Collectively, mankind has spent countless hours attempting to discover the hidden meaning of the machinery of nature. There is a strange automation in the world around us; one which consensus suggests is beyond the scope of a priori understanding. However, empiricism has shown no greater progress in understanding. Nor have the empiricists succeeded in developing a parrot machine-- a replica which was produced according to the exact structure and specifications of the original, with no understanding of it's purpose or mechanism. No such machine has ever worked. Of course, you know this; what you might not know, is that hundreds of parrot machines have been built, all to no avail. This would seem to suggest that the order and mechanism apparent in the universe is lacking.
On the other hand, perhaps, it is we who are lacking. One would think that in a world so full of dumb mechanism, the one creature capable of metacognition and abstract analysis would be capable of building a dumb replica. It seems such mundane tasks are beyond us-- by taking the abstract, we have somehow lost touch with the concrete.
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De Quincey's name is perhaps too obvious... Oh well.
Edited to sound less arrogant (although no less didactic)
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