compiseverythng (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} compiseverythng) wrote,@ 2005-12-13 07:35:00 |
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Human Condition
My conclusion from the class, and before.
I suspect that it is part of the human condition to is yearn for ultimate truth and if we can't have that to know that there is a god that does know it. However our yearning has left us with deep conundrums in this search. One the one hand, the path taken by the most successful idea in human history, namely that we can study and understand the world and thereby make predictions about the [immediate] future, appears to leave us without a god. And on the other hand, this idea is in deep conflict with another idea that has done well by us, namely that the world is a deeply unpredictable place and that we can take solace in the deep unknowable mystery that we call God -- the guy with all the answers. To make matters worse, it turns out that science, back in the early 20th Century, has already proved that world is only minimally predictable whether there is a god or not – except perhaps by that god. However, culture is only now catching up to this undesirable, though when thought about deeply expected, result.
Rudy Rucker's book, Lifebox, Seashell, and the Soul, does a great job of exploring this modern conundrum form the point of view of the computationalist. He takes us to the edge of understanding and drops us off back at not knowing because that is the only place we can be.
My conclusion from the class, and before.
I suspect that it is part of the human condition to is yearn for ultimate truth and if we can't have that to know that there is a god that does know it. However our yearning has left us with deep conundrums in this search. One the one hand, the path taken by the most successful idea in human history, namely that we can study and understand the world and thereby make predictions about the [immediate] future, appears to leave us without a god. And on the other hand, this idea is in deep conflict with another idea that has done well by us, namely that the world is a deeply unpredictable place and that we can take solace in the deep unknowable mystery that we call God -- the guy with all the answers. To make matters worse, it turns out that science, back in the early 20th Century, has already proved that world is only minimally predictable whether there is a god or not – except perhaps by that god. However, culture is only now catching up to this undesirable, though when thought about deeply expected, result.
Rudy Rucker's book, Lifebox, Seashell, and the Soul, does a great job of exploring this modern conundrum form the point of view of the computationalist. He takes us to the edge of understanding and drops us off back at not knowing because that is the only place we can be.
