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

Hi,

Never did the dice thing properly, although hitchhiking has some of the same properties, and would be interested to know whether the dice put you up to this project. What kinds of day to day options are you giving yourself?

Personally I'm now doing things the other way and trying to lead a life in which 'luck' plays little part. Chance is still up there, because the only way to stop random things happening is to lead a dreary pointless existence, but I'm trying not to assign values to events beyond my control. The theory is that stuff just happens, and how you deal with it defines whether it's good or bad.

If you learn to deal with the 'bad' stuff in such a way that it no longer appears to be such a trauma then the casual observer might believe that you only have good things happen to you. When I stay focused I can usually claim convincingly that the world (even the universe) is run for my personal benefit, although some of what goes on is still weird enough that I haven't yet worked out how to benefit from it.

It's hard trying to conduct a conversation about anything important without the concept of luck cropping up as an integral part of someone's world picture. Try talking about what a great life you have without either boasting or being lucky. Also, I've met a number of people who seem to have had the most appalling luck but when you examine their lives closely it becomes apparent that most of the bad stuff was the result of the choices they had made. I believe that if you start thinking about the consequences of your own actions you effectively create your own options, so what ever 'luck' (or the dice) bring you can only be good.

Then there's the whole 'destiny' idea as well. Just who the hell is it that has decided that something is "not meant to happen"? I know all sorts of alleged agnostics and atheists who still use phrases like that and it really annoys me that no one will just accept responsibility for their own actions and get on with enjoying their lives.
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Or roll the dice of course!

SB

Man!!! That's deep.

The dice life is treating me pretty good at the moment. I'm still learning how to handle it. I've only had really easy decisions to make so far (What to do today, etc.) but things should get more interesting when I try to make decisions based on what I'm actually thinking. You really should try it, it becomes enlightening after a while that you don't care what happens providing the decision is made.

Destiny is something I've always had problems with. I mean, what's the point in it. I think it's sort of self-defeating since the arguement starts to go around in a circle once someone has worked out what the arguement actually is!!

Any thoughts?

TDiD

P.S Can I use some of what you said in the project? It's really good stuff!!

Hey,

I see that your project has got nearly as far as mine. The best laid plans of mice, eh?

At some point in the next couple of weeks I'll probably have a bit more to say on this thorniest of topics, and as I'm now online again I'll make the effort to jot some thoughts down and bung them your way.

But first, review the following (all true) and ask yourself about the roles of chance luck and destiny:

I've been living in the USA, where I was married to a local lady. We decided to separate, amicably, and then got a leter from the immigration and naturalization service calling us for interview. This is the one where you have to know what colour the other person's toothbrush is and show them your joint bank account statements.

Now, if I'm not in a bona fide marriage to a US citizen then I'm not entitled to stay in the US. Actually I'm not sure if I want to, I've just been shafted by a previous employer and don't especially enjoy living in the US. But I don't have enough money in the bank to relocate comfortably.

Wifey won't lie so I'm wondering whether I'm going to get deported, given notice, or rubber-stamped by some sympathetic official. It's all pretty much out of my control and we show up at the federal building pretty nervous.

It's 7:30 am pacific, and the date is September 11th 2001.

The security people are a bit twitchy, to say the least, but we are admitted and sign in. Then the building is evacuated, just in case there are more airliners tumbling towards major cities, and it takes them a month to reschedule the interview.

During that month my employer loses a couple of big contracts (no one is spending money) and I lose my job. Driving down the freeway I am hit from behind by a well-insured teenager in an urban assault vehicle. His insurers give me a lovely rental vehicle to tide me over until they can write me an unreasonably large cheque.

My existing permit expires 16 Oct, the day after a big event that I have been working towards since January. I have been staying with friends, who need their space back. For the week between losing my job and the big event another friend is out of town and loans me his apartment.

So, I work and stay with friends. I gain a stay of execution. I lose my job and have a car accident. I have a nice car and a nice apartment as I prepare to do something that has all my friends extremely envious. And then it's all over. I'm homeless and unemployed. I pick up the money, return the rental, and .......

Get a ride to the airport and catch a flight to Fiji! It was as if a chapter of my life had come to a close and there was a very clear point at which it seemed appropriate to move on to something else. Is this synchronicity? Destiny? Pure luck? Or have I simply decided to take the opportunities that came my way where someone else would have been struggling to find a new home, pay the immigration lawyer, get a new car, find another job etc etc etc?

I'd be interested to know what you think.

SB

It here depends on whether you actualy believe in luck. I you think you are lucky, you will say that it was a very lucky thing to happend to you. If you think you are unlucky you will think that I was unluck to end up in a car crash, loose your job etc. Even if something good comes out of it. And if you don't believe in either you will just think that you welcomed the oportunity given to you with open arms.
So luck is subject to your own(and somebody elses) interpretations. If you believe you are a lucky persone you will start looking for the good side of what ever happend to you. You will sooner see the oportunity given to you than someone who believes that only bad things happen to him/her.

Statistically luck is not suppost to exist. But if you think of it that only means that if you take one event like flipping a coin and make a lot of people do it that you will get(more or less)as many times heads as tails, and even all the people will themselves have had as many times heads and tails and guessed it right half the time and wrong the other half. If you want to get luck in here somewhere it would have to mean that for every lucky person there would be an equaly unhappy person.
I wonder what exactly was the outcome of the flip the coin thing? You should get a bunch of people to do it an awfull lot of times and then see what happends. You can't realy say that someone is lucky if they get heads or tails right once or twice.

Side question, how exactly do you do the dice thing? Do you also give it 'unpleasant' outcome possibilities? And can you give some examples?

Hi, sorry to have ignored you for so long but I've been busy fighting the censors.

I don't know if anyone has ever actually done the coin flipping experiment for real, but I did read (in a book about chaos) that a great many simple experiments have never been conducted because the outcome is obvious. At least everyone assumes that the outcome is obvious, because it's all based on their ideas about how the world works.

There was a scene in a Terry Pratchett book (hardly science, but still..) featuring an individual with a contraption that dropped pieces of toast continuously to see which way up they landed. Now there's an experiment worth conducting.

As for the dice life, you'll have to read the book to really get the picture. It's called 'The Dice Man', by Luke Rhinehart (check spelling.)

All the best
SB

Fascinating! I think you are petty lucky to have such a sophisticated view of life and how to deal with it.

On a tangent, an Admiral in the American Navy when speaking about how submarine captains are selected said, "If you're not lucky, we can't use you."! (sorry, I don't have a reference for this.)

Stay lucky,
The Skiver.