On the Fly
November 28, 2023 Volume 2 Issue 9
AI again. Looks like a Vincent Van Gogh original to me.
I am feeling a bit guilty about using something that I don’t understand and am told that it uses a lot energy, and why do I get to use it. Sometimes it’s difficult for me to simply accept a gift. How this picture was generated to illustrate “on the fly” is a mystery.
I call this column on the fly simply because it will be unfinished. I don’t want to miss my deadline.
Here are two paragraphs from Sabine Hossenfelder’s book Existential Physics. (Viking 2022) It speaks to me on how important it is that we pay attention to how our view of the world is shaped by the way others frame their conclusions. On page 140, she quotes Francis Crick, (The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, 1994)
“You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. Who you are is nothing but a pack of neurons.”
She takes what he wrote and reframes it.
“You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are the result of a delicately interwoven assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. That pack of neurons in the product of billions of years of evolution. It endows you with an unparalleled ability to communicate and collaborate, and a capacity for rational thought superior to that of all other species.”
A refrain of hers is, “According to the currently established laws of nature, the future is determined by the past, except for occasional quantum events that we cannot influence.” She concludes the chapter, “Whether you take that to mean that free will does not exist depends on your definition of free will.” (page 141)
As I mentioned, this will be published on the fly. I’m not sure where these thoughts are going. I merely want to sit with them for another week. I have been enthralled with science. For me, it’s the adventure of discovering how things work. It sets me at the threshold of awe and wonder. It takes my breath away.
I’ll leave it here, for now.
Be well.