Unpredictability

Warning, more bible passages incoming

Watching the rain drops fall off the gutter, musing on predicting when and where the next drop will fall. My mind goes to the idea of unpredictability in quantum mechanics. I’m thinking the story got told incorrectly. Who said that classical physics is all about complete predictability and therefore quantum uncertainty is in opposition to classical? Well, I know who said it, plenty of people said it, and still say it. I’m thinking now that was never really the point. Some bombast said “tell me the positions and velocities of all particles in the Universe and I will predict the future.” That bombast sent us down an alley that we need to get out of. Out my window I am looking at the wet asphalt shingles, and the drops appearing unpredictably, and realizing that no one, ever, EVER will predict the locations of all the rain drops. No one will ever be able to predict where the next drop comes from, not on my roof, and not on all the millions of roofs in New England that are getting wet today.

There is a practicality that gets lost to silly theoretical notions. To ever imagine that classical physics could actually predict the details of Nature is a fantasy on the scale with, “What if Napoleon had a B52 bomber?” Have you ever been present during one of those discussion? I say those discussions are just as useful as “give me the positions and velocities…,” because none of it has ever nor will ever take place.

Unpredictability is universal, it is not only in the realm of quantum mechanics. Let me refine that, no particulars are predictable. Ever. Anywhere. Large groups of people are quite predictable, and quite…how shall we say, easily manipulated using the tools of surveillance and mass media. This essay is not about that. This essay is only about individual people.

Back to Quantum Mechanics, I think the truly great contribution of Quantum Mechanics gave us was the sincere questioning of the role of the observer. No matter how we crack our little heads on this one, the problem will not go away. There is some connection between the instrument and the outcome, between the scientist and the instrument. The observer is part of the Universe - an obvious point when you say it out loud - so what the observer observes determines the progression of events just as much as an electric field or earthquake will determine the progression of events. I think this is really the place where classical physics went off the rails, or rather, where scientists went off the rails. To imaging that my awareness cannot have the slightest effect upon the unfolding of events, this is high idiocy, especially when we recall that the Greek adjective idios means “one’s own” or “private.” Only a true idiot would believe that their awareness is only their own and cannot affect anything outside themselves.

A simple experiment, How I look at my friend is connected to how the conversation unfolds. I mean my inner stance. Do I internally criticize them, or internally see them as a miraculous materialization of a ray from God, a temporal manifestation of an eternal idea, to try again to make the perfect human. Try those two options as an internal stance next time talking with a friend. See if there is any difference how the conversation unfolds. And do not tell them what you are doing.

We can verify that how we look at another person affects the future. But, can how I perceive the gutter affect which rain drops fall off the roof? Ah, here is always the counter argument to these quantum mysteries. No I cannot affect which drop falls. And thank God I cannot, because if all my internal images and wishes manifested immediately in the world, then chaos and destruction would quickly radiate from me. So where is the dividing line between what my inner life can affect and what I cannot? One of those dividing lines is my physical body. Take an every day occurrence: I can desire to reach for my cup, and presto! millions of cells obey that impulse, and the cup is grabbed. How does this happen? How is matter affected by a desire? I am blind to this daily miracle of how matter obeys wishes. The idea is made manifest, legs move, mouths speak. The logos is made manifest. How? I have some dominion over my cellular body. Here my wishes can be made manifest. This is truly a miracle, if that word needed a finer definition.

In early Christian thought, men and women were placed on a definite and limited scale according to what they could manifest, according to what wishes were made manifest. Heretics and non-believers were lost in the world of falsehood, and could do nothing useful. Believers were at least less destructive. The level of the faithful were able to be of use to the redemption of the World. The Saints, and here is where it gets interesting, the Saints were able to actually effect change in the world. Below saint, no one can really do anything. The words of a saint changed history. The heart of a saint changed the future. Every saint says that they are not doing their own will, they are seeking to the will of God. There is a clear change here, where the ability to actually make a useful change is connected to obeying the will of something higher.

What is above a saint?

A prophet is above a saint. A prophet is something else entirely. A great example is from Ezekiel, I will quote it at some length, Young’s Literal Translation,

37 There hath been upon me a hand of Jehovah, and He taketh me forth in the Spirit of Jehovah, and doth place me in the midst of the valley, and it is full of bones,

² and He causeth me to pass over by them, all round about, and lo, very many [are] on the face of the valley, and lo, very dry.

³ And He saith unto me, `Son of man, do these bones live?’ And I say, `O Lord Jehovah, Thou -- Thou hast known.’

⁴ And He saith unto me, `Prophesy concerning these bones, and thou hast said unto them: O dry bones, hear a word of Jehovah:

⁵ Thus said the Lord Jehovah to these bones: Lo, I am bringing into you a spirit, and ye have lived,

⁶ and I have given on you sinews, and cause flesh to come up upon you, and covered you over with skin, and given in you a spirit, and ye have lived, and ye have known that I [am] Jehovah.’

⁷ And I have prophesied as I have been commanded, and there is a noise, as I am prophesying, and lo, a rushing, and draw near do the bones, bone unto its bone.

⁸ And I beheld, and lo, on them [are] sinews, and flesh hath come up, and cover them doth skin over above -- and spirit there is none in them.

please read the text further if you want to see where it goes.

In other words, a prophet can work miracles, that is, rearrange matter and life here on Earth. A prophet hears a higher level. The higher level instructs “say this”, not “do this”, but “say this”. A prophet is a person who can listen to the instructions of a higher level, then speak those instructions, and the word is made manifest. Coming back to ourselves and our bodies, each of us is a prophet to our muscles and bones. We wish, and the hand obeys and grabs the cup.

Let me tie all this back to the thread. We started with a world of rain drops which we cannot predict. This is the regular ole world around us every day. We then connected that to the world of quantum mechanics which has formalized this in terms that even the most ardent materialist cannot ignore, where the future is essentially unpredictable and the presence of an observation determines what actually happens. We then brought in human awareness, your awareness, my awareness. This awareness matters, it has real connection to the world. Your awareness affects the unfolding of events in time. We then looked at one particular tradition, which I know most about, and I am certain other traditions also speak about, we looked at one tradition where awareness can be at different levels. Someone, like you and me, who is only occasionally aware, can have some limited affect upon the world, thank God. But we can have an effect upon other people in our world according to how we perceive them. And then we broadened that to wonder if a person could make a VERY big difference in the world by being able to listen to something higher.

I titled this essay “Unpredictable” because I really do think that our world is unpredictable, by design. Statements about an “All Knowing” God are to me bullshit of the highest order. Its right in there at the beginning of Genesis, after Adam & Eve have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, God is walking in the Garden And Jehovah God calleth unto the man, and saith to him, `Where [art] thou?’ God does not know where his Man is. This is profound. This pretty much throws out all the “God knows all” philosophy. And further, ‘Who hast declared to thee that thou art naked?’ God does not know what has happened nor how it happened. This is huge, and, I think, cosmologically and theologically correct.

For you and me, this unpredictability is a starting point. No one will ever predict when and where the next rain drop will fall off my roof. No Archangel can predict what you might, on a whim, say to that next person who crosses your path. And, somehow, at the same time, the larger world around me has a layer of protection against my worst whims.

We all start at a place where the next millisecond holds a surprise, and that is perhaps the highest gift we could have been given.