Will We Ever Be Able to Know Why There is Something and Not Nothing?

by James Wallace Harris, 6/29/24

Is there one question you’d love to know the answer to before you die? For me, it’s always been “Why is there something rather than nothing?” Religious people want to believe God created everything, but there’s always that one smart kid who asks: What created God? We get into the problem of infinite regression. Of course, there’s the famous story by a scientist where the punchline is: “Turtles all the way down.”

Science has been trying to answer this question forever. At the small end, we have elementary particles in the Standard Model, with scientists and mathematicians speculating they came about because of strings or other concepts. At the large scale, cosmologists think the universe might be part of a multiverse. But don’t we have the same problem? What creates strings and multiverses? It’s something tinier or larger all the way down or up.

I must assume I will never know the answer to the question that gives me the most existential angst. I used to think as a kid, when we die, we’re finally told the answer to all our questions. But if I find myself in another dimension after death, I’m just going to ask: “What created this place?”

Maybe the answer that leads to happiness is to ask questions that can be answered. To focus on a smaller domain of existence. If I reduce the domain to planet Earth, I’d ask: “What happens to humans after runaway climate change?” It’s possible to speculate with some possibilities of getting the answer close to what might happen. But is such speculation useful?

If I reduce the domain to the United States. I guess the question right now that most people are asking: “Who will be elected president in November?” Until the debate Thursday night, we assumed it would be one of two possibilities. But have things changed? Don’t things always change?

I think I need to reduce the domain again. On a very personal level I’d like to know: “What is time.” And I don’t mean where in the Earth’s rotation, or orbit about the sun. No, I want to know: “What makes reality grow from one moment to the next?” Nothing stays the same. So, what is the smallest degree of change perceptible? Is it the vibration of subatomic particles? Is it the fields and forces that make up those particles? What is one tick of reality’s clock?

This is why I’m currently reading books like The Order of Time by Carlo Ravelli and On the Origin of Time by Thomas Hertog. I struggle to understand what these books are telling me. Is it possible to understand physics without understanding mathematics and science at the graduate level? I can vaguely sense what I think they’re talking about, but I might be deluding myself.

I do think time might be the key to why there’s something and not nothing, but I’m not sure we can ever grasp the reality of spacetime. I’m certainly no Einstein or Hawking. I don’t even understand science at an eighth-grade general science teaching level. To me, comprehending time is closer to being a meditating Buddhist.

What question would you love to know the answer to?

JWH

If Ignorance is Bliss, is Knowing Suffering?

by James Wallace Harris, 6/27/24

This essay is about how keeping up with current events is hard on our mental health. Is there a point in becoming informed that turns self-destructive? Happiness seems to be a balance between knowing and not knowing, between learning and ignoring.

I’ve always been amazed by the amount of fiction we consume in our lives — the books, movies, television shows, plays, video games, role playing, comics, fantasizing, bullshitting, and so on. Is fiction our way of regulating our awareness of reality?

I’m trying to decide in this essay just how much news I should consume. I believe I have three basic choices:

  1. Ignorance really is bliss.
  2. Learn enough to maximize my own survival.
  3. Learn everything I can to answer why and maybe know what can be changed.

I also consider the first three lines of the Serenity Prayer practical advice:

God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can, and
Wisdom to know the difference.

Mental health depends on knowing what can be changed and what cannot. I believe the old saying, “ignorance is bliss” is merely advising people not to try to change things. Eastern religion and philosophy are all about acceptance, and that might be one path to happiness, or at least contentment. Western religion and philosophy have always been about control, which often leads to frustration and unhappiness. However, Western religion and politics have always been delusional because they don’t know enough to wisely make changes. Too many people think they know, but don’t. And too many people pursuing ignorance follow the people who don’t know. In other words, even if you learn everything you probably won’t be able to do anything.

For most of my life I hoped humanity would evolve into a global humanistic society that was ecologically sustainable, maximizing freedom, and minimizing inequality. That’s obviously not going to happen. Instead, we’re returning to nationalism, xenophobia, and fascism. The growing consensus advocates: get all you can, protect what you have, and let the losers lose. Even Christians have become Darwinians.

The main message in the movies and television shows we consume is the good life is eating, screwing, buying, and travel. But hasn’t that made us the most invasive and destructive species on the planet?

I believe the fiction we consume, and the fantasies we chase, is our way of self-medicating a deep depression caused by seeing too much of reality. If I read or watch too many news programs, documentaries, or nonfiction books about what’s happening around the world I get bummed out and need to retreat. Is that the best thing to do? Or the only thing to do?

How much of learning about reality is educational, soul strengthening, and enlightening? Billions of people are suffering. How important is it to know that the majority of people on this planet spend a good deal of their lives in misery?

If you only watch NBC Nightly News, Fox News, MSNBC, or CNN, you’ll only end up worrying about problems in the United States. And that’s enough to depress most people. But if you take in news from around the world, it can deeply threaten your mental health.

I watch a lot of news from all over, and I’m convinced that our civilization is in decline. The number of failed nations grows every year. The number of weather catastrophes increases every year. Wars and famines are increasing. Life expectancies are declining. Economies are breaking down, and people are dying, becoming homeless or refugees, and suffering in ever-growing numbers. We’re lucky in the United States that we don’t suffer as much, but that’s why millions want to come here.

Decades ago, I stopped watching local news so I wouldn’t be depressed about crime. Even though I live in a high crime city, I seldom hear about it, and thus seldom worry. I could do the same thing with national and international news. That would be good for my mental wellbeing, but shouldn’t I do something?

Liberals believe society should alleviate suffering through laws. Conservatives want to solve the same problems by convincing everyone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. The reality is liberals want to solve society’s problems by spending the conservative’s money, and the conservatives just want to ignore the problems and keep their money. And it seems the only problem politicians really want to solve is how to get reelected and feed their egos.

Civilization is coming undone. That’s all too obvious if you watch a lot of news and study local, state, federal, international, and world events. However, knowing, and even understanding the problems we face doesn’t empower us to solve them. We either solve them together, or not at all, and if you’re an ardent news watcher, you’ll know we’re living in an age where we don’t work together.

Here’s where I’d love to list and catalog all our problems and assess their chances of being solved. But that would take a book length bit of writing. I’m sure you see enough of the news to know about all the problems we face — or do you? Would knowing more help or hurt you?

I could construct a detailed taxonomy of all the problems we face. I could stop reading novels and watching television and study the heck out of current events. But other than finding enlightenment about why civilization is collapsing, are there any mental, spiritual, or psychological benefits to learning how and why we’re self-destructing?

The real question is: Can we do anything to stop our self-destruction if we all agreed to work together and knew the right solutions? Even if we banned all airplane travel, reduced car travel to a minimum, rebuilt the energy grid that maximized renewable energy, and we all became vegetarians, we’ve already put enough CO2 in the atmosphere to radically change the climate. We may have already destabilized the climate so it can’t be reversed.

And we don’t have to wait until the seas rise above New York and London before climate change will do us in. We’re about to see the collapse of the home insurance industry which will completely destabilize the economy around home ownership. Just that might bring about economic chaos.

I could go on. Aren’t we like cattle in a stockyard? Would knowing about the captive bolt pistol offer any personal benefit in our lives? Or is there a kind enlightenment to be achieved by figuring out how the system works?

JWH

The Mystery of the Stolen Eggs

by James Wallace Harris, 6/24/24

We had a Carolina wren build a nest in a metal pitcher on our front porch. The pitcher stood on a stand that was about three feet high. I knew it wasn’t a safe place to build a nest. One morning I discovered the metal pitcher knocked to the ground. The eggs were gone, not even broken shells. And there were no feathers or any sign of a struggle. I assume the wren flew away, and some animal ate the eggs.

But the event wasn’t caught on my security camera. My camera catches bugs, birds, cats, squirrels, and other small animals, why didn’t it catch the attacker? I asked my friend Mike who is a birder, and he said a fox can steal eggs. But how did the attacker get by the camera? We had a fox living in our neighborhood years ago. Maybe if the attacker moved slow enough it could have fooled the camera. I don’t know. The nest was under the camera, so out of range. But to get to the nest the attacker would have had to cross the porch and the field of the security camera.

This got me to wondering what kind of animal might be living in my yard. I bought a cheap trail camera on Amazon. Here’s what I discovered on my trail camera video.

According to this site, raccoons do eat bird eggs. So, I might have solved the mystery. I’m disappointed it wasn’t a fox.

It might also explain why my neighbor’s dogs love to get out of their fence and run around my backyard. I caught the dogs many times on the trail cam.

I also know I have a possum living in my yard too, because it came up to my back door to look at me and my cats. I’m hoping to catch it on the trail cam too.

There’s a line of trees on my block that separate the two sides of the block. My neighbor behind my house put up a privacy fence but didn’t come all the way to the property line. There’s a bit of land that’s gone wild between three of the houses on my side of the block, and two of the houses on the other side.

I wonder what else lives in that bit of wilderness?

JWH

What I Learned About Myself by Being Interviewed for a Podcast

by James Wallace Harris, 6/18/24

I was interviewed by Alex Howe for A Reader’s History of Science Fiction podcast about my Classics of Science Fiction list I’ve been maintaining since 1989. I was surprised by how much I learned about myself from the process.

I’m used to writing essays where I have all the time in the world to compose my thoughts. That’s not true in a conversation. I realized while I was being taped, and even more when I listened to the podcast, that conversation leaves no room for composing or editing thoughts on the fly. At my age I need lots of time to think. I also need time to find words I can’t remember.

I watch a lot of YouTube videos and I’m amazed by how some people can talk at length presenting a clearly organized topic without stumbling over their words. I know some TV talking heads work from scripts, but I’m not sure that’s common for podcasts and YouTube videos.

Some people are simply great talkers. They can clearly enunciate words and thoughts at a fast speaking pace. I can’t. I’m surprised by the number of people who want to be talking heads on TV, both as interviewer and interviewee. It requires skills I admire. Being interviewed revealed all those skills I lack.

After a couple of years of watching YouTube videos it’s also become apparent that even though anyone can host a YouTube channel, not everyone should. I’m astonished by how media ready some folks are, and how others are not. I’m not.

My mind is suited for print.

I was getting over a cold on the day I was interviewed, so my voice sounds rough. But that doesn’t bother me too much when I listen to the podcast. What makes me worry about my aging mind is how I failed to answer Alex’s questions clearly. I’m not sure anyone will understand our statistical system for identifying the most remembered science fiction books. On the other hand, I’m not sure I’ve ever been able to describe it in printed words well either.

One thing that Mike and I learned from building the database and generating the reports is visitors to the web site seldom read the supporting documentation. In fact, we dropped most of the documentation from the current system because, so few people read it. We now aim to make the database as simple to use as possible.

My failure to explain how our database works is more than my lack of verbal skills, but even with that excuse, I do think I should have expressed the concept better.

I’ve been interviewed before, about twenty years ago. Somehow The New York Times learned I listened to a lot of audiobooks and a reporter came to my office to ask me about that. I was one of several people they profiled. This was in the early days of Audible.com, and I guess they thought it news that people were switching from reading to listening. The reporter asked me several questions, but only some of my answers ended up in the paper. The amount of editing is the difference between print journalism, television shows, and podcasts.

The reason I prefer to express myself in an essay is I can edit my own thoughts. Being interviewed for a podcast was fun, and I thank Alex Howe for the honor. However, I’m not sure I’ll do it again.

JWH

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

by James Wallace Harris, 6/16/24

It’s a rare movie I can watch by myself now that I’m old. I’ve developed an affliction where I can’t focus on a movie unless someone is watching it with me. But sometimes I do find a film I can mentally latch onto by myself and stay with until the end. A Matter of Life and Death was one yesterday. And when I do find such a movie, I feel I should write about it.

You can watch A Matter of Life and Death on YouTube. It’s also on Tubi and TCM.

Even though I’m an atheist and assume there will only be existential darkness after death, I’m a sucker for old metaphysical movies about angels, heaven, the personification of death, and fantasies about possible afterlives. Somehow, I’ve never seen A Matter of Life and Death before, a 1946 British film with David Niven and Kim Hunter. This is kind of surprising since A Matter of Life and Death places #20 on BFI’s Best 100 British Films. It’s also #78 on Sight and Sound’s list of The Greatest Films of All Time. This is probably due to spending most of my life watching American movies. In recent years, I have been getting into English films, and this one makes me want to watch even more.

I wouldn’t rate A Matter of Life and Death as high as #20 or even #78 on my list of favorite films, but who knows what I will discover if I give it another spin or two. The movie did make an impressive first impression. I was enchanted by its novel approach to portraying the afterlife, with some very imaginative sets and philosophical twists. I assume A Matter of Life and Death is a reaction to all the deaths in WWII, but not in the same way that American films about angels did in the 1940s.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger wrote, produced, and directed A Matter of Life and Death and were careful not to use the words heaven and angels. They picture the afterlife run with military precision guided by Enlightenment ideals, rather egalitarian, favoring no national or ethnic group. This British version of the afterlife is more intellectual and less sentimental than how Americans present it. They don’t use the word angel, but new arrivals in this afterlife are issued a set of large white wings in clear plastic bags.

However, this heavenly bureaucracy does make a mistake by not promptly escorting Peter Carter (David Niven) to the afterworld when his Avro Lancaster is shot up over Germany. Instead, he survives an impossible to survive death and falls in love with June, an American radio operator in the U.S. Army Air Force.

When Conductor 71 (Marius Goring), this film’s designation for a guiding angel, informs Peter of the mistake and demands he come along to the other side, Peter refuses. The rest of the film is about Peter’s legal battle in an otherworldly court, pleading to continue living on Earth with June. Peter makes a case that it’s heaven’s fault he wasn’t retrieved, and because he got to fall in love before the mistake was corrected, his death should be postponed.

There are four major male parts in this film. Niven is the British pilot and is considered the star. Marius Goring, the angel Conductor 71, is an effeminate Frenchman who had been beheaded during the French Revolution. He’s the go between the other world and Earth, functioning like Clarence, Dudley, and Mr. Jordan from those famous American angel flicks. Then there is Raymond Massey as Abraham Farlan, the prosecutor who believes Peter can’t stay on Earth beyond his allotted time. Finally, there’s Roger Livesey as Dr. Frank Reeves, a brilliant neurologist, who believes Peter is suffering from an earlier concussion and all his talk of the afterlife a delusion.

Roger Livesey, I know from The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. I felt his character Dr. Frank Reeves was far more charming and dashing than David Niven’s, and I wished Livesey had played Peter Carter, Niven’s character. I think I’m hard on old David Niven because I’ve always wanted to see Niven play Dudley in The Bishop’s Wife to see if he could have acted the romantic part. It was just too easy for Cary Grant to play that part, and I’ve been curious if Niven had the acting chops to have pulled it off. (And I would have loved to see if Grant could have pulled off the stuffy bishop’s part.) Now I get to see Niven in a similar metaphysical romantic role, and I was disappointed. Reeves and June reveal far more chemistry than June and Peter. I just didn’t believe June would fall instantly in love with Niven’s Peter. That’s one weakness of this picture, they rushed the falling in love part.

I don’t want to give away too much so I’ll stop talking about the details. I will say A Matter of Life and Death is a cross between Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) and A Guy Name Joe (1943), a couple of my favorite angel films. A Matter of Life and Death is filmed in beautiful technicolor except for the other world scenes, which are in a pearly black and white, the reverse of The Wizard of Oz (1939).

A Matter of Life and Death isn’t as moving as It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) or as charming as The Bishop’s Wife. However, it offers several unique takes on the afterlife that’s not in other films. I really enjoyed the cinematography, and some of the sets and arrangement of extras in heaven remind me of Busby Berkeley productions.

TCM recently had David Byrne as a guest programmer, and he presented A Matter of Life and Death and Wings of Desire as a double feature. I thought that an excellent pairing. Wings of Desire is another of my favorite movies about heaven, metaphysical beings, and angels. Just for grins, here’s a list of all the metaphysical movies that made me feel good about death or the afterlife. It’s a shame that in modern times, angels aren’t always that angelic. Although Michael (1996) and Dogma (1999) were fun.

JWH