On Singularities
PREFACE: I think I started this mid-February. Finishing in early May is, er, slow.
This time of year always brings to mind singularities. Having been one for nearly 8 years now does that to you.
A common theme in religions, philosphy, mathematics and physics (hmmm, all aspects of the same thing?) is the singularity. "Every man is an island" Not politically correct, but linguistically correct. (could someone tell me how politcal correctness occurs in gendered languages such as french and german?)
Some see this as proof of the Intelligent Design (*cough* appendix, wisdom teeth, canine teeth, malaria, influenza virii, prions et. al. *cough*) mode of thought - it is so infinitely unlikely that life, let alone humans, should evolve by chance, that Occam's Razor says it must have been God.
The opposing argument to this based on the Drake Equations and the Anthropomorphic Principle - that in a universe capable of supporting human life, we must eventually evolve, given time.
So are we the first? Is our planet the single consciousness-bearing rock in the Universe?
I am starting to think 'Yes' might be the answer to that, bleak as it may sound, and here's why:
Take our planet, and life on it, humans and all. Work out how likely that is - you pretty much get the Drake Equation. I think it works out that in a galaxy the size of ours, you should get maybe 5 civilisations. Don't forget that we orbit a 2nd generation star - there can't be any life (well, carbon-based at least) around 1st generation stars.
OK, lets look at the planet for a moment. How many lakes does it have? Lots. Probably thousands. How many of those contain driftwood? Quite a few. How many of those pieces of driftwood float vertically? Not many... that would be pretty rare. You'd be right. There's ONE.
This is The Old Man of The Lake. The Lake in this case being Crater Lake in North America.
The point? There is ONE vertically floating piece of driftwood. One on the entire planet. One. Singular.
The meaning? It is quite possible in this universe to have one of something. For some reason this completely freaks out a lot of people.
I'm just glad I finished this blog entry!
This time of year always brings to mind singularities. Having been one for nearly 8 years now does that to you.
A common theme in religions, philosphy, mathematics and physics (hmmm, all aspects of the same thing?) is the singularity. "Every man is an island" Not politically correct, but linguistically correct. (could someone tell me how politcal correctness occurs in gendered languages such as french and german?)
Some see this as proof of the Intelligent Design (*cough* appendix, wisdom teeth, canine teeth, malaria, influenza virii, prions et. al. *cough*) mode of thought - it is so infinitely unlikely that life, let alone humans, should evolve by chance, that Occam's Razor says it must have been God.
The opposing argument to this based on the Drake Equations and the Anthropomorphic Principle - that in a universe capable of supporting human life, we must eventually evolve, given time.
So are we the first? Is our planet the single consciousness-bearing rock in the Universe?
I am starting to think 'Yes' might be the answer to that, bleak as it may sound, and here's why:
Take our planet, and life on it, humans and all. Work out how likely that is - you pretty much get the Drake Equation. I think it works out that in a galaxy the size of ours, you should get maybe 5 civilisations. Don't forget that we orbit a 2nd generation star - there can't be any life (well, carbon-based at least) around 1st generation stars.
OK, lets look at the planet for a moment. How many lakes does it have? Lots. Probably thousands. How many of those contain driftwood? Quite a few. How many of those pieces of driftwood float vertically? Not many... that would be pretty rare. You'd be right. There's ONE.
This is The Old Man of The Lake. The Lake in this case being Crater Lake in North America.
The point? There is ONE vertically floating piece of driftwood. One on the entire planet. One. Singular.
The meaning? It is quite possible in this universe to have one of something. For some reason this completely freaks out a lot of people.
I'm just glad I finished this blog entry!
posted by Corinoco at 12:29 pm
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