Irwin Schrodinger’s thought experiment poses the paradox: A cat in a box bombarded with photons (the photons being particles and/or waves) and containing a cyanide capsule (triggered by particles but not waves) will be alive and dead, that is, in a ‘super position’ until the box is opened and the condition of the cat observed.
The implication is that multiple realities exist and will only become one in the presence of an observer. Which means, I guess, we all determine our own reality.
It makes me think about the importance of assuming personal responsibility for one’s existence.
Wondering lately about what it means to exercise critical thinking. Daily occurrences will produce events that require judgements. Often such mental requests should be denied, go unanswered because as soon as they’re thought about they {the critical assessments) will take hold, become of greater importance than if they would have been ignored or denied and more than likely such critical assessments are of little importance anyway, requiring, nevertheless, intellectual energy almost always better spent on positive actions.
Our first camping trip of the season with our small camper has me noticing the variety of large camping trailers and vans filling the parks this month. I’m struck by the names of some of these large mini-homes that are being directed into the nicely designed private campsites the state parks offer.
I’m wondering how the campers who are bringing these camping luxuries are thinking about the experience they’re expecting to have. Names like Transcend, Escape, Flight and the like suggest a vision the owner might have of finding his way beyond everyday existence to an alternative reality, at least for a few days, where the children will be happy and occupied where one can sit near an open campfire in contemplation, exchanging pleasantries with equally serene neighbors while enjoying well-functioning wifi access, warm toilets and showers.
Reality, of course will eventually set in as one tires of the long walk to the restrooms, replenishing the camper’s water reservoir, chopping wood and starting fires; the bed could be a bit more comfortable. It’s time to return home, let one’s colleagues know about roughing it while enjoying ‘the great outdoorsman’ status.
I’ve been reading about quantum mechanics, not so much what it is but rather how the theoretical physicists of the early 20th C attempted to explain it. Years were spent attempting to derive mathematical explanations for how tiny invisible sub-atomic entities exist, interact and behave, and what form they assume in time and space.
The elusiveness of the endeavor led some theoretical physicists to determine that quantum existence was a closed system beyond the known structure of physical science, an idea refuted by brilliant thinkers such as Albert Einstein.
Still, the observed behavior of sub-atomic entities defied explanation. They could be waves or particles, their position and momentum impossible to determine with certainty. The thought experiment offered by Erwin Schrodinger emphasized the counterintuitive dilemma by suggesting photons presented into a closed box in which a cat was placed with a cyanide capsule triggered by particle but not wave suggested multiple scenarios: a cat dead in one, alive in another not reduced to a single truth until viewed by an observer, exacerbating the mystery of what quanta truly are, which leaves us within an unknowable realm beyond the reasoned three-dimensional world our limited intellects can conceive.
……….. is savagery against one’s fellows in the name of God. Religious zealots fed by xenophobic fervor label those of different beliefs their enemies, infidels, therefore anti-God, deserving of extermination. These Others are demonized through false narratives creating the perception of a sub-humanity, an animal nature deserving to be sacrificed.
Examples of this behavior abound throughout history: The Old Testament God directing destruction of entire people He denounced as unbelievers; witch hunts in the Middle Ages resulting in the burning of countless people; French Catholic mass murder of the protestant Huguenots in the 16th Century and during the second world war the Nazi intent to exterminate the Jewish people, murder most foul perpetrated without regard for our common humanity.
It is clear that the demonizing of the Other continues to plaque us as evidenced by the xenophobic cruelty that today’s populist politics is perpetrating in the name of God. Such simplistic reductionism has me wondering how long humankind will survive.
Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, denigrates ‘paid employment’ as an unacceptable lifestyle, that, he says, absorbs and degrades the mind. He means, I guess, that a regular job with regular hours occupies so much of one’s being there’s little time for what is truly important: contemplation.
Jumping ahead a couple of millennia, Henry David Thoreau arrived at a similar conclusion. H. D. determined, living as he did in a small cabin in the woods, that to live one’s life fully, within the natural world one must resist the draw of materialistic society.
And certainly, many more individuals throughout time have opted for a life on the fringes of society to pursue an existence of deeper personal meaning. What they have provided us, through their disciplined, frugal lives, is a vision of beauty and meaning that benefits us all.
After Charles Darwin’s, “On the Origin of the Species” was published in 1859, thinkers saw the need to reconcile the idea of life evolving, human from animal, with the conventional understanding of mankind as God’s creation, superior and soul-bearing destined for life ever after.
As popular thinking slowly grasped the notion that survival in a changing world required adaptation, that only the fittest organisms would survive and thrive, unfair advantage was taken. Within the social milieu of the late 19th century western world, evolutionary thinking justified rampant social inequalities, unequal wealth distribution, as properly rewarding the most fit.
Such a philosophic stance produced an uneven playing field favoring ‘robber barons’ who undermined and swallowed up competition. Any sense of moral empathy for the harsh working conditions of the common laborer became subordinated to the pursuit of wealth despite the dictates of the Christian Church. Individualism became the rule; acquire what one could despite societal needs.
Within two decades, it became apparent that singular selfishness will lose out to a shared cooperative existence and that empathy, innate in the human animal, will produce stability. Morality and ethics are necessary components for mankind to realize life’s primary goal: a degree of happiness.
Plato’s Republic is a dialectical exercise in defining the ideal society.
A Guardian class consisting of the best and most fit physically and mentally is to be selected at a very young age to receive an education through a carefully ordered curriculum that will instill those qualities most favorable to preservation of the state. These Guardians will learn to put the state first above all other considerations, will distain personal gain while living in communal groups without material advantage. the best of these Guardians will be chosen to lead as philosopher kings, ensuring justice for all in this Ideal State.
What could go wrong?
It was argued among the dialecticians that human nature, being what it is, drawn to personal gain, when beyond observation of the populous, will be compelled to forego the practice of justice to gain material advantage. Who will dominate: the just, being good and wise, satisfied with the status quo or the unjust, the bad and ignorant who seek personal gain?
Morality emerges as a potential control factor. (Plato’s)Socrates identifies the soul existing in all people containing the Good as presented in the perfection of the Forms from which the imperfections of the material world are but flawed copies.
Plato’s allegory of the cave relates mankind’s lack of understanding: prisoners chained facing a dark wall, unable to turn, experience only shadows of reality. Not until they are allowed to turn can they see the beauty and complexity of the world. Such is the state of man.
I’ve been thinking about osmosis as being, on the one hand, a fact of science and as an imaginative concept on the other. The reality of osmosis as apparent in the loss of air in car tires over time demonstrates the movement of a tangible material (air) through an otherwise impermeable material (rubber).
Which, I guess, demonstrates the movement of subatomic particles in space and confirms that on the molecular level nothing is ‘solid’ but rather transitional, in flux and changeable.
Which brings to mind our inherent impermanence as bodies in space. Such perspective, when thought about ought to temper the inclination to react too strongly to the political events of the day.
The history of humankind records periods of time when openness to multicultural interactions and beneficial trade opportunities sped the development of civilization. Intellectual exchange produced new ideas that led to economic stability that freed up time for the revelation of personal skill sets that provided a more functional society. Cities grew; living standards improved.
History informs us of other periods of time, of isolationism, when strong leaders were unwilling to participate in open exchange, were content in their belief that autonomous existence was safer, superior to competition imposed by multicultural exchange. Such a mindset, though, was unprepared to flex when the need for innovation to overcome extended drought, for instance, are fend off enemy incursions when alliances weren’t available for support.
The old trope that ignoring history means repeating mistakes of the past seems to be happening again.
deideismusings 