The afterlife is an interesting place in many ways. There's the wrenching realization that
death is not the end, that we continue on once
our flesh dies and rots, and that's usually enough to put all but the most
self-destructive in a good mood for years. (How can you explain to someone that
you can't give up on consciousness that easily?) And then there's the amusement the more atheistic of us get out of seeing the faces of
fundamentalists once they realize the truth, and the fundies enjoy the same on the entrance of the
strong atheists (You should have been there for
Madalyn Murray O'Hair), but one of the best joys is seeing the discussions that happen between people of such different eras and places that it seems
the range between them would be smaller if they were of a different species.
One interesting ones I've sampled recently was a conversation between Albert Einsten and Democritus. I wasn't there, but pulling up the records wasn't hard. Seems like David Brin's transparent society came around eventually, even if it is in a place you expect to see Milliways rather than the Buddha and Jeshua of Nazareth discussing religion. Democritus, for those who skipped history class, was the Greek philosopher who dubbed the fundamental unit of matter the atom, from the Greek word atomos for indivisable. He also thought they were homogenous and had no internal structure, while realizing that the different properties of elements could be explained by atoms having different sizes, shapes and mass. Not bad for an ancient philosopher whose method of discovery was restricted to gedanken experiments, but quantum mechanics are a little more accurate, and useful as a stepping stone towards an understanding of unified field theory. Einstein was tutoring him in exchange for some lessons on wormholes he'd picked up from Tsuan Noriyaka - without cash, only moral obligations exist.
Einstein ran through the basic particles of an atom pretty easily - proton, neutron and electron. He had just finished explaining angstroms when Democritus, like any good student, jumped in. "So, I assume this means atoms are indeed divisable?", he inquired.
Einstein raised his large, bushy eyebrows at him and huffed slightly. "Yees, that is true, and such is the source of fission, but I was getting to that later. Now you see, the electrons want a stable orbital configuration, so..."
"If one may split them, may one add them together?", he interjected again. His impatience was charming.
Einstein was slightly put out by the interruption, but like any teacher he took joy in Democritus' need for knowledge. "Most atoms do not fuse, but sometimes... sometimes. For example, every star is supported by this process, and humanity was weaned off its dependence upon petroleum through the mastering of the process."
His eyes opened, revealing childlike wonder. "If you're lucky, they fuse into something bright and astonishing."