The Ultimate Why

The 5 Ws

2011-06-23T00:14:00.001-07:00

You can't really ask "why?" in isolation. To get a complete understanding you often need to ask more questions.

These typically take the form of the 5 "Ws". As well as
Why?

you also ask
Where?
When?
Who?

and

How? (well its got a w at the end).

Considering these in conjunction often leads to a more complete understanding than just asking "why?".

The Big Bang - The Ultimate Given

2010-09-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

In the beginning was the Big Bang.

In terms of givens this is the ultimate. Everything (and that means everything) in the universe started at this point.

In a way accepting it as a given is a bit of a cop out. The big bang is, in one (but not the only or, necessarily, most relevant) prime cause to the whys of the world.

As to the cause of the big bang.. well that's a whole other, immense topic. I quite like the summary here H2G2 Origins . There are many other sources for the interested.

However for the purpose of this argument I will assume that the actual causes of the big bang are irrelevant, it is just the consequences of it happening that matter.

And the consequences are, to restate, at some point everything in our universe started.

One important thing is how this happened. The universe did not start like a seed planted in the ground, developing and growing over time.

Rather my preferred analogy is that of an old fashioned roller coaster (with no external force other than gravity to provide its excitement). The big bang happens at the highest point on the ride, the one you get pulled up to after the start, its that moment when you get the biggest thrill as the sky drops away and you plunge down.

While there's lots to follow, ups, downs, corkscrews and more the key thing is that everything is driven by the gravity generated potential energy at the start.

For a roller coaster this energy is generated by a chain that pulls the cars up the first tallest climb. This is where the analogy breaks down for the universe, what was it's chain pull?

But, no matter, main thing is that at the beginning a huge amount of energy exploded and kicked off the roller coaster ride that is existence.

QED How but not why

2010-06-13T02:01:00.000-07:00

Quantam Electrodynamics (QED) is a theory that describes how light and matter interact. It has claim to be one of the most significant and impressive theories developed during the course of the 20th century.

One aspect of this claim is the amazing degree of accuracy of its predictions, to within ten parts in a billion. This is the same as measuring the distance from London to New York with an accuracy of a single human hair.

(for more on QED)

This achievement is impressive but made a cost. QED is a description of what happens. In fact, to be precise, it predicts only the probability that something may happen (albeit in practice these probabilities are very high). It says nothing about how and why things work.

So its a nice paradox. One of the most robust and accurate theories in science doesn't worry about the hows and whys of the world. Indeed it sacrifices these in favour of being able to describe what happens.

There's a useful message here. Instead of asking why? sometimes we just have to accept that understanding has to be content on knowing what?

Bricks and Building Rules

2010-06-13T01:45:00.000-07:00

Another given is that: the world consists of somethings and has rules for how these somethings behave, in isolation and when they interact.

What exactly the above are has and continues to be a subject of intense interest and investigation. The details of this study, while absorbing, are not relevant to this discussion. Its sufficient to say that consistent rules exist that determine how the constituent part of our world behave and react.

As an example the moon orbits the earth which in turn orbits the sun which in turn orbits within the milky way galaxy which in turn moves in harmony with other galaxies.

We can say that we "know" as an absolute fact that tomorrow the moon will not change direction and head off to orbit Mars.

This certainty is due to our understanding of various forces, predominant amongst which is gravity. This certainty is not underpinned by an absolute knowledge of how and why the forces work. Indeed theories in this area have changed over time from Newton to Einstein and gravity remains a conundrum in turns of reconciling it to other basic forces.

Constants

2010-06-10T02:10:00.000-07:00

Almost by definition one "Given" must be constants.

These are a set of values required to make our descriptions of our universe tally with reality.

Wiki Constants

Perhaps the most famous of these is the speed of light "c" as in e=mc(squared).

Its a fact of existence that our universe would not work without a set of fixed values. (To be precise if the constants had other values its possible to imagine what the resultant universe would be like. However it would not be "our" universe but a different one. )

So really they are the ultimate "Given" and demonstrate the limits of any explanation.

Take the example above. It reveals a huge truth. Energy (e) and Mass (m) are two sides of the same coin. One can be converted to another and this is fundamental to our understanding of how the universe works.

But "c"? Well its just got to be 299,792,458 m/s to make the sums work. Why happens to be rather than 299,792,459 or 299,792,460 is not known.

(Though, naturally things are a little more complicated.)

Where is what really matters

2010-04-05T00:25:00.000-07:00

One paradox of asking why? is that why is not the real question.

Often the real question is where?

Reality for us is not a simple well defined whole. In reality reality for us is consists of various worlds. At the highest level I think of these as being 3:

3: The "real" world. The stuff of physics engineering and chemistry. The table you can touch and a distant black hole.

2: The "human" world. The world created by humans. "Real" in the sense of history and culture but also in the abstract reals like beauty and the 7 deadly sins.

1: "My" world. The world that only we can perceive, the sum total of our life. Our thoughts, memories, emotions and so much more.

So much stems from the above. Some initial observations.

- There are worlds within worlds. Some overlap, others don't.
- The worlds themselves overlap. What happens in real world affects the human world and my world.
- I've listed 3-1 in reverse order. This reflects how most will value them. What happens in the real world is of interest but really starts to become important when it impinges on the human world.

Edge 306 SIGNATURES OF CONSCIOUSNESS - Stanislas Dehaene

2009-11-29T00:38:00.001-08:00

Why does the universe look the way it does (via Edge)

2009-11-14T01:32:00.000-08:00

Why does the universe look the way it does?

Level of Givens

2009-05-30T02:52:00.000-07:00

Just another post script to givens.

Givens often assume givens. So speaker will make assumptions about listener and select the appropriate level of given.

So in my example "I have an animal" would be appropriate in some circumstances e.g. if the listener is a non-english speaker or in a game of 20 questions (where the whole rationale of the game is to narrow down wide givens to a specific case example).

Conversely I might say "I have a basset fauve de bretagne". This would make no sense to the vast majority of people, even most dog owners. However to a small subset of dog owners it would provide a wealth of information, not only about my dog but how he behaves and, because its so rare, who else I am likely to know.

No givens - why contracts are so unreadable

2009-05-30T02:40:00.000-07:00

As a post script to the initial thoughts on "givens" its interesting to observe that contracts, laws, treaties etc are so difficult to read precisely because they cannot assume "givens".

So they have to go to tedious lengths to be very precise about every concept they address. E.g. from a document in front of me its necessary to say things like:
"Words importing the singular number only shall include the plural and vice-versa"
"Words importing only the masculine gender include the feminine gender."

This goes to show how essential the concept of "givens" are to our usual life. Paradoxically whenever you need to exclude them and make very clear what you are talking about the effect is to make you unintelligible.

Givens

2009-05-30T02:22:00.000-07:00

Givens: a half remembered idea from psychology course, more specifically linguistics.

Normal communication is very dependent on the idea that we share a set of common assumptions about the world. This allows us to keep our conversations short and succinct.

Examples can be concrete and fairly trivial, e.g. I can say "I've got a dog" and any English listener will immediately know what I am talking about without me having to explain what a dog actually is. Further they will anticipate what further information will be coming, e.g. it may be about going for a walk, barking, picking up poo etc.

Even with such a trivial example "givens" need to be at the right level. E.g. if I say "I've got an animal" the listener is most likely to be confused. They will probably assume that because I've not used a common given example that I dont have a normal pet. So they will start to think what sort of animal I have, excluding the usual domestic choices. So if I follow up by telling them it causes problems with the neighbours because it barks too much I will just confuse them because I have broken an unwritten "given" rule that you will use a "given" whenever you can.

Things get more complicated once you move from the concrete to the abstract. A phrase like "It's the right thing to do" has an implicit "given" within the word "right". There is an assumption that speaker and listener share a common understanding of what "right" means. Of course this can be far from the case and a shared misunderstanding of "givens" is one frequent cause of conflict.

Because of this I intend restricting "givens" to as few specific concrete cases as possible.

Framework

2009-04-16T04:37:00.000-07:00

Just another precursor note.

Framework I intend to follow will divide posts into the following rough categories.

General Comments - Like this.

Givens - this will cover things which will just have to be taken at face value as being there. An e.g. is the big bang. Way beyond scope and my knowledge to say why this happened so will just assume it did.

Paradoxes - one of the things that interests me is how trying to understand things can lead to paradoxes which, a sort of paradox in itself, can help further understanding.

Prime causes - the fundamentals that underpin the whole question of understanding why?

Level x implications - the fundamentals give rise to a number of implications, which in turn can give rise to further implications etc. I'll try to tag these to indicate how far down the chain they c0me. Level 1 implication will stem direct from prime cause, level 2 implication from a level 1 etc. As with all systems may break down, will just have to see.

Worlds - as I will address one of the most important things to consider when asking "Why?" is "Where?". We inhabit a number of worlds simultaneously, each with their own complications.

That's it for now. No doubt will add some more as I continue..

Why the Ultimate Why?

2009-03-30T02:02:00.000-07:00

First post onto my new blog. And to cut to the chase....why the ultimate why?

Partly a reaction, partly a drive. For as long as I can remember I have been interested in the whys and hows of existence and nature. Now I find myself at the start of a new stage in the journey of life I find myself with the time, inclination and experience to ponder a bit on the questions of "why are we here?" and "what does it all mean?"

I've come to some conclusions of my own on these subjects, contained within an overall framework that I think has some internal consistency and is relatively straight forward. So in coming posts I will elaborate on this a bit more, for fun and for my own satisfaction.