Currently working on something big for the holidays =)

Old video for now, New ones coming Soon ...

Always good for lonely nights.

Quantum Mechanics and The Pursuit of Happiness,

     The story that I am about to tell started off on the wings a serendipitous thought that eventually grew into something golden in my mind. It was born from an exchange between minds that has since dawned on me a new perspective on the wonder of the unknown.

     Science has always been a journey from ignorance to clarity. It is a journey that constantly bears the potential to shape us into beings more in-tune with the world around us. This journey may take us to unexpected places and new worlds undreamt of before. 

     This is the story of my journey into the unknown.

More than just a series of facts, Science is how we question the world.

     It all began on a rainy afternoon as I was going through the motions of another lecture class. This time I found myself tackling the subject matter of Dynamic Programming a branch of knowledge derived from the larger umbrella field of Operations Research. Operations Research gives us various mathematical approaches that can be used to solve real world optimization problems. Dynamic Programming allows us to logically derive the best possible policy from many different permutations of existing conditions.

Operations Research: Reducing possibilities to the most sustainable reality.

     I was sitting at the front of the lecture hall as as time wound itself down towards the end of the lecture when a sudden thought manifested itself in my mind. If Dynamic Programming could allow us to make decisions that guaranteed the highest pay-off granted we had all the necessary variables to do the math, would it be possible for a person with knowledge of all the variables of life to optimize and acquire most awesome of all possible existences.

     Theoretically this person could die (or perhaps even not) without ever regretting a single event that he or she has ever lead since every decision was guaranteed to be acquire the best result. This person would end up with the most fulfilling career, choose to be with people that loved him or her the most and perhaps even get through life without ever getting hurt once.

     During the break I posed my question of the imaginary man to my instructor Mr. Gan, explaining the conditions that I had come up with. His initial answer was that by all means the scenario was possible and that nothing within the deeper theory of operations research was against it.

     But there was a catch (because there's always a catch) ...

From Uncertainty to Confusion to Clarity and then more Uncertainty ...

     The scenario that I proposed would never ever come to be realised because of the laws of Quantum Mechanics. These were his words exactly. "But according to Quantum Mechanics no"lah" (the lah is local Malaysian slang we add to accentuate the end of a sentence), because of the Uncertainty principle we will never ever arrive at a point where we know all of the variables."

     I did not expect him to answer my question like that. In all honesty Quantum Mechanics was the last place that I thought the middle aged University lecturer would go to for an answer and I was supposed to be the resident 'Quantum Guy'. 

      I went back to my seat both stunned and surprisingly satisfied. A friend of mine who was present when I asked the question was equally taken by the response. Here's part of the short exchange that followed.

Me: Well that was really something. I didn't think that was going to
       be his answer.

Friend:  I guess its true what they say, these FOE lecturers are 
             indeed a crazy bunch. But its not easy to find the ones
             that can give approach a question like that. Mr Gan is 
             freaking awesome.

Me: Yeah but it kinda does make sense, I mean according to the 
       Uncertainty principle the more you know about one type of
       parameter the less you know about another in the  
       end we wont really know anything, lolz. I guess
       Quantum Mechanics would weigh in larger overall

Friend: Yeah and no one fucks with Quantum Mechanics. Not 
           even Einstein.

Me: And in this case not even the theoretical being I came up  
       with. 

     And what of our theoretical man and his pursuit of a perfect life. You don't need a scientist to tell you that "perfect" is the domain of theory and speculation. It is most likely true that not a soul in the world will ever get it all right, with or without the use of Operations Research and Quantum Mechanics. This is where life fills us with its greatest mystery, the mystery of not knowing.

     The mystery of Uncertainty.

The main question it to maximise happiness with respect to the constraints of life but what happens when the  constraints are near infinite ?

    In light of all of this I would like to bring up (again as I did in a post one year ago) the late Richard Feynman and his view on the unknown. It was not a problem for him to live in a world of uncertainties. In fact he preferred it that way. Richard Feynman found life to be more interesting with mysteries and hidden variables instead of knowing every answer to all the important questions. That's why he never bought in to organised religion. That's why he was a scientist.

Not afraid of not knowing. For scientists the thrill of the mystery is enough ...

    I draw in conclusion that as human beings it is part of our nature to look for answers to the unknown. We are always in search of some foresight that can give us more control over what lies ahead. Unlike the Christian prophet Jesus Christ who "allegedly" told his followers in Matthew 6:34 to take no thought for the morrow I would argue that we do need to take thought for the uncertainties of tomorrow by answering them with the actions of today and we need to do this regardless of whether we end up answering the questions that we started off with. 

     It is perhaps true regarding the story of science, that we will never know everything about everything. In spite of it all and against all odds human beings will continue to forge down this road because of the pull of adventure, the rush of discovery and the thrill of mystery that awaits us at every turn.

Sincerely,
SonOfTerra92

Written on 
29/5/2013

Published
14/5/2013