Learning from Siddhartha

One of Hermann Hesse's masterpieces is Siddhartha (1922). Hesse won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1946. This book has nothing to do with science; it is a philosophical essay of the adventures of a man living at the time of the Buddha. Among the numerous extrapolations related to science that one can draw from this book, I selected 2 representative ones (1). The first relates to “wisdom,” which in our context of interest can be equated with “imagination.” Note that Govinda is Siddhartha's friend. Siddhartha says: “Wisdom is not expressible. Wisdom, when a wise man tries to express it, it always sounds like foolishness.” “Are you joking?” asked Govinda. “I am not joking. I am telling you what …