h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here in the west we have opportunity, we have the luxury of choice.
For many in the world, only a miracle will let them survive.

Z the first TS medic. You can make a mint from media interest. I hope you realise that. They'll have you on the talk shows. Get a good agent mind. Do not try it alone. The'll make mincemeat of you.

I like to think that when things go wrong, "it will all work out in the end" but that doesn't mean that you don't have to work at it.

for instance, I was supposed to be arranging a new flat share last year, and it fell through due to malice on the part of a third party. It was a real nuisance at the time, but as it worked out, if I had manage to move, I would have been tied into a contract that would have slowed my move to Glasgow

I suppose I'm trying to say I reckon the 'system' tries to balance things out, but you can't be complacent

Hi KerrAvon

Predestination vs Randomness? A big subject for first thing Monday morning when my mind is full of the possibility of snow, which in spite of the fortune spent on weather forecasting will be a pretty much random event here, being affected by the North Downs.

My mother was a fatalist, but a reasonably optimistic one, her attitude was that something would turn up and it invariably did. When she developed a particularly rare form of cancer which was terminal, she refused treatment to give her a little longer and said that it was time for her to go and there was no point fighting it. She was brought up as Yorkshire Chapel, a fire and brimstone form of Methodism and although she didn't attend any church once she left home, it was still part of her.

However she was also adventurous (as much as one could be who grew up during WWII), independent, determined, stubborn, funny and very wise and if she wanted to do something she well would, but it was fate that would decide how it turned out.

I too believe that something will turn up and whether it is fate or just a random event, it usually does. We both had/have the ability to know when things are going to change, I don't know if that is because it is fated to, or just gambling odds.

That is about all the deep thought I can cope with before 9 a.m.!

Matina, may I have please?

[T&R]

All I've got to say at this point is that if I was destined to my life, I must have done something awful to deserve parts of it and wonderful to deserve others.

I prefer to see life as a journey - not predetermined, but always changing. Its the only way I can stay my version of sane in my life.

[Munchkin]
104 new posts before breakfast!! Think I will sit in the corner and work back through them while I work out my thoughts on this predestination thing, or perhaps they are already worked out, I just don't know it yet. Hmmmm

Let me clarify my previos post regarding predestination.

I believe in fate, that one is fated to do something in life. I do not believe that only certain people are predestined to heaven and everyone else is screwed. I do believe that people are slated to do something specific in life, and that part of our journey of living is to find what it is that we are meant to do.

[Ben]
*predestined to log onto hootoo this morning*
*choosing to leave a calling card instead of a post*

Ben

I was all ready to talk about Turner (the artist) after having gone to the last weekend of an exhibition (The Late Seascapes) on saturday and you're all talking about predestination.
Guess it was fated to be philiosophy rather than art then

I believe vehemently in the fact that my life is predetermined. Too many things have happened because of 'fate' that I cannot ignore them. One of the most recent things is that I was kicked out of the house I was staying in in Brum, and the day I was to sign another contract, I was told I was going back home to Scotland.

Does predeterminism affect me, make me less bothered about my life? Not really. Although I believe that what will happen will happen, I *know* that if I dont try at all, I will miss out on many of the sidelines that can happen in my life. I think that the major things - the life-changing decisions - are predetermined, and the rest of it I have to muddle through the best I can. Writing it down, I know it doesnt make sense, and I know that people have picked holes in my thinking previously. I cant explain it. It fits right in with my religious beliefs and many other things in my life. Quirky and Stupid!

Made it.

On the predestination thing, from a purely physics point of view things are predestined, if you can work out the maths. Object A hits object B and they both move in clearly defined ways. However, by the time you scale up to the billions of physical interactions occuring in your average human being the system is so chaotic that it is very hard to predict what said average biped will do. Now this may be due to lack of knowledge on our parts, or it may be due to that thing called spirit, soul, conscious overriding these rules. To get all fuzzy, I reckon that, in the same way that any science sufficiently advanced cannot be distinguished from magic, any act of a human being cannot be distinguished from free will.
I prefer karma though, but that may just be to do with the way a random cosmic particle has interfered with the constituent parts of my brain.

[d'E]
[]

Turner exhibition, I saw that as well, was it at the Barber insitute by any chance?

I'm not sure anything happens for a reason it's just random collections of events - but I don't think we can handle that pscyhologically. We like to think that things are controled either by ourselves or by someone else. Some things happen that are good, some things happen that are bad, we have to do our best to try and make the good things happen, prevent the bad things happening, and dealing with what happens when bad things really do happen.

Munchkin
I'm enlightened. Never thought about it that way.

Grrr!!!!

I hate black holes in threads. I hope it was worth it.

I believe in free will and karma. What you do will eventually reflect back on you. If you are "good", then good things will happen to you and vice versa. It just may take longer than this lifetime.

I have always liked the idea of Karma, the trouble is the older I get the more I remember times when I was thoughtless or selfish rather than the times I was caring and kind. There ~must~ have been one or two surely?

On my way to w*rk today I was amazed by one of the main pedestrian streets absolutely bustling with people. Sure, there's usually a lot of people around, but this morning it was absolutely crowded! Then, spotting the riot fences and a lot of policemen I remembered it's the Conference on Genocide this week, and a big part of the city centre has been sealed off for security reasons

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3429087.stm

Unfortunately it seems that Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson is believed to be the only Western leader at the conference. Why? Isn't it in everyone's best interest to make sure genocides don't happen again, ever? Or do other Western leaders believe that nothing will come out of this conference? Well, no wonder if no one bothers attending...

Now then DD, patience, brother.