Thursday, April 01, 2021
Luck and chance aren't the same
Still meandering about purpose and design....
The usual ID argument about randomness doesn't quite hit one important point.
Luck and chance are not the same thing.
Every object, living or non-living, is battered by the chance events of weather. Every human is battered by the effectively random events of crazy or sane governments. Once in the life of a nation we get lucky with a Harding or FDR. Mostly we get holocaustal demons.
Inanimate objects can't respond to chance by ANTICIPATION. When a wind gust blows a pebble around, the pebble can't see it coming and take cover.
Living things ANTICIPATE the pattern of random events. Plants learn a pattern of light and dark or prevailing winds, and bend to meet the opportunity before it happens. We feel a storm coming, or feel a quake coming, and take appropriate steps.
On a higher level, humans can ANTICIPATE more complex opportunities. We can see that traffic is thinning out, so we get ready to jump in. We can see that Prohibition is likely to end, so we start converting our factory from cars to beer. We can see that jobs are starting to appear in the neighboring town, so we move there to be ready. We don't KNOW when the slot between cars will happen, and we don't KNOW when the 18th amendment will be repealed, and we don't KNOW that a job for our skill will appear, but we ANTICIPATE and make our own luck.
Labels: Grand Blueprint, Smarty-plants
¶ 9:00 AM
