As of late I have been reading books that are well outside of my areas of study and I have therefore been exposed to new concepts and ideas that to a lot of people are quite elementary. But they really excite me. How giddy am I! Most of the ideas I have been exposed to are within the realms of physics, in which I have no background at all. These new ideas have gotten me thinking a lot about the universe and how things work and how those things came into existence.
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics says that the motion of a particle cannot be predicted with absolute certainty, and that much that happens in the universe is random (this statement is pretty much verbatim from Victor J. Stenger's God: The Failed Hypothesis). As I said a lot of this physics stuff is new but I feel I can trust scholars who write books to give me a good overview of these concepts. Being a novice I may be buying into some weird propaganda pushed by the authors but I feel with their credentials and their constant citing of sources that they are not bullshitting too badly. That aside, back to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. One of the few things I have investigated in this field are the works of Heisenberg and Bohr. I first found out about them after seeing the made for television version of the play Copenhagen which is a semi-fictional account of Heisenberg, Bohr, and Bohr's wife. What really fascinates me with this principle is the idea of randomness. I like the idea that if the universe were to start over again that things would probably be completely different. How awesome! This theory/fact/idea/concept explains so much so easily. It also makes me feel good, good about everything. I find it freeing, oddly liberating. Stenger uses it to disprove god, or God, or gods, or Gods. But it can be used for so many different things. I feel that I am moving beyond even questioning if there is a god or anything that we would consider “supernatural”. Every point and counterpoint that I have read leads me to the conclusion that there is probably no such thing as the supernatural and therefore nothing but the universe controlling the universe. That said, because of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle nothing in and of itself is controlling the universe. The universe is not controlled. It contains processes that as far as we know are universal per say, and seem to follow several “laws”. How cool is that? The constant in the universe is change. That said, not all things change. Atoms are always atoms, but may constitute different matter. The speed of light in a vacuum is always what it is. That isn't to say that there isn't a process that contradicts these constants, but with the information and technology that we have we have no reason to think otherwise.
I think I am infatuated with science. I know exactly why. Science is good at explaining things that happen. But, and a big BUT, it is (or should) always willing to be proven otherwise. As we say in archaeology (a so called soft science), we take what we find and observe, and from the data we give the best possible answer we can at that time. That is not to say we cannot be refuted or our findings reinterpreted in the future, but that (hopefully) we are doing our best with the information we have from which we can derive the best possible explanation. It is my hope as a scientist that I will always be open to being proven wrong. I think that is the best quality of a rational human being as well as any scientist trying to find the illusive thing we call the truth.
So how does randomness make me feel good? What it does is just further support what I already think about my own life. I do not have to do anything. There is nothing dictating what it is that I do. I am lucky to be alive. I choose what I want to do or not do. But because of culture and the rise of complex societies I have to stay within certain boundaries to enjoy my life. Randomness also makes me laugh at homo sapiens sapiens even more than I already do. I do not deny that in the context of this planet we are special, because we certainly are. We are the first animals (as far as we know) to develop a super sense of self and what is often defined a consciousness. That specialness aside, it is funny to see our evolution as random. There is no scientific reason for our existence. We are purposeless and meaningless within the universal context. At this I chuckle (can't you just hear it?). That is so liberating! Or at least it should be, but again culture and our specialness gets in the way. We're lucky to be here, but think of it not as in your personal situation, but in the sense that we are lucky that the universe has come together in a way that allows us to evolve and to the extent we have! It's so basic, it's wonderful. And I'm sure that's why people have a hard time coming to grips with the fact that there may be nothing more to humans than exactly what we see. We might just be naked apes with oversized sex organs know as brains. And then, and then! When you look at the essence of every process we can examine none of them require any property or intervention by en entity or substance we cannot account for. Dark matter may be an exception, but even that I starting to become less dark.
Why are we here? Are we alone in the universe? Is life worth living? Who cares? I seem to care less and less. I feel that it is not why I am here, but what I do while I am here. I figure if I can't make this world a better place, I might as well try to not make it worse. As a scientist I have to as why question all the time, and that makes sense. But why am I here? is not one of them, and I think that makes sense. That is what religion does, and them fucks everything else up in the process. I think people fear science because it doesn't quantify morality. It has no opinion one way or another. It simply presents its findings and allows one to interpret those findings. A friend of mine with whom I have these sorts of discussions with at least once a month calls science a religion and that one day the spiritual world and the scientific world will become one. Nope. Not as long as no spiritual being is needed to complete a process. The comparison is not a “same book different page” argument as much as it is a “different book different oceans”. The fact that one can explain the other with evidence that is tangible but not vise-versa is the closest one can get to trumping the other. And unlike religion or spirituality, science isn't (or shouldn't be) 100%. One should always be at the most 99%. Religion is often 100%. I really don't want to discuss religion because I want to be over it. But I never will be.
Randomness! Yes, randomness. It's just cool. I can't really describe how it makes me feel. Humbled I think. Though any of my friends would laugh at me self-labeling to such an extent. I think that when one comes to conclusions that make life a little simpler(?) it is easier to deal with other things that one has to deal with. Worries become easier to deal with when not feeling an obligation to the intangible or unbelievable. I feel that I can focus on myself as a person and my interaction with others. That may be the thing I am wost at, or have the least experience with. I have decided to change who I am, constantly. Though not sea changes so much as little pieces of me that I know need work. I feel that I am more myself than I have been in a while. I'm ok with the universe, it's the world that kills me.
Nothing has to be. There is no inevitable. Not in the human realm anyway. The sun will always come up, the moon will always wax and wain, until the earth finally fizzles away, which is hope is a beautiful moment. The sun will expand, swallow the earth, the moon and all of the planets. Then there'll be little left of what humans have done. Our legacy will be the billions of waves we have sent off into space that may someday be heard, or interpreted by something that is nothing like us. Or they will just go on forever, chasing the edge of the universe into deep time where there may be things we can never know, and may be better for it.
