I really want to single out John here. Flo’s script gave him some good instruction, but the sort of pure joy that takes hold of HR when he speaks is very difficult to convey in a way that makes him look not like a raving madman, but someone whose ideas you would want to follow. Look at panel 3, especially: it’s like I can feel misting rain on his face.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with falling in love with abstractions, in seeing the face of God in them, even in hoping to become a little more godlike by exploring them with our minds. It’s only that last little step in panel 4 that moves into hubristic territory, and at this point it still halfway sounds like he’s just continuing his lovely thought experiment.

As some have pointed out, this isn’t too far from Plato’s own Theory of Forms, but HR’s putting his own spin on it. In Plato’s view this was a realm we could only just picture with the mind: in HR’s, it’s an attainable goal.