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by khazhoux 642 days ago
I'm honestly surprised that more people don't go mad in certain fields. If I ponder for 10 minutes the inexplicability of the universe's existence, or the vastness of space, my mind starts to breaks down.
6 comments

    1.1 INTRODUCTION: THERMODYNAMICS AND STATISTICAL MECHANICS OF THE PERFECT GAS

    Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics.
That's from Goodstein's "States of Matter" [1]. The next paragraph starts "Perhaps it will be wise to approach the subject cautiously".

That appears to be sufficient to allow non-fatal studying of statistical mechanics. Goodstein wrote that book 49 years ago and didn't die until a few months ago at the age of 85.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/States-Matter-Dover-Books-Physics/dp/...

And away we go!
The impression this article and many other things like it leaves me with is that we are struggling to get language and an abstractions out of our way.

We have to use them to talk about things and work with them, but they all “leak.”

Constantly trying to resolve an incomplete abstraction. They are trying to reverse engineer the Universe. I can usually read half way through these articles before I'm completely lost in the abstractions.

   When I consider your heavens,
   the work of your fingers,
   the moon and the stars,
   which you have set in place,
   what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
   human beings that you care for them?
   You have made them a little lower than the angels
   and crowned them with glory and honor.
   You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
   you put everything under their feet:
   all flocks and herds,
   and the animals of the wild,
   the birds in the sky,
   and the fish in the sea,
   all that swim the paths of the seas.
– Psalm 8:3-8
The answer of "the universe was created by a creator" is no more satisfying. It claims to answer everything, by answering nothing (since "a creator always existed" is axiomatic).
> It claims to answer everything, by answering nothing.

You missed the wisdom in your own statement.

It's just a puzzle and should be taken as such.
The universe is a puzzle?
If you try to understand things about it, yes.
As someone once said, "There is no requirement on the Universe to make sense".
Starting with the axiom that what I am experiencing is actually representative of reality to begin with.