by telescopes, orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, he could not expect anyone to believe him solely because his assertion could not be proven wrong.

"Russell's teapot is still invoked in discussions concerning the existence of God, and has had influence in various fields and media."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_teapot

[assault]

2 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

You would have to explain the premise to us non academics.  

 

That's why the first two words in my post was a link to the same thing name_tamer linked to.

Taking it literally, there is a teapot orbiting in space between Earth and Mars. This is kind of awesome, in my silly opinion.

[Ninja-Bear]

Funny thing is science does this all the time.

[DShomshak]

As an interested layman, I suspect our resident practicing scientists would take exception to such a claim about their field. But this is not the time or place for such a discussion.

 

Getting back to assault's premise: The wikipedia article quotes other philosophers who refer to Russell's "celestial teapot." Such an item sounds like it would be right at home in Exalted, where anything connected to the gods of the setting's Heaven, Yu-Shan, may take the adjective "celestial." A Celestial Teapot could be an item of divine chinaware, once a possession of the God of Tea but lost in the sky. Perhaps the Celestial Incarnae were holding a tea party on the Daystar when an argument broke out and Mars, the Maiden of Battles, lost her temple and threw the teapot at Luna. She dodged, of course (Luna is slippery that way) and the teapot sailed out to lodge among the stars of the Firmament. Anyone who can retrieve it will be able to make the veritable Tea of the Gods, the best tea in any of the worlds. But such perfection is dangerous for mortals. If you survive, it might enlighten your Essence -- but avoiding addiction to Celestial Tea might be an even greater challenge.

 

A teapot between Earth and Mars in a Fantasy version of our contemporary world? I'll have to think more on that.

 

Dean Shomshak

[DShomshak]

The essence of Russell's Teapot is a critique of religious belief: that belief in unobservable deities is as absurd as belief in unobservable orbiting teapots. Never mind the philosophical critique of the critique: They are in the wikipedia article. Let's play with the connection between gods and impossible objects.

 

At some point, space travelers or probes or whatever *do* find a teapot between the orbits of Earth and Mars. It's hard to see how anyone could have put it there. It is an absurdity -- or a miracle.

 

Somehow, the Space Teapot is brought back to Earth. (Maybe a special probe is launched. If only one space agency knows about the teapot, there might be a "cover story" about retrieving space dust, or the like, a followup to the "Stardust" mission of several years ago.)

 

All physical tests show the teapot is ordinary china. But it is a portal to the realms of myth and deity. Whoever drinks tea made in the teapot is possessed by a god. Did gods exist before? No way of knowing, but they exist now.

 

(This would also make a good "Shared Origin" McGuffin for a Champions setting.)

 

Dean Shomshak

[Grailknight]

I think Clarke did this pretty well in the 20xx books. Finding the next obelisk means taking the next step. And now you know the answers really are out there because someone did it before and is sharing by dribbling the most obtuse trail we can perceive.

[Lord Liaden]

In the 20xx stories, the trail wasn't obtuse at all. It just wasn't intended to explain everything to us. It was set to lead the subjects of the experiment to the experiment's next stage, as soon as we were advanced enough to detect it. It did that very effectively.