Business As Usual

There is an ancient tale in which a king’s four sons are asked what careers they intend to follow. They said to one another: “Let us go out into the world and search for a special science.” They agreed on a place where they would meet again, and the four brothers started off, each in a different direction. Time went by and the brothers met again at the appointed meeting place, and they asked one another what they had learned. “I have mastered a science,” said the first, “which makes it possible for me, if I have nothing but a piece of bone of some creature, to create the flesh that goes with it.” “I,” said the second, “know how to grow that creature’s skin and hair if there is flesh on its bones.” The third said, “I am able to create its limbs if I have the flesh, the skin, and the hair.” “And I,” concluded the fourth, “know how to give life to…