How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
We may be a local lump inside somebody else's universe. Remember the old cartoon of a little fish being swallowed by a slightly larger one, in turn about to be swallowed by another bigger one, and so on, ad infinitum? Well we may be one of those fishes. (11.138)
See what we mean about science presenting truths that are just too difficult to transfer into our everyday lives? It's hard enough grasping just how ridiculously big our universe is, but the idea of other universes on top of that? Forget about it.
Quote #5
"The only mistake was that he had the wrong conclusion. The intelligent life was on his side of the telescope, not the Mars end. His mind—" Lakin jabbed a forefinger at his own temple "—saw a flickering image and then imposed order on it. His own intelligence was tricking him." (12.52)
Lakin brings up a famous story in astronomy history. At the turn of the 19th century, an astronomer named Percival Lowell believed he saw canals on Mars through his telescope. And since canals don't up and build themselves, that meant Martians. Science eventually discovered the truth, but for the longest time, Lowell and his followers maintained the truth of the Martian canals.
Quote #6
[Markham] was part of the system. The experiment was bigger, and more complex, than the simple ideas of the past. Everything was part of the experiment; nobody could stand apart from it. You could talk about a second observer, bigger than the first one, who was unaffected by the experiment—but that simply removed the problem one step further. (15.94)
This is the real crux of discovering an absolute truth. We are all part of the universe. If you can't step outside of the universe, yourself, and your own head, then how do you tell what is truthfully true? One possible answer is science, but even here, we see the answer isn't as simple as that.