“…He asked, “Where are you today, right now?”
Eagerly, I started talking about myself. However, I noticed that I was still being sidetracked from getting answers to my questions. Still, I told him about my distant and recent past and about my inexplicable depressions. He listened patiently and intently, as if he had all the time in the world, until I finished several hours later.
“Very well,” he said. “But you still have not answered my question about where you are.”
“Yes I did, remember? I told you how I got to where I am today: by hard work.”
“Where are you?”
“What do you mean, where am I?”
“Where Are you?” he repeated softly.
“I’m here.”
“Where is here?”
“In this office, in this gas station!” I was getting impatient with this game.
“Where is this gas station?”
“In Berkeley?”
“Where is Berkeley?”
“In California?”
“Where is California?”
“In the United States?”
“On a landmass, one of the continents in the Western Hemisphere. Socrates, I…”
“Where are the continents?
I sighed. “On the earth. Are we done yet?”
“Where is the earth?”
“In the solar system, third planet from the sun. The sun is a small star in the Milky Way galaxy, all right?”
“Where is the Milky Way?”
“Oh, brother,” I sighed impatiently, rolling my eyes. “In the universe.” I sat back and crossed my arms with finality.
“And where,” Socrates smiled, “is the universe?”
“The universe is well, there are theories about how it’s shaped…”
“That’s not what I asked. Where is it?”
“I don’t know – how can I answer that?”
“That is the point. You cannot answer it, and you never will. There is no knowing about it. You are ignorant of where the universe is, and thus, where you are. In fact, you have no knowledge of where anything is or of what anything is or how is came to be. Life is a mystery. My ignorance is based on this understanding. Your understanding is based on ignorance. This is why I am a humorous fool, and you are a serious jackass.”
With Ken Thompson 