> Or, excuse the bad analogy, think of it as shield generators... > It's the field that does the work, the generator only keeps it up. No matter how you conti

> Or, excuse the bad analogy, think of it as shield generators... > It's the field that does the work, the generator only keeps it up. No matter how you continue this parable it will become an arms race, invariably. One very famous such story is the magic oil lamp that kep burning when Massada was under siege. That's as you describe the faith which keeps the flame going. The problem is in my view rather like Jakob the Liar, Plato's cave parable and the Emperor's new Clothe's. The emperor knows he's naked, but as long as he controls fuel flow, nobody will switch on the light, and if the abstraction is leaky he will be well positioned to throw a huge shadow, waving his arms around. As they say, biology is all about ... I hope you know what I mean, I just forgot what do they say? Gradients, right?