— Solvej Balle, On the Calculation of Volume (I), translated from the Danish by Barbara Haveland
05 May 2025
The improbable fact of our existence
"It seems so odd to me now, how one can be so unsettled by the improbable. When we know that our entire existence is founded on freak occurrences and improbable coincidences. That we wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t for these curious twists of fate. That there are human beings on what we call our planet, that we can move around on a rotating sphere in a vast universe full of inconceivably large bodies comprised of elements so small that the mind simply cannot comprehend how small and how many there are. That in this unfathomable vastness, these infinitesimal elements are still able to hold themselves together. That we manage to stay afloat. That we exist at all. That each of us has come into being as only one of untold possibilities. The unthinkable is something we carry with us always. It has already happened: we are improbable, we have emerged from a cloud of unbelievable coincidences. Anyone would think that this knowledge would equip us in some small way to face the improbable. But the opposite appears to be the case. We have grown accustomed to living with that knowledge without feeling dizzy every morning, and instead of moving around warily and tentatively, in constant amazement, we behave as if nothing has happened, take the strangeness of it all for granted and get dizzy if life shows itself as it truly is: improbable, unpredictable, remarkable."
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Have you ever thought about airplane crashes? Every time a plane goes down, there is someone (probably several people) who missed the flight because they were late or lost their passport or one of a thousand other mundane reasons. When those people appear on the news, they generally seem to think that a miracle has taken place and thank god for saving them from tragedy. Logically, that would make every plane crash a miracle, even the rare ones that were deliberate.
ReplyDeleteAnd they aren't, of course. Plane crashes are rare but not improbable. Have enough plane flights and plane crashes become inevitable. And it seems very likely that if you have a big enough universe and enough time, intelligent life is inevitable too.
Yeah, I'd take the point of view that our existence was inevitable, or if not our then someone's. Statistically it's going to happen, maybe not exactly like this or everywhere it has, but somewhere and somehow. Just an infinite series of dice tosses that are going to land on something.
DeleteIf you're going to get giddy about your existence, where does it stop?
Feels like one of those philosophical thought ideas that doesn't really take you anywhere.
"Improbable, unpredictable" - sure. "Remarkable" not so much
Delete?no point in thinking about things that don't have practical applications?
DeleteWhat a beautiful passage!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNkvGK30DJk 13:27 What If We Are Alone?
ReplyDeleteIt certainly is mind-boggling.
ReplyDeleteIn interstellar space there is a cloud of dust, consisting entirely of elemental particles. Under the influence of gravity alone this cloud will slowly condense and eventually form into spherical bodies, upon some of which will spawn billions of intelligent creatures. Eventually, these will all disintegrate back into dust. Rinse and repeat.
ReplyDeleteThe universe is really big, really old, and really strange. Additionally, if you didn't exist, you wouldn't be able to notice that fact.
ReplyDelete