Soulpancake: Life as coincidence

I want to start out by clarifying the term "coincidence". "Coincidence," in this case, means something that happened only through chance. For example: if I roll a perfect die 5 times, and every time, the number 3 comes up, that is coincidence. If I am skeptical about this (as I should be, the odds being one in 7800), I can perform a variety of measurements to assure myself about the randomness of each throw. Assured of the randomness, I say "Coincidence."

If the die is weighted, then clearly it was not coincidence but by design that the number 3 came up so often.

The other thing to clarify is the term "Life." By "life" is meant intelligent life, like us, thinking about the ontology of being or whether free will overcomes fate and the like. Microbial life is great, but it doesn't do us much good in terms of conversation.

So did life arise like a string of 3s 6000 throws long, or was life deliberate, each die rotated to the correct value and carefully placed on the table?

Some maintain that there are so many stars (throws) and the requirements for intelligent life so few (sides) that life must exist out of necessity and that there is nothing special about it. Others say that the requirements for life are so many that the likelihood of its arrival through random processes is laughable.

Guess what. We can't know. Unless someone designs a universe (a planet might suffice for the initial phase) and waits for life to appear, we can't know if this will happen without outside intervention. We know we exist. We know that no one has shown up to say hi yet, so the latter option looks good.

The third option is that the low odds of intelligent life appearing are exactly balanced by the high number of places it could show up. Then the odds would favor the appearance of... about 1 planet with intelligent life.

But we still don't know the numbers, and we can't know them. If we had 200 planets with life evolving independently on each, we might be able to make a guess at what the requirements are for life and the probability of that happening on a given star.

So the question of whether life is a coincidence is ill posed. Give me a few hundred planets and a couple billions years and we can answer that question. Till then, how about "If life was not a coincidence, what would be the motive behind it?"

R.I.P D.F.W.

I apologize again for not updating this more often. The only book that I have read by David Foster Wallace was "A Supposedly Fun Thing That I'll Never Do Again". The tragedy of his suicide seems a monumental loss to English literature. I had to say this much, but I can't say much more. I just don't want to believe it.

Cobwebs and ads

Dear All,

It has been over a year since my last post, and what do I follow up with? Insightful commentary? Nope. Wry witticism? No. I am writing to hawk the book of a good friend. My friend, Amanda Hunter, recently wrote and published a book of poetry, to it. It can be purchased here:
http://www.lulu.com/content/2427289

For my own part, I have enjoyed reading Amanda's poetry since receiving the book. The binding, layout, and print are of good quality and the poetry is engrossing. Please have a look at the insistence of your friend, Kit Carson. You won't be disappointed.

See y'all next year, I guess. Maybe I'll have my Ph.D by then (oh the suspense!)

8:50

This morning I -

Woke up early with my wife (5:15 in our case).
Didn't go back to sleep.
Left the house when she did (~6:15).
Went to gym upon arrival on campus.
Arrived in the office before 9:00.

Now I can talk about my life without griping about feeling like a slacker and panicking over whether I am going to stay in my program. Time, of course, will tell all things. In the meantime, though, people want me to 'blog.

We thank you for your patience. The next customer service representative will be with you shortly.

Afshin Toufighian - Live, June 21, 2006

Afshin Toufighian performing live at The Gig in West Hollywood, California on June 21, 2006. Afshin in the brother of a friend of mine. Everyone (well, all the Baha'is at least) keep talking about how his going to blow up -- real big, like. This is a video of a performance. It's good, but not for attention span of 3 min and under crowd.

Biannual updateO

Des and I had a week from hell. Things that it included:

Stomach flu
Menstrual Cramps
Death of a grandfather
Calling the cops on our neighbor at 4:00 AM

All of these merit description, of course, but the last one will really be the only bullet to carry appropriate narration. Even this, however, will be truncated. (Ahem...)

Pounding. Cursing.
3:45.
Pounding. Shouting. Crying.
Downstairs? No. Next door.
"What do we do? Should we call the cops? It sounds like someone is getting hurt over there."
"I'm gonna grab my bokken and go over there and find out."
"No, Kit, we haven't consulted."
"Ok... <911> Yes, I live at...."
Pounding. Shouting. Crying.
4:15
"The cops are here, would let them in?"
"He's in that apartment."
"Police. Open up!"
"Oh *****!"
Door opens, police enter.
4:30
"... named Jim, male, approximately 30..." (He told us his name was Bill)
4:40
"Nonononono, please don't take me, pleasepleasepleaseplease don't take me. Ohgod nonononoNO! NO! GET OFF ME! GET OFF! I ******** HATE YOU! NO!..."
4:43
Strapped to a stretcher, loaded into an ambulance.

Two days later, we suspect he has returned, but we're too scared to verify that suspicion.

Des quit MyGym because the management failed catastrophically. My research is going well. I'm trying to do pre-youth classes again. I'll be making paper soon on a paper machine. Ben Ketron might be visiting at the end of the month. No more media from the Meditiation on the Speed Limit.


Yours,

Kit

Like drinkin' from a fountain

that was pourin' like an avalanche, comin' down the mountain.

Work's been busy. Been making polymers and pellets and stuff. The Baha'i community has been really active. I have also been taking the in-between moments to spend with wifey. I'll be doing an interview on NPR with the co-conspirators about our little jaunt around the highway (documented below for your viewing pleasure). Ayyamiha has been wonderful, happy ayyamiha. What follows are some realizations:

1) Being white is easier now that I realize that I simply have to look after the interests of non-whites.

2) Being male is easier now that I realize that I simply have to look out for some of the interests of women.

3) Being a grad student is easier now that I realize that my wife has faith that I'll do something meaningful.

4) Being a Baha'i is easier now that I realize that I just have to find one more way to serve the Cause.

Anyway, enough about me.

Yours,

Kit