Monday, January 21, 2008

The conundrum of freedom and a free society and Quantum Physics

I've had an HD tv for over a year now, I have recently found out that just because you have HD tv doesn't mean you are getting HD signals. I was so happy with the TV in general that I was unaware that I could have more. Two weeks ago I got a 10 dollar antenna that would give me HD channels that I was previously not getting. I plugged it in and was amazed at the picture I was then receiving. I noticed that people that are on TV in HD can not hide behind their makeup anymore, but aside from that, it is an amazing picture that I now enjoy.

So on my new channels, there was channel 7-2 that had an interesting documentary about how America as a first truly free society has inadvertantly created the saddest people.

This brings me to my thought. If it weren't for the realization that I could have a better TV picture with the purchase of an antenna, I would not have the better picture that I then used to watch the program to tell me that I'm probably sadder as a result of my wanting to get a better picture. Woah...

This brings me to my next thought. This kind of thinking, the kind where you blame a prior event for a following event. Such as: assume i get a call on the way to a destination from someone that asks me to change my planned route in order to do them a favor. At that point, if anything happens during that trip that is bad, I can then blame the person that changed my course for any and all dammage I sustained from my bad experiences. Some people take this a long way, and then of course to the absurd. If you're parents never met, you woudln't have been able to loan me the money I needed for my wildly successful business, so instead of giving you a gift, I'll give your mom and dad a gift. Then there is the other side of it. If nothing happens during your altered course, did you avoid a tragedy that would have befallen you? This happens in stories often. Had my mother not made me stop and get her her medication, I would not have missed my flight, and I would have been dead when It crashed. Wild.

This brings me to my final thought. If you're unaware of the theories of quantum physics, I'll tell you one of the theories. It concerns the state of sub atomic particles. Lets say that these particles are like little light switches. They can be ON or OFF. According to this theory, the light switch doesn't decide wether or not it's ON or OFF until it's observed being one or the other. This example is brought forth in the Schrödinger's cat example. According to this example, This cat is in a box unseen by people and the box has a sub atomic particle attached to a canister of poison gas in the box that will kill the cat. As long as the particle is not observed, the cat is neither alive or dead but dependent on the state of the particle. Once someone looks in the box, The particle then decides what to be and either sets off the gas, or doesn't. It's this theory that some people think means there are many different realities and every possible outcome of the choices in your life continually alter the reality you are in. Pretty heavy I know, but that means that in my prior thought, I missed my flight, but in a different reality I blew up on a plane. Which means, that you really can't blame prior events for current consequences because both outcomes occurred.


I was happy with my TV before I knew the HD channels were there, but now I am even happier that I have them. Should I now get more HD programming via Cable or Satellite? Hmmm...

1 comment:

Scoops Mangum said...

You just blew my mind. "Why oh why didn't I take the BLUE pill?!" :)