woah... random post
yeah so meritite had some stuff about evolution oh her lj and just to add to that/go off on random tangents:
evolution of the complex creations that humans are is not a matter of probability. A realization of common sense known as the antropic principle simply states that if the universe is not created in the highly improbably state that we observe, we would not be here to observe it. the same can be said of evolution... if we didnt evolve along such highly improbable lines... blah blah blah. technically, the true relevant probability of life being created and evolving into humans AND humans observing said process is 1 :-D.
an idea from a book on time that i just read has to do with entropy and probability: even though a highly ordered universe is improbable, it is certainly possible, and therefore cannot explain why the universe invariably increases in entropy. it should be possible for the universe to have momentary gains in order (decrease in entropy) every once in a (really really really long) while.
think of the graph (sin x)/x, or graph it if you can't imagine it, as a possible graph of entropy vs time. the author proposes that our perception of time is defined not by the graph (always to the right), but rather that time is defined as the direction of decreasing entropy, so time flows in the same direction that a ball would roll on the entropy graph.
in short. time is a product of probability. huh. go figure. tell me what you think.
evolution of the complex creations that humans are is not a matter of probability. A realization of common sense known as the antropic principle simply states that if the universe is not created in the highly improbably state that we observe, we would not be here to observe it. the same can be said of evolution... if we didnt evolve along such highly improbable lines... blah blah blah. technically, the true relevant probability of life being created and evolving into humans AND humans observing said process is 1 :-D.
an idea from a book on time that i just read has to do with entropy and probability: even though a highly ordered universe is improbable, it is certainly possible, and therefore cannot explain why the universe invariably increases in entropy. it should be possible for the universe to have momentary gains in order (decrease in entropy) every once in a (really really really long) while.
think of the graph (sin x)/x, or graph it if you can't imagine it, as a possible graph of entropy vs time. the author proposes that our perception of time is defined not by the graph (always to the right), but rather that time is defined as the direction of decreasing entropy, so time flows in the same direction that a ball would roll on the entropy graph.
in short. time is a product of probability. huh. go figure. tell me what you think.