In the first part of #69 EJ has granted to science jurisdiction over settling the question whether there is extraterrestrial life. Now he issues a pointed caveat. Science is incompetent in matters metaphysical or religious. He clothes this strict delimitation in the form of drastic anecdotes easily understood by scientists and technocrats. Since EJ is a trained scientist himself this is also a self-limitation. In the next aphorism, however, it turns out that he puts science so firmly in its place only to indulge the more in metaphysical speculations.
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