In the twelfth chapter of The Science of Discworld, I learn about the rules of the universe… sort of. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Discworld.
Well, it took twelve chapters for us to get to this point, but: I don’t know what to say about all of this. I’m reminded of the later half of my AP Physics class, which touched on much of this, but that’s also most of the stuff I had the hardest time with. My teacher did a fine job communicating a lot of what the authors get at in this chapter: that believing that there are Rules or some Theory of Everything that governs the universe isn’t going to help in the long run. Oh, we still had to learn the rules and laws of nature and physics, and we had to do the math required for that on our exams. Wouldn’t it have been fun if I had answered all the questions on my final exam by telling my teacher that there are no laws in the universe, and that in the end, it’s all just chaos observed by humans?
Thankfully, I didn’t do that, I’m damn proud of the A- I got for that second semester. I guess that proves the authors’ point, though: it’s much easier to follow the rules when we can define what those rules are. I don’t believe that most humans are big fans of chaos, and as someone who has had a chaotic life, I do crave order and normalcy from time to time. But these aren’t the Rules that the authors are referring to in this chapter. The ideas at the focus of this are much bigger and much harder to grasp, so much so that people often reach for fundamentalism. We want to grasp hold of a universe that is mysterious, and so we drift towards the things that explain the universe in the most comfortable terms. Does it explain religion? Maybe. Partially. I wouldn’t go that far to invalidate EVERY belief system in the world by saying it’s all because we want to explain the chaos of the universe. But there’s also always going to be a part of me that understands why people (sometimes me!) seek rules out.
So… wow, this felt like the densest chapter yet. I actually felt like I understood the bulk of it, though! I am learning things from this, which is a positive aspect of this book that I’d hoped would come to fruition. If you told me that one day, Mark Reads would be covering quantum mechanics, I would not have believed you. I got to look up Langton Ant simulations, which all broke my brain, and that’s because of The Science of Discworld. BLESS. I did enjoy this, I promise you, but I’m invoking this terrible head cold and fever I have just this once as explanation for why this is so short. BEGONE, SICKNESS.
https://youtu.be/ln3EppoeGmE
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