Chris: Well, you know, the way I see it, if you're here for four more years or four more weeks, you're here right now. I think when you're somewhere, you ought to be there because it's not about how long you stay in a place, it's about what you do while you're there. And when you go, is that place any better for your having been there. Am I answering your question?
Joel: No, not really.
I gather that there is this subatomic world that is governed by uncertainty. Matter at the subatomic level doesn't really exist except as probabilities. These subatomic particles, the ethereal building blocks of matter, move at such unfathomable and frenetic speeds that they are undefinable in the way we define ordinary matter. Or something like that.
It's very poetic. Break matter down into its smallest constituent pieces and basically you have non-matter, you have fields. Fields of probability. I prefer fields of probably, but I'm no scientist, fortunately.
I don't know if this is a good analogy, but the way I manage it is to imagine our planet as an atom. And as long as I'm blowing up a single atom to that size, I might as well speed it up proportionately, too. Speed up our planet's life to the speed of such a huge atom, and we are the subatomic particles. The surface of the planet is the field of
As soon as you try to point at one life, it's gone and billions of other lives are flashing in and out of existence each fraction of a second; so fleeting that they can't be said with any certainty that they happened, just that they probably happened; that they probably were there, mm? All our lifetimes become a blur until they all seem like one thing, only discernible by standing way off in the distance.
I don't really understand Heisenberg's uncertainty principle (rather esoteric stuff, understandable only by certain high priests and wizards we call 'physicists'). I just think it's hilarious for a sound principle of science to be called the "uncertainty" principle – the "well, we don't really know" principle. I mean there's a hell of a lot I'm uncertain about, but I'm not going to go make a principle about it.
It's kind of flaky even. How about having a religious uncertainty principle – having a belief in God governed by an uncertainty whether He or She really exists. Or an uncertainty principle regarding education (eh, I may or may not pass that class) or work (when your boss asks you to do something, ask her whether she's heard of the uncertainty principle in regard to getting it done). Logging onto gmail is obviously governed by some immutable uncertainty principle.
Fortunately, quantum mechanics is not nearly as important as employment, education, or, God forbid, God. It's just the study of the fabric of existence, something we can all take for granted unless the fabric of existence, space itself, starts breaking down and losing cohesion, and then it won't matter anyway (stranger things have happened, I'm sure). Them scientists can afford to be uncertain. Our lifetimes are just sparks anyway.
