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Pure chance
is color blind. It favors no one. It is entirely impartial.
Chance is a great equalizer. Suppose that 20 people with vastly
different amounts of money came to a round table to play a game
of pure chance. Suppose we let the poor go in debt and write
“I owe you's”. In due time and as sure as the odors and perfumes
of the players all become mixed, the total pool of money will become
evenly distributed. There might be brief imbalances, but these
fluctuations
will be evenly distributed so that everyone will have a chance
of being
a little richer or a little poorer than everyone else. And on occasion,
a player might exclaim, “Do you smell that?” while the others
have
no idea of the ephemeral concentration of scents that one of the players
might be experiencing. It's just a bugaboo!
The mathematical study of games is perhaps as old as mathematics itself.
The connection between games of chance and the patterns in real life
events
has been rigorously refined in a field called statistical mechanics.
In the
1800’s, basic thermodynamics was completely derived using statistical
mechanics. The temperature, pressure and flow of gasses was derived
by assuming games of chance among players too tiny to be seen, but
suggested
in certain chemical reactions. The existence of atoms and molecules
was a
mere hypothesis. In 1902 and 1905, Albert Einstein himself published
papers
using the statistical mechanics to derive the size of atoms.
The statistical program has been remarkably successful. It has explained
the appearance of forces where in truth there are no forces. In 1900,
Max Plank
used an atomic-like hypothesis to analyze the simple radiant heat expelled
from any body, even in a complete vacuum where there are no atoms (or
ether)
to carry the heat. He assumed that the thermal action itself was atomized
into
irreducible quanta of action and produced formulae
that exactly fit precise
experimental data. This was the birth of quantum physics!
It's been a long and strange road. Today we can derive almost all of
the
equations of physics from purely statistical considerations.
The remaining
ingredients for getting the correct equations will be explored here
in a different
level. We will also take a much closer look at how some of this magic
is pulled
off so that you can look for yourself up its sleeves. Now you might
still well ask,
“What does the study of games of chance have to do with the Quality
of my Life?”
The answer, in brief, is that through statistical mechanics we have
learned to
recognize the Quality of Information! We have learned how to derive
useful
knowledge and Wisdom that lasts. We have learned from where information
comes and how it is refined and sustained. And we have learned that
on a
cosmological scale, the final absorber of information is Black Holes!
The surface area of a black hole's event horizon is a
direct measure of the
information that has gone within it. In black hole physics we have
a perfect
union of matter, energy and information.
This can't all be derived in a few quick web pages. Not yet, at least.
Maybe in a
hundred years though it will be teachable to children. The reason why
we would
want to teach it is because it speaks directly to quality of life issues.
The winner
in the game of life is the one who has the best information,
and acts on it well.
This does not mean that there must be winners and losers in a cut throat
competition.
The highest forms and application of information can involve TEAMWORK
just as nature teams up with herself to form complex webs of
interdependencies.
Still, all information is not of the same value, and all energies are
not equally useful.
There are right and wrong headed ways to go about the business of life.
A proper
understanding of the magic without magic that follows
from elementary statistical
mechanics need not alienate one from God. It can help one to live according
to the
Serenity Prayer:
GOD, grant me the Serenity
to accept the things
I cannot change,
Courage to change the
things I can,
and the Wisdom
to know the difference.
Knowledge is power to see and behave with a supreme awareness and empathy.
Knowledge comes in different qualities. The higher the grade of information
from
which it is built, the closer one comes to the Wisdom sought in the
Serenity Prayer.
Later, in a new level, an ecological model with be given for measuring
the Quality
of information. Automatically built within it will be the laws of thermodynamics
derived from blind chance and the conservation of energy and momentum
derived
from trivial seeming geometry. You'll learn what can be changed and
what can not
be changed and be thankful for both!
Click on the wizard to jump to Bit by Bit© Text & Structure of Magic without Magic is Copyrighted 10/7/99.