He woke up, frightened, in the dark of the night. It was the movement of the hobgoblin under his bed which had disrupted his sleep. He lay there frozen, totally immobile. Suddenly he became aware of the danger of just lying there, exposed and visible. He quickly pulled up his blanket to cover his head. Perhaps (he hoped) the hobgoblin would not be able to see him. That is, to the hobgoblin, he may not exist. What you cannot see may not be there!
When he was a middle-aged man, he was reminded of his ambivalence about the existence of the hobgoblin under his bed when his best friend (BF) argued that mankind is the chosen species. BF was certain that we had evolved to be the ‘top-dog’ on Earth, a planet specifically prepared for humans.
That Earth is only one of the planets of a solar system; that this solar system is only one of possibly trillion solar clusters always undergoing change; and that this universe, which is the only one that can be positively known, may be only one of an unknowable number of possible universes (to configure the Cosmos), had no impact whatsoever on that belief that BF treasured. He also had no idea that the operational relationships between all these known components of existence might have an unconceived mathematical overlay.
Where do hobgoblins fit into this scenario, he asked BF. They do not exist, because we have no evidence through the scientific method of their existence. What if hobgoblins were part of humankind’s collective memory as we evolved to take our place on this throne on which you are placing us? Indeed, what if hobgoblins are an integral component of mankind’s array of instincts, in the way the residues of bacteria are said to be contained within human body cells?
Ah, intoned BF with sonorous style, that may possibly have occurred as our souls detached themselves from dark matter.
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 