May 05, 2019 Sunday
Bedtime Story
Understanding the Basis of Luck
In spite of the two types of causalities the
concept of indeterminism still remains intact and therefore the future open to
possibilities.
One must not confuse indeterminism and
chance with luck as the terms “lucky” or “unlucky” are merely subjective and
descriptive terms even though the belief in luck in us apes has its origins in
chance and indeterminism.
Luck as a subjective concept in its turn is
related to origins of superstitions and consequently belief in deity or more
commonly deities.
So much so that it would be justified to
make a claim that that even religion has its origins in the indeterministic
nature of the universe (besides at one time serving as an explanation to deep
and profound questions regarding our origins).
The “luck” good or bad has some components
which must be made clear to all so that at least the superstitious component
can be gotten rid of (though I am highly pessimistic about that ever happening):
(1.) Luck is a chance outcome that is generally
applied to sentient organisms such as human apes, other apes and animals or even
species as a whole.
For instance no one makes a claim that it
was lucky that the Gondwana supercontinent began to break up some 150 million
years ago and that the Madagascar, Indian and Australian plate began to
separate from Africa and that the Indian plate struck the Eurasian plate some
50 million years ago resulting in the formation of Himalayas.
Well perhaps some hardcore Hindus would do
that.
But on the other hand when a cheetah
springs and makes that sensational dash to catch a springbok antelope and
misses his prey then we apes would label the event as lucky or unlucky
depending upon whose side we wish to take.
(2.) Luck is a subjective interpretation of
positive or negative events (even that is subjective) that happen all the time
in the lives of apes and all sentient beings.
Nobody is specially lucky or unlucky though
many take this stance because of their lack of understanding of the workings of
nature and the vastness of time and space.
(3.) Luck as a feeling exists because of
the nature of the universe which is inherently random and chancy.
(4.) Luck as a subjective feeling exists
because of lack of control of most sentient and living beings on nearly all
aspects of their existence including their place of birth, their species of birth,
their genetic constitution.
Death, diseases or injuries due to accidents
and epidemics are again some of the factors that are generally beyond the
control of most members of most species.
A plant growing in my terrarium owes its
existence due to my blind fancy of sprinkling of few seeds of Tamarindus indica
in the fertile kept in it which has now replaced the fishes that once were part
of the aquarium.
(5.) Luck as a concept is also a matter of
fallacy as most of us apes are neither rational nor scientific nor mathematical
in any meaningful way.
Literacy is not synonymous with numeracy.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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