Entropy Soup of Existence

TBH our inclination toward existential dread is arguably what separates us as a species.

Whether it is medicine, AI, or discussions of free will, scifi aside, the greater populace lack a rudimentary understanding of statistics. Without understanding probability that makes it nearly impossible to discuss innovation or complexity. Being able to understand scaling from individual considerations to the population is counter intuitive. Humans like to attribute meaning to things, we are not comfortable with uncertainty. With gambling for example (slots specifically),we go in knowing that there is not a way to consistently “win,” but it certainly feels like it.

There is a notion that once we know how a trick works, the magic is gone, but as a scientist at least, knowing “how” is the magic. Something being predictive is awe inspiring. The fact that a biological or physical signal can be detected before we are consciously aware of it doesn’t have to be the end all be all of free will. Instead, it can simply be a testament to our existence in this primordial entropy soup.

When scaling up into space or down to our electrons, we can lose sight of ourselves. TBH, our inclination toward existential dread is arguably what separates us as a species. It really is odd, evolutionarily anyway, that humans sometimes want to give up on living when we feel like we don’t matter. In poorly paraphrased words of John Green, [our need to attribute meaning to things is the beautiful part of being human].

Musingsg courtesy of great UX Design discussion at MICA.