Yi tunanin wani makaho, kurma, wanda hankalinsa na taba kawai yake da shi don koyon abubuwan da ke kewaye da shi. Amma abin ya fi haka muni. Wannan mutum yana iya jin abubuwan da ke kewaye da shi ta hanyar amfani da allura kawai. Yana riƙe da allurar yana shafa kan ta a saman abubuwan da ke kewaye da shi. Kan wannan allura ita ce kawai tagarsa zuwa duniya. Wannan ɗan ƙaramin kan allura ita ce kawai tushen bayaninsa game da dukan sararin duniya.

Imagine a deaf, blind person who only has his sense of touch available to learn about his surroundings. But it gets worse than that. This person can only feel his surroundings by using a needle. He holds the needle and rubs its tip over the surfaces of objects around him. The tip of that needle is his only window into the world. That tiny needle tip is his only source of information about the entire universe.

Ka yi tunanin mamakinmu sa'ad da wannan mutum ya fara gaya mana game da yanayin gaskiya. Ka yi tunanin rudanin da muka shiga yayin da yake bayyana mana abin da "duk wannan yana nufi." Ka yi tunanin nishaɗinmu sa'ad da ya nace cewa abubuwan da suke wanzuwa a duniya kaɗai su ne waɗanda zai iya ji ta cikin allurarsa.

So imagine our surprise when this man tries to tell us about the nature of reality. Imagine our confusion as he explains to us what “it all means.” Imagine our amusement when he insists that the only things that exist in the world are what he can feel through his needle.

Yanzu ka yi tunanin cewa maimakon wannan allura, mutumin dole ne ya yi amfani da ɗan ƙaramin zare don ya gano yanayin da ke kewaye da shi ta hanyar ja da zaren a kan abubuwan da ke kewaye da shi. Wannan zai ba ka fahimta mai zurfi game da iyakar binciken kimiyya.

Now imagine that instead of this needle, the man has to use a small piece of thread to feel out his environment by dragging the thread over surrounding objects. That will give you an even more accurate understanding of the scope of scientific inquiry.

Ka yi la'akari da cewa mutane suna ganin wani ƙaramin sashe ne kawai na bakan electromagnetic, watau hasken da ake gani da idanunmu. Tabbas, saboda fasahar zamani, yanzu muna iya gano wasu nau'ikan radiation na electromagnetic waɗanda kakanninmu ba su san da su ba, misali infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays, da sauransu. Me ke sa mu tunanin cewa babu wasu "hanyoyin" bayanai ko "matakan wanzuwa" da, saboda iyakokin fasaha na yanzu, har yanzu ba mu san da su ba?

Consider that human beings are only privy to a very small sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum, i.e., visible light, that we perceive with our eyes. Of course, due to relatively modern technology, we can detect other kinds of electromagnetic radiation that our ancestors had no idea about, e.g., infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays, etc. What makes us think that there aren’t other “channels” of information or “planes of existence” that we as of yet, due to current technological limitations for example, have no idea about?

Idan muka yi la'akari da iyakokin hankalinmu na fahimta kawai, babu yadda za mu san abin da ba mu sani ba. Idan muka yi sa'a, za mu iya cin karo da wani abu. Amma idan aka yi la'akari da girman duniya (ko kuma ɓangaren da muka sani a cikinta, aƙalla) da kuma gaskiyar cewa ko da yawancin ƙasar duniyarmu tamu ba a bincika ta ba tukuna, akwai dalilai da yawa da ke nuna cewa muna cikin duhu game da abubuwa da dama.

Just considering our faculties of perception, there is simply no way for us to know what we don’t know. If we get lucky, we might stumble upon something. But considering the vastness of the universe (the piece of it that we even know about, at least) and the fact that even so much of our own tiny planet has yet to be explored, there is plenty to suggest that we are in the dark on a whole lot.

Yanzu bari mu yi la'akari da ƙarfin tunaninmu. Hakika, fahimta tana da alaƙa mara rabuwa da ikon kwakwalwa na "sarrafa" bayanan gani da ji. Kuma wannan "sarrafawa" wajibi ne domin mu iya sanin wannan bayanin da hankali. Idan kwakwalwarmu ba ta iya "gani" wasu abubuwa da gabobin jiyyarmu suka ɗauka ba fa? Kuma babu wata hanyar tabbatar da hakan, domin ba mu iya, kamar yadda ake cewa, fita "waje" daga kwakwalwarmu don ganin abin da muke rasawa.

Now consider our mental capacity. Perception, after all, is inexorably connected to the brain’s ability to “process” sensory information. And that “processing” is a prerequisite for our ability to consciously register that information. What if our brains can’t “see” certain things that our sensory organs nonetheless pick up? Again, there is no way to tell for sure because we cannot, as it were, step “outside” of our brains to see what we’re missing.

Abin ban mamaki ba shi ne cewa kimiyya da kanta tana yarda da waɗannan iyakoki masu tsanani a ɓoye. Domin bisa ga matsayar masana kimiyya, mu ba komai ba ne sai birai da suka sami ci gaba. Ikon mu na fahimta da tunani, a cewarsu, an tsara shi ne domin neman 'ya'yan itace masu ci a cikin bishiyoyi da kuma neman abokin aure mafi dacewa. Duk da haka, ta wata hanya, waɗannan ayyukan rayuwar yau da kullum irin ta birai suna iya binciken zurfin duniya, tunani a kan ma'anar duk abin, da kuma yin waƙoƙi game da komai, tun daga yanayin ɗan adam har zuwa asalin ɗabi'a ta fuskar halitta.

The ironic thing is that science itself implicitly acknowledges these extreme limitations. According to scientific consensus, after all, we are nothing but evolved apes. Our perceptual and cognitive capacities, we are told, are suited for finding edible fruit in trees and getting the best warm body to mate with. Yet, somehow those functions of day-to-day ape-hood are also amenable to probing the depths of the universe, pondering what it all means, and waxing poetic about everything from human nature to the biological origins of morality.

Ya kamata dukkanmu mu yi dariya a gaban irin wannan girman kai makafi kuma abin tausayi.

We should all chuckle in the face of such blind, pathetic hubris.