Futurology

Wally sent me this link about Futurology and how they believe they can use physics to explain the behaviour of the masses. Kind of like psychohistory in Asimov’s Foundation series.

“we sometimes act en masse as though we are a collection of atoms interacting with one another through forces of attraction and repulsion. This doesn’t mean that everyone does the same thing, but it can mean that our quirks get submerged beneath averages and mass movements. It doesn’t mean that we lack free will, but it does suggest that we might not be as free as we’d like to believe.”

If we assume that at all levels of complexity entities make value choices, then it would be easy to infer that they all follow the same rules of probabilities when making them. What we see as fact in the interaction of matter at the subatomic level could really just be highly predictable value choices by the matter at that level. However, this allows for the possibility of matter to interact and choose a different unpredicted path, however improbable. I guess that’s why in string theory there exists the probability that you will walk through that wall as opposed to hitting it, despite the overwhelming odds against it.
Likewise, it would allow for more complex entities like ourselves to follow and interact based on the same rules of probabilities as the sub atomic partices. You have to keep zooming out and believe that the rules work at all levels. Then our choices become probabilities, and it’s up to us to fight against the odds when it comes time to roll the dice. Perhaps thats what life is, taking the chance and going the road less followed, but in the end making all the difference.

3 thoughts on “Futurology”

  1. ..and from my warped mind: Does this relate to my theory that 90% of the populus live their lives with their head….etc. etc……which my 43 year old cousin added that they are not always intellectually stupid but in fact are also/or could be brainwashed by the society in which they
    live?

  2. To extend – this could mean that in actuality we (as what we call HUMANS) are in fact merely particles making up some larger reality – some entity that examines us as we examine atoms and molecules, as predictable bits of matter, something that is as much bigger than us as we are bigger than our cells.
    Or to go the other way, each cell or atom or whatever inside us may have – or at least THINK it has – free will.
    And can it be nested? Are there infinitely smaller particles inside our atoms, each believing that they have free will but collectively being predictable?
    Fascinating.

  3. Indeed, it’s a fractal journey. I suggest you read Lila : An Inquiry Into Mortals by Robert M. Pirsig for better perception. It’s all about complex value patterns.

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