I kind of realized that I forgot to put a quote last month (bad bad me). So I thought I'd just put an extra one this month. Kind of like a two-for-one deal. Except I'm not trying to sell you anything. Unless you might consider that through this blog I'm selling my ideas, but that's more of a metaphor than anything else cause I'm not getting any money nor other benefits from this, other than the narcissistic pleasure of seeing my "thoughts" on a screen. And I am rambling...again...I've been reading this book called First you build a cloud: and other reflections on physics as a way of life on and off for about 2 years now (I'll end up finishing it eventually) and it really is a wonderful piece of literature for the amateur physicist in you (or scientist in general). It is a very vague introduction to physics as it relates to our everyday life, but it is written in such a way as everyone can understand and I consider it to be a very pleasurable read (not to mention that it boosts up my ego when I discover all the stuff that I already know about physics...yes yes I'm an arrogant narcissist...shoot me).
This is a quote I discovered a couple of hours ago when I was reading in the metro on my way home and it struck me because it represents the epitome of my vision of the world (I think I was trying to explain this concept to my boyfriend at one point but it really didn't come out as great as this hahaha). And it's sort of poetic-ish...
"Whenever an infant is born, the dice, in the shape of genes and enzymes and the intangibles of chance environment, are being rolled again... Each one of us is a statistical impossibility around which hover a million other lives that were never destined to be born - but who, nevertheless, are being unmanifest, a lurking potential in the dark storehouse of the void."
Loren Eiseley
Doesn't it just contrast so nicely with Einstein's whole "God doesn't play dice with the universe"? Well, take that All! God DOES play dice with the universe (and when I say God, I mean the personification of all the natural forces and laws that make up our world, and not some invisible man in the sky watching our every move to make sure we're all good kids). Yes, as far as I see it, the world is merely one probability after another with the chances slightly tipped into one direction or another by natural laws and forces.
However, if the universe is simply a statistically determined chain reaction, we come to a sort of cause and effect vision of the world. And in that case, if everything has a physical cause, that had another physical cause, that had another physical cause and so forth until the beginning of time, up to what point is free will an actual part of our life?
I shall leave you with that question until my next post (because I'm frankly falling asleep in front of my monitor and I feel this might be a long discussion).
Doesn't it just contrast so nicely with Einstein's whole "God doesn't play dice with the universe"? Well, take that All! God DOES play dice with the universe (and when I say God, I mean the personification of all the natural forces and laws that make up our world, and not some invisible man in the sky watching our every move to make sure we're all good kids). Yes, as far as I see it, the world is merely one probability after another with the chances slightly tipped into one direction or another by natural laws and forces.
However, if the universe is simply a statistically determined chain reaction, we come to a sort of cause and effect vision of the world. And in that case, if everything has a physical cause, that had another physical cause, that had another physical cause and so forth until the beginning of time, up to what point is free will an actual part of our life?
I shall leave you with that question until my next post (because I'm frankly falling asleep in front of my monitor and I feel this might be a long discussion).
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