Friday, September 7, 2007

860 Technophilia/Technophobia II

Message no. 860[Branch from no. 849] Posted by Thomas Culhane (1311520071) on Monday, April 23, 2007 6:41pm Subject: Re: Technophilia/Technophobia II

Yeah, Pat, I know what you mean -- our fear of lack of control got us to invent technologies to help us take control, but since the universe is ultimately not ours to control, when the very things we create to give us the illusion of control fail, they infuriate and frighten us because they thus defy the very purpose we created them for, making us feel more helpless than ever. It is like a betrayal.

The more I study statistical mechanics the more I believe that the "law of large numbers" is on our side (i.e. life persists overall) but that we, as individuals, must learn to give up our fantasies of control and have faith that there is a larger plan that we have the privilege to participate in and should not fight too hard against.

I keep telling myself "we didn't create any of this, and we certainly didn't create ourselves, so why should we think we should be in charge?" Sometimes that helps put things in perspective for me. But it is hard!!

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