I'm not a physicist or a philosopher, but I'm interested in how the universe works. One thing I'm curious about is time. Believe it or not, nobody really knows how time works, and effects like time dilation show that time does not work the way we intuitively think it does. Personally, I think time is like an undirected graph of cause and effect (or effect and cause), a directionless web of events, even though it feels like it has a forward direction.
When folks start talking about this, they inevitably mention that it's not possible to travel backward in time. There's a problem with that statement, though, and it only occurred to me recently. When people say it's not possible to travel back in time, or that entropy tends to increase, and so we don't generally see wine glasses unshatter and float back to their original resting places, they're really saying that it's not possible for external events to move backward in time while they themselves move forward in time. Why should that be possible? Why should someone be able to retain their memories and continue aging while everything around them reverses? That would be like the food in my oven cooking while the food in my microwave becomes cold again. Maybe it's simply not possible for time to “move in two directions” at once; the events that led me to start the oven also led me to start the microwave. How could one set of events be reversed without the other?
Maybe backward time travel does happen, but we don't notice it. By analogy, if we were living in The Sims and the “player” decided to rewind the game, causing the most recent frames to be played back in reverse order, wouldn't our memories and experiences also be undone frame by frame? Wouldn't it feel exactly like experiencing it “forwards”, one “frame” or one moment at a time? The “me” from a frame one hour ago would have the idea to write this post, and he wouldn't have the memory of having already started it.
I know this is pretty out there, as far as my posts go. Maybe this is easily refuted by people who actually know what they're talking about. But it's interesting to me. And hey, maybe it would make for a fun Star Trek plot point! “We are going back in time, we just don't remember it!“
I don't remember where I first heard this. It may have been spoken in a conversation about road rage. I think there's something very true about it, though, and it speaks to much more than driving.
When someone is unkind to you, they're probably not reacting to you. They're probably reacting to the last person who upset them.
In other words, when one is unkind or behaves strangely toward you, especially when there is no obvious explanation for their behavior, their annoyance may be misdirected. They may be treating you the way they wish they had treated someone else, someone who came before you. It's not fair, but that's life.
What is the price of lettuces? An obolus perhaps. If then a man gives up the obolus, and receives the lettuces, and if you do not give up the obolus and do not obtain the lettuces, do not suppose that you receive less than he who has got the lettuces; for as he has the lettuces, so you have the obolus which you did not give… Give then the price, if it is for your interest, for which it is sold. But if you wish both not to give the price and to obtain the things, you are insatiable and silly.
—The Enchiridion of Epictetus, as translated by George Long
In other words, don't complain about a trade-off you're willing to make. You can buy an apple at the farmer's market, or you can keep your money and leave without one, but you can't demand an apple and refuse to pay. That just makes you a jerk.
In the same way, if your spouse dislikes being corrected, you can correct them and accept their annoyance, or you can let it go and appreciate the peace, but you can't correct them and complain when they become annoyed. Well, even then, you can, strictly speaking. You just can't force other people to think you're being reasonable.
Photos are more interesting when much of the landscape or subject is cropped out. (Too many people take full-body portraits, which I often find utilitarian and boring.) Songs are more interesting when instruments can be appreciated individually. Try listening to “Sailor's Tale”, but only listen to the drums, or the bass guitar, or my favorite, the mellotron.
It seems to me, we're more different from our friends, family, and acquaintances than we've ever been.
Two hundred years ago, if a neighbor child had caused trouble on one's farm after a storm and the victim wanted to learn how to manage their frustration from a Christian perspective, who might they turn to? Who would fully understand their situation? I don't know… everyone!? Well, almost everyone. Their friends, family, and acquaintances would be neighbors, with the same weather, religion, fellow acquaintances, and, in many cases, the same occupation.
Today, if a former Lutheran and current Buddhist accountant living in Portland has trouble getting along with their boss, an evangelical former banker living in Omaha, who might they turn to? Who would truly understand their predicament? Hardly anyone. Many people would be able to offer advice, yes, but would they really get it?
I haven't even mentioned political affiliation, with politics now less a tool for solving practical problems and more a means of self-realization.
I wonder to what extent this explains rising rates of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and other unhappiness.
These days, when someone tells me they “did their own research,” I immediately suspect they have no idea what they're talking about and have no idea how to think critically. We know that Google and practically all other search engines customize their results based on what they know about the user and what most pushes their buttons. For that reason and others, sadly, “doing one's own research” is now code for falling prey to confirmation bias and being manipulated by online platforms and filter bubbles.