Chance and Oracles: A philosophical and scientific perspective
In our language game "The Young I Ching," you ask a question, and our algorithms generate an answer. But is this answer truly "random"? Let's illuminate the meaning of chance and this fascinating concept from three exciting perspectives.
1. Your Question: Conscious Choice or Deep Impulse?
We often believe our decisions are purely conscious. Yet, groundbreaking neuroscience tells a deeper story. A story about brain activity and unconscious processes in the brain during decisions.
The Brain Acts First: We explore the Benjamin Libet experiment and its implications for our understanding of free will.
Studies by Benjamin Libet in the 1980s showed that brain activity (the "readiness potential") occurs hundreds of milliseconds
before we consciously decide to perform a movement.
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Unconscious Initiation: Libet concluded that our brain unconsciously initiates actions before we become aware of them.
This challenges the notion of free will as a conscious initiator.
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Predicting Decisions: John-Dylan Haynes confirmed these results starting in the 2000s, using modern MRI techniques to show that decisions could be predicted in the brain up to seven seconds before the conscious decision.
More Than Random:
This does not mean that your question is not random, but it shifts its origin from the present to a deeper, previous event within you.
It is clear that it is not a random event born in the moment.
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When we ourselves don't know how we came to a certain decision, we sometimes say: "I don't know what got into me!" Our app "The Young I Ching"" offers a unique way to engage with these ideas. It raises questions and generates answers that may feel "random" but could be connected to deeper impulses within us. In the following screenshot, for example, the app provides an answer to a question dealing with this issue.
Returning to the broader concept of "Chance":I
2. Quantum Entanglement: "Spooky Action at a Distance"
Quantum physics reveals connections that contradict our everyday logic.
Inseparable States: In Einstein's famous EPR thought experiment, two "entangled" particles remain inextricably linked, no matter how far apart they are.
If one is measured, the state of the other is immediately known without directly measuring it.
Challenge to Physics: Einstein called this "spooky action at a distance" because it seemed to contradict his theory of relativity (nothing is faster than light).
Experimental Proof: However, experiments by a team led by Alain Aspect in the early 1980s provided important evidence: The Alain Aspect experiments provided evidence that quantum entanglement indeed exists, and this "spooky action at a distance" is real.
A Deeper Connection: Assuming that the question already implies the answer, a kind of entanglement is also conceivable here. It shows that there can be "spooky" or "random" connections between phenomena that cannot be grasped with our usual patterns of thought and language.
As the Chinese sage Lao-Tzu expressed it: "Tao, if it can be spoken, is not the eternal Tao."
3. Synchronicity: Meaningful Coincidences
Beyond simple cause and effect, there is a world of meaningful connections.
Jung's Insight: C. G. Jung introduced the term "synchronicity" – explaining why we perceive 'random' events as meaningful synchronicity.
A Deeper Order: Jung suggested that synchronicity could be an indication of a deeper, hidden order in the world, in which psyche and matter are not separate but part of a more comprehensive reality he called "Unus Mundus" (one world).
A Bridge to Meaning: So, it's not about denying chance.
It's about viewing "chance" as a potential bridge. A bridge that leads to a meaningful dimension of life. - So, meaningful coincidences!