Quantum physics killed me #2/3
Big Loop

• 07 August 2008 at 14:48
• Revelations

Careful, this is gonna be delirium power 10.

Science seeks to explain phenomenons that surround us and, if possible, to predict events. The Grail of science would be a unique law from which all the other laws could be defined. I fantasised a lot on the possibilities of such a discovery. If we could find a law capable of explaining everything, then we could also predict everything, and even control everything! I then imagined, by getting inspiration, consciously or not, from numerous fictions, that there would be a machine in the future that would be powerful enough to modelise and compute the entire universe, but also its past and similarly, its future. This machine, this hyper-computer would be called Big Loop, and this idea that everything can be calculated is called determinism.

In the world of Big Loop, everything would be possible. We would have solved the biggest mysteries, met creatures living in other galaxies, found the remedy to all diseases, discovered the secrets of immortality. People wouldn't work anymore because machines would do everything. Without even realising, I had created for myself an entity that was omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent, that is... God! And it would also manage to resurrect us all in this future that would be the equivalent of paradise, where there would not be misery anymore, work anymore, duty anymore, only pleasure. (I won't go any further into the description of this future, it would take me too long!) I thought I had escaped death.

My goal was then to write a book that would describe this artificial paradise and how it could be reached, including a low-level reflexion on happiness, the "meaning of life", and stuff. At least, I would have done something with my life, I would have indicated a way to escape the infernal circle of death and misery.

But when you're an atheist and you choose science as a reference, given that research makes progress continuously, you have to expect surprises. I read Stephen Hawking's book in which he explains quantum mechanics. The principle of uncertainty who is introduced in it and who is largely accepted in the scientific community, pulverised my theory. If there's uncertainty, there's impredictability of the world, and then, impossibility to create a machine like Big Loop. And just like that, quantum physics ended my dreams of eternal fullness, and was forcing me to reconsider everything. This time, I have to keep in mind this important idea: I will die and my life is happening NOW!

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