Continuing a look at the origin of reality…largely inspired and derived from George F.R. Ellis' brilliant brief book, BEFORE THE BEGINNING. He is NOT responsible, though, for the liberties I've taken with his logic or how I've chosen to illustrate it. Some in the readership might go, “Well, of COURSE physical laws are consistent and unchangeable and comprehendable.” Others might recall the words of Einstein, “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.” Or Eugene Wigner's article on "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences:. It is not at ALL a given that the world should be visited with a regular, comprehensible, set of mathematically-describable laws. It seems a commonplace because it's hard to imagine anything else. But chaotic, unpredictable systems often happen in nature. We are –lucky?– that the laws that govern nature are not similarly chaotic. Very, VERY lucky. Suspiciously?–lucky?
Next time: FREE MINDS AND FREE WILL Next time will be a week from February 1st–I'm going to have to skip a week–my tablet, despite my free will to do so, died, and by the time I realized it was fatal, not something I could fix, it was too late to hand-draw and scan the pictures I needed. So, be here NEXT Sunday for the Free Will one.
See note above--I'm going to have to skip a week. I got halfway through when my tablet exercised its mechanical free will--and died. I have a new one ordered, but it won't be here till Monday--and it'll doubtless take a day or two to tweak it and get used to its particular style. By the time I realized it wasn't something I could fix, it was too late to hand-draw and scan in the remaining pages.
The genie reference is interesting... I've often had thought experiments about what it must like to have the mind of a hypothetical god creating the universe: is anything possible? How was what 'is' decided upon? If 'xe' has any sort of mind that I could relate to, then it seems this god must also have severe limitations to what 'xe' could possibly create. Otherwise, 'xe' is incomprehensible - so why bother trying to comprehend? Anyway, good stuff - looking forward to #2
alschroeder at 4:50AM, Feb. 1, 2015
See note above--I'm going to have to skip a week. I got halfway through when my tablet exercised its mechanical free will--and died. I have a new one ordered, but it won't be here till Monday--and it'll doubtless take a day or two to tweak it and get used to its particular style. By the time I realized it wasn't something I could fix, it was too late to hand-draw and scan in the remaining pages.
Genejoke at 2:47PM, Jan. 27, 2015
there is no such thing as chaos. Just order we cannot comprehend.
KimLuster at 12:35PM, Jan. 25, 2015
The genie reference is interesting... I've often had thought experiments about what it must like to have the mind of a hypothetical god creating the universe: is anything possible? How was what 'is' decided upon? If 'xe' has any sort of mind that I could relate to, then it seems this god must also have severe limitations to what 'xe' could possibly create. Otherwise, 'xe' is incomprehensible - so why bother trying to comprehend? Anyway, good stuff - looking forward to #2
tupapayon at 9:15AM, Jan. 25, 2015
so much order... could life exist, survive in chaos?... what do logical thinkers think?