1.3. Clear enough to see the mysteries

3. Clear enough to see the mysteries

I am decidedly too dumb to even approach this particular subject, but since I can't find a better approach (I am a slow reader) this will have to do for now. First of all we must break away from all the prejudices that make existence seem boring and repetitive, for in fact it is only our gigantic ignorance that makes it seem so. Imagine the first computers, they would occupy several rooms, had very complex interfaces, demanded a specialist to operate them. One such computer is the 1951 Ferranti Mark 1 let's see a picture (source):

Imagine how a child would feel looking at this behemoth, it seems extraordinarily complex, strange, difficult to interact with... Now imagine something millions of times more complex, something so complex that this whole beast would be just the tiniest part of its complex body! Have you imagined it? Well let me give you an example of such a thing:

Now, a cheap iPod, or in fact, any low mp3 player, or even a cheap scientific calculator is widely more complex than the hundreds of thousand pound's worth 1948 Ferranti Mark 1 (according to this bbc news video it took about 25 minutes (plus a week to program the beast) to get this calculation done: 2¹²⁷-1) , but the iPod does not look gigantically more complex than the Ferranti. It looks, well, simple! In fact it looks so simple that it takes an almost impossible stretch of imagination to conceive of all the tiny bits that make such a trivial thing work. But even the highly complex circuitry of these machines like the iPod would be easier to understand than the detailed cellular workings of a living tree, a broccoli or one of our eyes. The fact is: we live in an incredible complex world. But although a child would immediately understand the the Ferranti is an enormous and very complex machine, you would never be able to show her the complexity of the iPod. It just looks so simple, it works in a simple way, you press the "menu button" and a menu appears, it has just a few buttons, I mean, a child would see this as a simple toy, a kind of a Barbie or a car toy. It is difficult to accept what we do not see. For instance an electrical wire may be transporting thousands of volts, it might be providing energy to a distant town. But although it is deadly and it is passing more amounts of current per second than we use in a year, it seems exactly alike to a cable who has no charge. There are many things going on that we simply cannot see, from radio waves, air and liquid turbulence, the individual history of each drop of water that reach us from the sky, the inner workings of a computer or tv set, etc...

But it is not just that there are parts of the world that are invisible to our eyes, the most remarkable fact is that we are almost unable to believe that such numerous, diverse and complex events are really going on. Like the child looking at the iPod and being told «there's millions of little pieces working together inside this thing to make it work» we would be unable to really picture it. First of all because the senses seem to imprint much more reality to our mind than ideas that are abstract, weird and of no immediate practical use. So the smallness and simple way in which an iPod presents itself to the senses speaks much louder than what we merely conceptually are told to be true. But even more important, we don't even have the concept of "millions of tiny little pieces working together". We might understand that it is something that would take a long time to understand, but not much more. And its not just kids who are having difficulty, I mean, do chip designers really understand what the millions or billions of transistors are doing when the iPod is running a video? Of course not. They design the chip on the basis of generalizations (logical gates, cache, address, etc) and with the help of computers. No human mind can really understand a modern computer or even of a mp3 reader at the level of transistor connections. We simplify, and, as long as it works, that should be enough for all practical purposes.

The upshot of all this is that most of the time the world seems like a boring, repetitive place, where we know most of the things that happen, and the most complex things available seem to be man's own psychology, understanding how to get along; in fact we humans sometimes imagine ourselves to be the peak of complexity, the masterwork of the universe!! While in reality, it is just the opposite that is true. In some amazing way, which I cannot really pretend to understand, our universe is able to create apparently simple things, like the iPod and the human psychology, from very complex mechanisms. Our psychology is remarkably simple when compared for instance with the intricate behavior of a single cell at the molecular level. And if we want to find a much more disproportioned comparison we need only to look at the fundamental constituents of matter: the rules that regulate the fundamental particles and forces (described by the so-called "standard model") are immensely more complex that human psychology. So, in fact, each proton, each quark, has a behavior that is more difficult to understand in detail than a human being. Just like the iPod we are made of an innumerable number of extremely complex parts, all working together to make us, the end result, an almost incredibly simple thing when compared with the complex arrangements that allow us to be and function. So it is no surprise that although we are able to manipulate to a large extent the beliefs, fears and desires of fellow human beings, through education, advertising, social exclusion, etc, we are unimaginably far away from building a human being from its component parts (that is not being aided by nature but really building a human, molecule by molecule).

We are iPods in an unimaginable (to us) complex world. Because our mind abilities are so minuscule we grab to every explanation that works and hold on to it as if we had attained the ultimate truth. We need that security, and we are able to believe stories that have absolutely no basis (except the «I said so») due to the security they give us. That is why religious stories have become so popular. It is best to believe in Santa Claus than to face the utter mystery of life and existence: facing the fact that WE DO NOT KNOW who we are, why we are here, or if there is any meaning at all in the world, if we will continue our journey after the death of the body, what we should be doing, what makes things work, etc, etc. It is like we are in an immense, thick fog, and all we can see are the closest objects to us, we ignore everything else, but we cling to whatever we know and consider ourselves wise!

So, what can we conclude from this? What useful things can come from recognizing that the world is not what it seems? That what we see of it is not really what it is, and that this is only revealed when we try to understand what makes things work (like a child trying to understand what makes an iPod work)? Well we gain a lot each time a new real understanding is achieved. For instance newer iPods are blocked to VoIP, however, if you understand a little bit more of how the iPod works (at the much simpler software level) you can circumvent the protection schemes and make it work with VoIP. Beyond hacking things we can also create new software or improve existent programs, make certain repairs, discover new uses, etc. Regarding the human body for instance the improvement in understanding may bring new cures, healthier lifestyles, increased lifespan, etc. In fact what gives humans the power they have over other planetary animals is precisely their ability to understand a bit better what makes the world work the way it does. We keep increasing this ability and in this way we discover new materials, ways of getting energy, of travel, etc.

However, if you are a child looking at the iPod and you suddenly realize that the iPod is not really that simple thing it seems, but nevertheless you have no way of understanding what it is, what makes it tick, well, then nothing of practical use will be gained. The keys will behave the same and won't be able to use them in any different way. Such a child will not be able to do anything by learning that things are not what they seem. She would have to know: well then, how are they, exactly? Without the details our ability to interact with the world will not grow. But one think will be different: the child will feel the awesome mystery of holding something in her hand that holds so many secrets. That awe might guide her into trying to dwelve deeper into the mysteries of the world, to experiment, to think critically, to imagine, to travel in her mind and through doubts and experiments, trying to solve the puzzles, trying to face the mystery deeper and deeper. And this curiosity and sense of adventure is probably what is at the basis of man's success. We face no hunger (except the one caused by ourselves), no disease that could not be eradicated, no predators except ourselves. Today man is man's only real threat. So curiosity, as the opening door for investigation, and awe as the opening door for the love for truth, are very valuable.

So, there might be some value in recognizing that the Universe is not the simple thing we make it to be. Just like the child with the iPod, we have no idea what makes it work the way it does. We might wonder, but in the short terms of our individual lives, this will not give us any particular new power. We will probably be as blind as our fellowmen, the only difference is thatt we may choose to become aware of our blindness. The basic question we have to answer is: how do these tiny little pieces (the fundamental forces and particles) make up the visible world. Today we cannot even explain the generality of chemical reactions through quantum mechanics. So what we know about fundamental parts of our universe cannot be applied even to somewhat complex molecules. But we also would have to explain how do the laws of physics work in the way they do? We know they work in some ways, but why do they work, what makes them have the power they have? Was the big bang that gave them this power? But then what created the Big Bang? Was it a quantum fluctuation? But then, why are the laws of the Universe so precisely accurate that something interesting happens on it (like Mozart, black holes and seas)? Perhaps there are other infinite universes and this one just happens to be one when conscious beings can thrive! Well, that does not really answer the question, for now we want to know what make all these universes possible and actual? But then we might reply: well whatever the cause was we may ask what the antecedent cause is, or what allows it to happen. We might ask of a hypothetical God, what created God, what created the Creator. And if someone answered, he simply was. Then why couldn't we save a step and say well then reality simply existed from all times? Besides, how could we be sure that God was there from eternity? In fact, how could He know that he was merely the creation of some other God. In fact, he could think he was a God, while in fact he was just someone in a simulation making him believe he was an eternal God! We might also question if beauty is a real property of the universe, if consciousness is "real", or what is "reality". I'm not pretending that I have the answers to these questions! I feel like the kid in front of the iPod: I understand now, it is infinitely more complex than I am able to imagine, I can't really do nothing about it, all I can is feel the awe and alert the others: look! this iPod, this apparently simple thing, well, this is not what it seems.

Not used:

How does consciousness appear in a physical universe, and what is it role, if any? How do the indeterminacies of quantum mechanics disappear at the macroscopic level? Are there really parallel universes? How did the laws of physics have the precise values

It feels so safe to be absorbed in a task, the whole world shrinks to it, in our mind there is only that food going into our mouth or perhaps that toothbrush cleaning away... There are simple and complicated tasks but nothing leads us more into perplexity than having no task, for, in that state of dullness, endless mysteries start to pop up in front of our inner eyes: what is life? what am I doing here? is there a real value in something or is it me who attributes it? does beauty exists only in my mind? are colors real? will I live after my death? could I have been born as someone else and still be me? what makes the world tick? how does the sun shine? etc, etc... All these questions are in fact quite natural for we are surrounded by things which we do not understand. We understand them a little, we understand for instance that a cell phone allow us to communicate with someone on the other side of the planet, but how does it work? We understand that a rock will fall to the ground if nothing stops it, but what makes it fall? What gives it weight? In the last centuries man have evolved more in the understanding of some of these processes than in the whole previous recorded history. By understanding the little blocks of which everything is made of we were able to use the same old materials on Earth in quite different ways. Our technological prowess goes beyond the wildest dreams of past alchemists and magicians. Today man can fly, beat most diseases, build skyscrapers, walk the moon, destroy the entire surface of the planet, and more. All this because we grasped a bit of "how things work".

Obviously we are incredibly distant from having the whole picture. We have no idea of how the fundamental forces and constants of nature have become the way they are, we

When we look at the world we see only a bit so tiny that it is really impossible to imagine how tiny it is. To imagine it we would have to have some sense of the whole world, the whole cosmos. Only then would we understand if we are seeing 10^-9, 10^-30 or 10^-100 or something like that. It is not only a matter of quantity, but also of detail, precision, complexity and what we might call "fundamental understanding".