The Tao of the Towel: Infinite Improbability

“Infinite Improbability is Infinitely Improbable:
it passes through every conceivable point in every conceivable universe simultaneously, without tedious mucking about in hyperspace.”

Life itself is pretty improbable.  If you have lived any time on this planet, then you should know that in comparison to the vast unknown amounts of space and time for the universe to afford for a silly frail thing like life is fairly unlikely. Thus anything that happens, happens. Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen. Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again. It doesn’t necessarily do it in chronological order, though, and it certainly will not always make a lot of sense. It is against all odds that anything in your life is happening at all, we should try to not be too alarmed when something happens that should not happen, or at minimum we shouldn’t pretend to be all surprised by it.

“A good hot cup of tea provides Brownian Motion.
It brings the Sperm Whale, and the Bowl of Petunias,
moves undergarments a foot to the left, and dismays respectable physicists who don’t get invited to those sorts of parties.”

All action in the cosmos starts with an idea, a hot cup of tea. We should remember that even when we are sure of ourselves, especially when we are especially sure of ourselves, calculating the finite probability of a thing can present the most wonderful or terrible surprises. Sometimes a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias are called suddenly into creation, sometimes you turn into a penguin. Sometimes, oftentimes, the best laid plans of mice are simply not going to work out the what we want them to.

It’s up to us to find a way to thrive in uncertainty. To take what we know and roll with it, and adapt when we can to make the best of a situation. You’ll get invited to a lot more parties if you stop going about declaring everything they do at those parties a debasement of science. Relax, go with the flow, and let your undergarments leap simultaneously one foot to the left in accordance with the theory of indeterminacy once in a while.

“A virtual impossibility must have finite improbability.
An Infinite Improbability generator came from thin air.
Respectable physicists can’t stand a smart arse.”

Nothing is ever truly impossible, some things although, are highly improbable. Most people don’t take into account that we are six foot tall ape descendants with anxiety, we have no idea what is really going on. All we can do is aim for our best guess, sometimes within reason, and often times with the lack thereof. The means justify the ends, despite what our detractors may say.

There is, after all, a fine line between genius and insanity.

The Fourth Tao:

“The Tao is like an empty container:
it can never be emptied and can never be filled.
Infinitely deep, it is the source of all things.
It dulls the sharp, unties the knotted,
shades the lighted, and unites all of creation with dust.

It is hidden but always present.
I don’t know who gave birth to it.”
It is older than the concept of God.

*From Tao Te Ching, by Lao-Tzu complete online text. Translation for the public domain by JH McDonald, 1996