A comic on the internet, of course! Behold its feeble majesty!
Expect one tomorrow, and the day after that, and so on.
Expect one tomorrow, and the day after that, and so on.
The Spherical Chicken
It means something
Alors! C'est la Journée Mondiale du Ninja! Célébrez en silence!
I recently had a deep philosophical discussion with a friend from Persia. I always enjoy such discussions, and I found this one especially pleasant, because it seemed to give insight in how to live a better life. Oddly enough, this insight stemmed from quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics has many formulations, such as the path integral formulation (in which a particle, in moving from point A to point B, covers every possible path between the two points) and the many-worlds formulation (in which our universe is a superposition of an infinite number of universes, with one universe for every possible outcome of an interaction between quantum particles). These and other interpretations of quantum mechanics are all aimed at explaining that devilish feature of quantum mechanics known as the Uncertainty Principle. Simply put, at a sufficiently small scale, anything can happen, and there's no telling what will happen until it's already happened. Infinite possibilities, only one actuality.
Of course, when we move from the diminutive quantum perspective to the more familiar large-scale perspective known as normal life, we discover that statistical physics will have its say, and we face a new reality: the Second Law of Thermodynamics. There are many ways of stating the Second Law, but I like John Keynes's version best: “In the long run, we are all dead.” Batteries drain, stars burn out, black holes suck everything up, and if you random walk long enough, you always end up going the same direction: down.
On the one hand, freedom to choose from an infinite pool of possibilities, and on the other hand, complete slavery to an inevitable eventuality. During my discussion with my friend, it occurred to me that somewhere in between these two extremes is a funny thing called free will.
To me, the essence of free will is actions with consequences. Do what you want, then deal with the results of what you just did. Do actions have consequences on a quantum scale? Not really. Whether or not we can actually describe a particle as “making choices” it's usually free to undo those choices. Particles and anti-particles routinely pop in and out of existence, creating and annihilating themselves over and over. No consequence is permanent. On the grand scale, there is only one consequence, death, and all the actions in the universe lead only to death. Somewhere in between the two, there's us.
Like the universe, we're heading down. We're growing old and dying, slowly moving towards an inevitable future. But like individual particles, we're free to walk around. We don't have to head down; we can head in a different direction, and – this is the important part – keep heading there. Repetition is the ticket to getting things done. Any good athlete will tell you that success is not the result of any one action, but millions of actions directed towards one goal (in the case of our hypothetical athlete, these actions consist of such things as eating or not eating certain foods and long hours of working out at the gym).
Going back to the path integral formulation, imagine that you can move any direction you want, but you can only move in small steps. You've got to keep going that way. In the many-worlds formulation, all the worlds are possible, but it's hard to go from the actual world to the distant possibility of the desired world. You have to step through all the worlds in between.
There is an old German saying that goes: “You have to take life as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it.” Remember that. Live, act, do...and then deal with what comes next. That's how to live the better life. And now you can say you've learned something from quantum mechanics.
P.S. Cool article: We are Iron Man! For the heavy metal/comic book/literary mystery fan in all of us.
Quantum mechanics has many formulations, such as the path integral formulation (in which a particle, in moving from point A to point B, covers every possible path between the two points) and the many-worlds formulation (in which our universe is a superposition of an infinite number of universes, with one universe for every possible outcome of an interaction between quantum particles). These and other interpretations of quantum mechanics are all aimed at explaining that devilish feature of quantum mechanics known as the Uncertainty Principle. Simply put, at a sufficiently small scale, anything can happen, and there's no telling what will happen until it's already happened. Infinite possibilities, only one actuality.
Of course, when we move from the diminutive quantum perspective to the more familiar large-scale perspective known as normal life, we discover that statistical physics will have its say, and we face a new reality: the Second Law of Thermodynamics. There are many ways of stating the Second Law, but I like John Keynes's version best: “In the long run, we are all dead.” Batteries drain, stars burn out, black holes suck everything up, and if you random walk long enough, you always end up going the same direction: down.
On the one hand, freedom to choose from an infinite pool of possibilities, and on the other hand, complete slavery to an inevitable eventuality. During my discussion with my friend, it occurred to me that somewhere in between these two extremes is a funny thing called free will.
To me, the essence of free will is actions with consequences. Do what you want, then deal with the results of what you just did. Do actions have consequences on a quantum scale? Not really. Whether or not we can actually describe a particle as “making choices” it's usually free to undo those choices. Particles and anti-particles routinely pop in and out of existence, creating and annihilating themselves over and over. No consequence is permanent. On the grand scale, there is only one consequence, death, and all the actions in the universe lead only to death. Somewhere in between the two, there's us.
Like the universe, we're heading down. We're growing old and dying, slowly moving towards an inevitable future. But like individual particles, we're free to walk around. We don't have to head down; we can head in a different direction, and – this is the important part – keep heading there. Repetition is the ticket to getting things done. Any good athlete will tell you that success is not the result of any one action, but millions of actions directed towards one goal (in the case of our hypothetical athlete, these actions consist of such things as eating or not eating certain foods and long hours of working out at the gym).
Going back to the path integral formulation, imagine that you can move any direction you want, but you can only move in small steps. You've got to keep going that way. In the many-worlds formulation, all the worlds are possible, but it's hard to go from the actual world to the distant possibility of the desired world. You have to step through all the worlds in between.
There is an old German saying that goes: “You have to take life as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it.” Remember that. Live, act, do...and then deal with what comes next. That's how to live the better life. And now you can say you've learned something from quantum mechanics.
P.S. Cool article: We are Iron Man! For the heavy metal/comic book/literary mystery fan in all of us.
I'm back! After two long, hard, mostly Internet-free and thoroughly wonderful years in France, I am once again on American soil, writing to you not as a full-time missionary, but as a regular Latter-Day Saint.
It's been a long time since I've really swam in the deep, churning waters of the Internet. I hope that this virtual human sea hasn't become much more treacherous since I left it.
Anyway, my life has changed, but not in any direction away from "busy". My last three days in France were entirely packed with last-minute appointments, last-minute shopping, and transportation troubles. The transportation bit was especially a bummer. I was misinformed about how my last voyage into Paris would go, so I first failed to meet the elders from Sarcelles who were there to meet me (I had no idea they were there) and then I took the wrong train and nearly got lost. I eventually found my way back and the nice elders from Sarcelles hauled my luggage as far as the Le Vesinet - Le Pecq train station. Then it was up to me to haul them to the mission home alone. Oof! I ended up showing up late and missing my last shopping day in Paris. Too bad! I made the best of the situation, helping out the office elders with their chores and swiping a few fun books from their stocks. I had my final interview with President Staheli, my final dinner and testimony meeting with him, his wife and all the other departing missionaries, then we went to bed (not that we slept, but that we were in bed), and the following morning, it was time to fly home.
I have still not got the hang of these American keyboards. France has "AZERTY" instead of "QWERTY" and you have to use the shift key to enter numbers and periods. Qs you cqn i;qgine, this ;qkes for s;e pretty funny typos> (that's what French keystrokes come out looking like on an American keyboard.)
It's been a long time since I've really swam in the deep, churning waters of the Internet. I hope that this virtual human sea hasn't become much more treacherous since I left it.
Anyway, my life has changed, but not in any direction away from "busy". My last three days in France were entirely packed with last-minute appointments, last-minute shopping, and transportation troubles. The transportation bit was especially a bummer. I was misinformed about how my last voyage into Paris would go, so I first failed to meet the elders from Sarcelles who were there to meet me (I had no idea they were there) and then I took the wrong train and nearly got lost. I eventually found my way back and the nice elders from Sarcelles hauled my luggage as far as the Le Vesinet - Le Pecq train station. Then it was up to me to haul them to the mission home alone. Oof! I ended up showing up late and missing my last shopping day in Paris. Too bad! I made the best of the situation, helping out the office elders with their chores and swiping a few fun books from their stocks. I had my final interview with President Staheli, my final dinner and testimony meeting with him, his wife and all the other departing missionaries, then we went to bed (not that we slept, but that we were in bed), and the following morning, it was time to fly home.
I have still not got the hang of these American keyboards. France has "AZERTY" instead of "QWERTY" and you have to use the shift key to enter numbers and periods. Qs you cqn i;qgine, this ;qkes for s;e pretty funny typos> (that's what French keystrokes come out looking like on an American keyboard.)
I received an e-mail from my sister, in which she was replying to my mother's message but decided to send it to me because it contained news (my sister is in South America and has very limited e-mail access, so I'm always happy to receive such things). Unfortunately, this e-mail also contained the text from my mother's message, which had information on my parents' then-secret search for a car to give to me, and the cat was out of the bag.
As a missionary, I was told to never include confidential information in the e-mails I sent home. After this incident, I understood why.
As a missionary, I was told to never include confidential information in the e-mails I sent home. After this incident, I understood why.
I was about to do a search for "giant crystal cave" when I noticed the things that popped up in my auto-complete box:
giant monster
giant rabbit
giant rabbit movie
giant robo
giant scorpion
giant space creature
giant spider
It reads like a Who's Who of Godzilla villains.
Anyway, this is why I was looking for giant crystal caves. Old news, to be sure, but very cool stuff. I can see Superman chilling out in a place like that.
giant monster
giant rabbit
giant rabbit movie
giant robo
giant scorpion
giant space creature
giant spider
It reads like a Who's Who of Godzilla villains.
Anyway, this is why I was looking for giant crystal caves. Old news, to be sure, but very cool stuff. I can see Superman chilling out in a place like that.
Spam used to annoy me, but no more. The increasing effectiveness of spam filters and the increasing desperation of spammers to circumvent these filters has conspired to take away from spam all its pretense and offending content and leave it with nothing but delightful nonsense. Gmail routes all the junk mail I get into its rightful place, and whenever I inspect my spam folder to see if any message has been wrongfully blacklisted, I find that every message there has earned its branding. I also find that the messages are hilarious. Here are some examples from just this past week. The titles here are the subject lines of the e-mails, and the authors are the monikers of the spammers.
( caricature commando, by Pen WongCollapse )
( warily, by Billy KrouseCollapse )
( NASA artistic, by Mat HatcherCollapse )
( forked clear-headed, by Jonathan BlueCollapse )
I receive a few messages like these every day. They all come with images attached, and the images presumably carry the message the spammers wish me to here. However, I never see these images. Gmail's spam filter shuts them away, and only shows them to me if I ask to see them, though of course I never do. All I am left with is this strange stream-of-consciousness writing, this not-quite-poetry and not-quite-prose, all of which is in dire need of a good spell check, and none of which is advertisement.
Spammers, you've completely failed your arms race. Not only are you powerless to sell me anything, but you can't even annoy me anymore. You might as well give up. Please keep your letters coming, though. I do so enjoy them.
( caricature commando, by Pen WongCollapse )
( warily, by Billy KrouseCollapse )
( NASA artistic, by Mat HatcherCollapse )
( forked clear-headed, by Jonathan BlueCollapse )
I receive a few messages like these every day. They all come with images attached, and the images presumably carry the message the spammers wish me to here. However, I never see these images. Gmail's spam filter shuts them away, and only shows them to me if I ask to see them, though of course I never do. All I am left with is this strange stream-of-consciousness writing, this not-quite-poetry and not-quite-prose, all of which is in dire need of a good spell check, and none of which is advertisement.
Spammers, you've completely failed your arms race. Not only are you powerless to sell me anything, but you can't even annoy me anymore. You might as well give up. Please keep your letters coming, though. I do so enjoy them.
People like to say that they are "proud to be an American". Not everyone, of course, but plenty of people. Now, I hardly dispute the matter of enjoying being an American. America has been very good to me. I will not, however, say that I am "proud" to be American.
( Read more...Collapse )
This should have been posted on July 4th, for Independence Day. It is late because I am lazy. I'm not proud of this.
( Read more...Collapse )
This should have been posted on July 4th, for Independence Day. It is late because I am lazy. I'm not proud of this.
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| LIVE TRUMPS 1.1 |
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| watch lodo_bear fight |
| CREATE YOUR CARD |
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
ETA: Well, shucks, the site is down, and apparently forever. I had only made it to level 3!
I have just put a new feature onto my LiveJournal - advertising.
This isn't for the extra options or userpics. This isn't going to give me any money. This is because I am cheap, and because I am costing LJ money.
It's not free for them to maintain my posts in their memory and support my bandwidth. But they do it anyway, and it hasn't cost me anything. That's not quite right. Someone should pay them back. The thing is, it's not going to be me, because I'm cheap. So I've fobbed the bill onto someone else.
Besides, you all have Adblock by now, don't you?
This isn't for the extra options or userpics. This isn't going to give me any money. This is because I am cheap, and because I am costing LJ money.
It's not free for them to maintain my posts in their memory and support my bandwidth. But they do it anyway, and it hasn't cost me anything. That's not quite right. Someone should pay them back. The thing is, it's not going to be me, because I'm cheap. So I've fobbed the bill onto someone else.
Besides, you all have Adblock by now, don't you?
