Free Will

On Thursday we took advantage of being only a ten minute walk from the University and went to hear a lecture by John Conway who, it was claimed in the NZ Herald, had mathematically prooven the existence of free will. (I'd never heard of him, but Ali recognized the name. He's a prof at Princeton, and is famous for, among other things, inventing the Game of Life. I got the impression he's Very Big Deal in the math world.)

In the event, Dr. Conway didn't actually claim to have proven the existence of free will. What he did claim was a mathematical proof that: If anyone has any degree of free will (and assuming you accept three axioms from physics that no one doubts, such as nothing can travel faster than the speed of light) then, at least some elementary particles have some degree of free will. Which is hardly the same as proving the existence of free will, but he was quite an entertaining speaker and was certainly passionate about his work.

Startingly, for a lecture nominally based in mathematics and physics, he ended up saying essentially that he believes humans do have free will and that he believes it comes from the "freedom" of elementary particles. Sounded more like a confession of faith than a mathematical proof. I don't know enough mathematics to fully grasp even the elementary description he gave of his "proof," but I do have enough logic to grasp that the conditional nature of his premise means he hasn't proven anything like the existence of free will. But a part of me loved the idea that elementary particles had some sort of free will - or even spontaneity. I could totally see where the good prof was coming from. It's a cool way out of determinism, and provides a kind of metaphysical connection between human free will and physics.

Except that Ali the physicist says it does no such thing. He was disturbed that the man would even presume to suggest such a thing. Not knowing much about physics (besides a kind of fuzzy concept of quantum mechanics I got as an undergrad a long time ago), I peppered Ali with questions over several hours and as many beers. He convinced me that physics doesn't leave much room for particles to have any kind of spontaneity - whether you call it free will or whatever. That's why they're called physical laws. If particles can do something else, well, they sure don't show it much. Which, if you think about it for even amoment, is a good thing.

On our way home we talked with a computer scientist. She'd tried to convince her teenage son to come to the talk, but he didn't believe in free will and wasn't interested. The poor woman: she said the lecture had pretty much convinced her that free will doesn't exist. At least she and her son will have something new in common.

Cheers,
Sandie

Island Time

We're back! Actually, we've been back for 10 days now, but the weather has been perfect, so I've been extending my vacation. Found a perfectly gorgeous beach a little north of town. Have gotten almost halfway through Gravity's Rainbow to the point where I'm hooked enough I'll finally read it all the way through. Explored a chunk of the walking trail that, at low tide, you can take from Judge's Bay (near our house), all the way to Mission Bay (more than 5 miles east of the city). Drove by myself (after all the driving I did on holiday, I'm pretty comfortable with the left-side thing now) to the wonderful Takapuna market. Got oodles of farm fresh peaches, plums, nectarines, cucumbers, beans, etc. Spent an afternoon cooking fresh tomato sauce and making a Persian eggplant stew with some of the market produce.

Haven't been returning e-mails.

Haven't been researching topics for my master's program.

Haven't even been posting to the blog.

I have been reading about all the winter storms that hit the Midwest, the Northeast, even Europe. I truly do not miss the chance to drive for an hour to get less than 2 miles from home. However, there was a lovely picture in the NYT of a Boston neighborhood, covered in snow and looking quietly crystalline, which gave me a whisper of nostalgia for the sheer beauty of a big snow. And I always liked the way, when there's a blizzard raging, life slows down. Takes a pause. Even comes to a halt. Everyone stays inside, stranded in their homes, their islands of warmth. Things that were supposed to get done just have to wait. It's the midwesterner's version of island time.

So maybe that's my excuse. I'm in solidarity with the poor, snow-stranded souls of the North.

Cheers,
Sandie

Nothing to Fear

Still writing from overpriced (6$/hour!!!) internet cafes, so this will be short. We're in Picton, waiting for the ferry to cross back to the North Island. It is finally warm and sunny and it will stay this way as we head north, I hope. Today we had a short walk on the Queen Charlotte Track, a really beautiful place we went backpacking on for several days the first time we came to NZ. Today we saw hundreds of jelly fish, floating in turquoise water - quite remarkable.

Last night we had dinner at a typical old kiwi restaurant in Havelock. When Ali asked what the Beef and Reef was, the girl behind the counter responded, "Y'mean the Bafe & Rafe?" A piece of steak, topped with a piece of fried fish, plus all the trimmings: mashed potates, french fries, corn, rice salad, and cole slaw. No fear of carbohydrates in this land.

Cheers,
Sandie

Belated Happy New Year from ChCh

Our week in Kaikoura was great, in addition to hiking and horseback riding, we did a little snorkeling and took a day trip to Hanmer Springs, the best hot springs I've ever experienced. (Set amid towering, pine-clad mountains, there were three thermal pools (41C - hot!), a beautifully landscaped series of interconnected rock pools and waterfalls of various temperatures, plus several warm-to-hot fresh water pools, and a large swimming pool. Private pools, sauna/steam, and massage were also available, but I got my $10's worth from the main area. New Year's Day was endlessly rainy, so we stayed in our toasty little cabin and read all day - a great way to start 2005.

From there we headed south to Christchurch (about 2 hours) but, not finding finding any reasonably priced accomodation, we drove on out to the Banks Penninsula. There's a very cute town there, Akaroa, which started life as a French settlement and is now the single busiest tourist town I've come across in NZ. It's in a picture-perfect, well protected harbor, plus it's French (sort of), so I guess that explains it. We had a couple nice days in the area, exploring endless bays and breath taking vistas - the penninsula itself was formed by two volcanos - now it's like a dragon's tail that reaches out of the Canterbury coast and spirals back in on itself.

Now we're back in Christchurch for a few days of city life. Belated best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Cheers,
Sandie