"White!" [Saruman] sneered. "It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken."
"In which case it is no longer white," said [Gandalf]. "And he that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
:-)
ReplyDeleteReminds me of one of my favorite illustrations of the difference information makes to a system. Take a frog. Put it in a blender. Run it. All the mushy green material necessary for life is in that clear plastic pitcher with a lid, but is there life in there? No. The frog has become disorganized. Which also implies that having the right amino acids sitting in a swamp is not sufficient for life to occur.
Gandalf would probably agree that disorganizing frogs is not part of the path of wisdom.