Saturday, July 31, 2004

What are the chances that my actions make so much sense?

Why do we think the chances of the universe producing something as orderly as us is improbable? Our idea of sense and order is skewed by the fact that we are the ones doing the sensing. Sitting here throwing a ball up in the air and then catching it, I realize that it only seems to be a sensical action because I do it. If what existed in the universe looked completely different and did things completely differently, it too would wonder, what are the chances that my actions make so much sense. But you must complete the sentence. what are the chances that my actions would make so much sense to me. There's a pretty good chance of that. Then you really get it that sense and order are concepts that are entirely created by us, and so have no concrete meaning. It therefore does not mean anything to think, what are the chances that my actions make so much sense?

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like this. Why is it better to catch the ball than to drop it? It is an action that is somewhat unique out of all possible actions, so that makes it notable and appealing. But why is catching it the semi-unique action we choose, rather than bouncing it on the back of our hand, or simply following it with our eyes?

But why follow the ball with our eyes when we can use them to look at the air that it's pushing around? We can see it more easily. But couldn't that be construed as a good reason to look at the air instead? To see if we can maybe discern something? And how do we know how the ball will interact with its environment (the air, our hand, the floor)? Well, we think we know all about it; 'because it's a ball, and we know balls'. But that's not really true. It's just a bunch of molecules. It has no intention of being a ball, the main thing its trying to do is get its electrons to the lowest PEL. And in those two ways, it is similar to all of us.

I'm making this point very casually, but I mean it seriously. Things are defined by the molecules that make them up, and the subatomic shit that we're starting to know all about, not the categories we put them in. You look the way you do because there was a cell with proteins and amino acids that got some DNA put in it and began to rearrange a lot of electrons. Not because you're a "human" (which you aren't). Dig?

3:55 PM  

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