The Problem with the Enterprise
1 June, 2024
So I stuck with the whole Chinese entertainment genre yesterday. After watching Kung Fu Hustle, I decided to finally give the Three Body Problem series a watch. Not the Netflix one, but the one on Amazon. That version was made IN China. Not sure about the Netflix one.
Anyways, the idea it proposed just 2 episodes in was interesting, about the "Turkey Scientist."
There's a turkey farm somewhere, where the turkeys get fed every day at 11am. The Turkey Scientist observes this pattern for nearly a year and concludes that since food arrives at 11am every day, this is a basic law of their universe. One day, the scientist turkey proudly announces this law to the other turkeys. However, that day, was Thanksgiving. Instead of food arriving, the farmer arrives and slaughters half the chickens.
In the scenario, the turkeys believed this law was just a fundamental law of nature, or of physics. Food arrives at 11am. What they didn't know, was that something else was governing this, i.e. the turkey farm owner, was really calling the shots. This is the idea of Induction. They thought they were the ones to understand the universe, but they were not.
Anyways, the idea it proposed just 2 episodes in was interesting, about the "Turkey Scientist."
There's a turkey farm somewhere, where the turkeys get fed every day at 11am. The Turkey Scientist observes this pattern for nearly a year and concludes that since food arrives at 11am every day, this is a basic law of their universe. One day, the scientist turkey proudly announces this law to the other turkeys. However, that day, was Thanksgiving. Instead of food arriving, the farmer arrives and slaughters half the chickens.
In the scenario, the turkeys believed this law was just a fundamental law of nature, or of physics. Food arrives at 11am. What they didn't know, was that something else was governing this, i.e. the turkey farm owner, was really calling the shots. This is the idea of Induction. They thought they were the ones to understand the universe, but they were not.
The show focuses on this when scientists start committing suicide because they discover what they thought were basic fundamentals of physics, was in fact not based in reality, and there was a higher function that controls mankind, its destiny, and its "universal rules." Physics doesn't exist.
I kind of wonder how true that could be. What if WE are the turkeys, and something else is indeed controlling us, and controlling our world, whether it be alien, or spiritual... What if we are wrong about everything?
There are three books in the series, and I've mentioned the Dark Forest hypothesis before, but I'll go into that another time. I've written enough existential dread for today.
I kind of wonder how true that could be. What if WE are the turkeys, and something else is indeed controlling us, and controlling our world, whether it be alien, or spiritual... What if we are wrong about everything?
There are three books in the series, and I've mentioned the Dark Forest hypothesis before, but I'll go into that another time. I've written enough existential dread for today.
