May 21, 2004

Entropy happens -or- How I learned to stop worrying and love myself

I have been thinking about entropy lately and how I always thought that entropy was "disorganized, chaotic or random" but now I totally believe otherwise. I've been thinking that nothing is random in the universe. It may seem random but it is far from it. For example let's say that I drop a twinkie and it lands on the ground. Where it lands may seem random but it's just a complicated process of different forces acting upon the twinkie. It all depends on where the twinkie hits, the current composition of the twinkie, and the current conditions surrounding the twinkie. If it was random the twinkie would fall to the ground or stay in place or fly in some other direction. Instead it acts exactly as it's supposed to according to the laws of physics. I understand how it would appear that it is random or chaotic because two twinkies will never fall the same way, but that is not because of cosmic force causing disorder. The reason they never land in the same way is because the exact conditions will never be the same: slightly different way of dropping the twinky, air molecules shift, the twinky lands on a different spot, bounces differently. The twinky falls exactly as it should in those conditions. Of course, the forces and conditions that affected the fall of the twinky were acted upon by other forces and conditions. This means that nothing is random. Nothing.

This makes me question free will. If everything in the universe is acted upon by everything else as everthing else is being acted upon, it seems that there is little choice. This means that our very existence is a complex chain of events that causes events at the molecular or universal level or somewhere in between. That means that the composition of our bodies are determined by the arrangements of molecules and compounds, such as in our genetic structure. Our genes themselves were created by a series of hypercomplex events that cause their structure and position. Our genes are responsible for creating our bodies. Everything in our bodies is controlled by genes. If every chemical reaction and compositon in our body is the reaction of other chemical reactions and compositions. These microscopic and macroscopic "events" then cause other reactions themeselves, which then react in turn also. I feel that this completely destroys the concept of free will. If brain is just a series of complex chemical reactions and events then does anyone have free will or are we just reacting at a macroscopic level to tremendous microscopic events? How can we actually choose what we do if we can't control the choice made for us?

Everything we do is just a reaction to chemicals in our brain and body so we make no choice. Everything was predestined. The universe is an insane series of events, cause and effect, between everything. It is like the biggest domino effect ever. We have no choice or chance, because it was all started by the first domino.

So if we have no choice and our destiny is predetermined, then why worry? We can't do anything about it. The choices we make are not really ours. I guess the point is to just enjoy the ride.

Who pushed that first domino over? I guess that it was God. No one can possibly see what's beyond the first domino because it's not in the chain, it's above, beyond the chain. I guess the most common theory right now is that first domino was knocked over by a big bang.

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