Governor

When I was in grade school, I owned an old blue go-kart, powered by a single-cylinder lawnmower engine. Rather than attaching directly to the carburetor, the throttle cable attached to a spring which then attached to the fuel control cam.

I asked my dad what the deal was and he explained that the “governor” — not to be confused with that fellow who lives in the state capital — used a spring, matched to the resistance of the fuel flow cam to prevent overly fast revving that generated detrimental stress on the engine components.

Since fast takeoffs were the primary goal of a ten-year-old go-kart driver, I was tempted to remove that pesky spring. My dad, however, warned me that such a choice would cause problems. In a rare move that was likely the result of supernatural intervention, I listened to my dad.

By the summer before Junior High, I had acquired a couple motor scooters and sold the go-kart to some younger kids down the street. When I ran into one of those kids a few weeks later, he bragged that his uncle had removed the governor and that the go-kart would now burn rubber on takeoff. I told him that his uncle was a dumbass, a statement that would have resulted in a fight with someone nearer my age.

Only two weeks later the brothers from down the street accused me of selling them a piece of junk because the engine had broken. “Told you your uncle was a dumbass,” I replied just hoping for a reaction, but none came. Their father had apparently scolded them for removing the governor and destroying their new toy.

Oddly, I was a bit miffed because they had broken “my” old go-kart. It seems that my previous possession still owned a small piece of my soul. Stuff does that.

Life’s a Race
Just like that old go-kart, everything in life seems to spawn a contest — good vs. evil, income vs. expenses, emotional thinking vs. rational thinking. There always seem to be two competing factions vying for control just like that old cartoon of a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, both coaxing us in opposite directions.

The Triumph of Reason
Although you’d never hear it from the fear-mongering media, our current culture is on the precipice of a modern renaissance. Converging breakthroughs in physics, genetics, medicine, computing, and energy could soon bring about discoveries that extend our lives, improve our understanding of the universe, and produce virtually limitless, low-cost energy — enough energy to power all those data centers and facilitate an even faster transfer of knowledge.

Only a few months back, two West coast scientists achieved the first-ever fusion-based power generation. Admittedly, their experiment consumed almost as much energy as it produced but “almost” is the operative word. Ignoring their results because the increase in energy was “minimal” is no different than ignoring the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk because their first flight was shorter than the wingspan of a modern jumbo jet.

Gene-based medicines are revolutionizing everything from cancer treatment to the battle against dementia while new discoveries in AI and Quantum Physics hold the promise of exponential leaps in our understanding of nature. Advances in technology are moving at break-neck speed.

The Jeopardy of Emotionalism
Rational, scientific study promises us a new age of enlightenment, yet we’re pitting that potential against the emotionalist thinking of a cancel culture that trades on victimhood and offense-based worldviews. What are the odds that we will set aside our quest for personal autonomy and return to a rational, collaboration-based society in time to reap the benefits of modern science?

If we fail to put voluntary governors on our personal freedoms and emotions for the sake of order and cooperation, we risk mimicking those kids’ dumbass uncle and sacrificing the race to enlightenment for the sake of gratuitous personal satisfaction.

And there will be no one to blame for selling us a faulty go-kart.

A meeting of great minds who think alike