Week 2 Assignments

My Reflections on Uncertainty

I feel that uncertainty principle is challenging our intuitive realistic idea that objects are isolated from each other and exist independently of the subjects that observe them.  An object having a definite position in space serves as the most direct scientific evidence to our fundamental realistic belief that an object has an independent existence a part from  other objects as well as observing subjects.  However if an object in fact has no definite position in space that can be precisely measured then this fact serves as the most direct counter evidence to our realistic belief.   

My comments on Causality

Usually when we think of causality we think of it within a realistic framework or realistic view of the world.  In this realistic world objects and observing and acting subjects are independent of each other.  Furthermore in this realistic world the sequence of the past present and future is fixed.  However this realistic view of the world faces many insolvable contradictions and cannot be supported by newest scientific evidence such as quantum mechanics.  If we can only disentangle causality from this realistic framework we might be able to make more sense of it.  Freed from realism, I imagine causality would be a more encompassing concept that incorporates synchronicity, free will, and uncertainty principle among other concepts that are previously believed to be incompatible with causality.

Is the Universe Weird?

Once we give up the idea of realism and no longer separate the objects being observed from the observing subjects then there is really no fundamental differences between any and everything in the world.  As a result to say that the universe is weird is fundamentally no different from saying that “we” the ones who are observing the universe are weird.  This means both the universe that is being observed and the subjects that are observing the universe are weird.  In other words the totality of existence itself is weird.  However since being “weird” also cannot be fundamentally different from its opposite of being “not weird” this totality of existence is also not  weird.  And that is weird.......... or not : )