Luck

Agent Smith October 10, 2022 at 10:16 3925 views 20 comments
Mr. Dean bought a metal detector, a treasure-hunting tool, a decade ago. He takes real good care of his baby - wipes it down after the customary 6 hours he uses it (he's been doing this since 2012), replaces worn out parts, stores it in a special custom-made container he had made. He never found treasure; he once thought it did, but digging at the spot revealed only abandoned, rusted nails.

Mr. Leland bought a metal detector (same model as Mr. Dean's) yesterday and today he took it for a test drive and discovered treasure - gold/silver bullion - worth $135 million right in his backyard.

Comments (20)

Nils Loc October 10, 2022 at 19:00 #747076
Mr. Leland was a bit addicted to oxycodone, by the happenstance of a past injury, and with his new found wealth he would easily enter into a downward spiral of further drug abuse and self-destruction. After his death his remaining family would become splintered and embittered over a long fight for the inheritance of what some called 'the cursed bullion of Leland'.

Mr. Dean meanwhile loved nothing more than the humble walkabout thrill of combing landscapes with his metal detector and little terrier dog, Boo.
180 Proof October 11, 2022 at 04:52 #747241
Reply to Nils Loc :clap: :sweat: That's life!
Agent Smith October 11, 2022 at 10:35 #747284
Reply to Nils Loc :lol: It's not over until the fat lady sings, oui mon ami?

Quoting 180 Proof
That's life!


No fair!

Are these the best of times? Are we all lucky folks? As an example, slavery is in the past and animal rights is in the future. We're at the cusp of a ethical revolution that though it's fragmented and chaotic is full of promise.
Sir2u October 12, 2022 at 00:03 #747527
Quoting Agent Smith
Are these the best of times? Are we all lucky folks? As an example, slavery is in the past and animal rights is in the future


No they are not, on still exists and the other will not get very far until humans evolve to be able to live on a different type of diet.
Agent Smith October 12, 2022 at 04:07 #747571
Quoting Sir2u
No they are not, on still exists and the other will not get very far until humans evolve to be able to live on a different type of diet


Ok. We can do better.
Nils Loc October 14, 2022 at 18:26 #748379
Quoting Agent Smith
It's not over until the fat lady sings, oui mon ami?


Unless you've seen this opera before, we can't assume that there is only one fat lady singing. If I was librettist, my opera might be composed of only fat ladies, singing for hours and hours and hours (perhaps days).
Agent Smith October 14, 2022 at 19:17 #748383
Quoting Nils Loc
Unless you've seen this opera before, we can't assume that there is only one fat lady singing. If I was librettist, my opera might be composed of only fat ladies, singing for hours and hours and hours (perhaps days).


:zip:
Agent Smith October 15, 2022 at 06:26 #748489
Is it true that everything happens for a reason?
Yohan October 15, 2022 at 09:32 #748507
Reply to Agent Smith
I remember on some older thread I tried to explain something @180 Proof had said about, I don't remember exactly. Ordinary vs extraordinary or something? Something like things are ordinary individually, and extraordinary all together. I had said that, eating a sandwich in itself is pretty ordinary, but if you think about everything that had to happen for the sandwich to come to be, and what had to happen for you to be able to be there to eat it, it is extraordinary.

Meaning is the opposite. Individually things have meaning. Eating a sandwich is meaningful when you are hungry or desiring pleasure. But compared to infinitely, every limited meaning loses its meaning.

Its interesting that we should want meaning, when meaning is limiting.
Consider if we combined all meanings of words together. It would lead perhaps to "all meaning" which has no meaning.
Its like how if you combine all colors you have no color: White

Within the web of life, everything is interconnected, nothing to chance. So everything in the context of the web of life is full of meaning. Outside of life there is obviously no meaning, for there is no consciousness to create it.

Yohan October 15, 2022 at 10:21 #748513
Everything having meaning and everything having a reason are separate questions so I was far off the topic. Sorry amigo!
180 Proof October 15, 2022 at 15:31 #748585
Agent Smith October 15, 2022 at 16:08 #748591
Quoting 180 Proof
No


You get full marks for confidence, but what about the PSR (principle of sufficient reason)?
180 Proof October 15, 2022 at 16:33 #748602
Reply to Agent Smith I've been waiting for over four decades for someone to point to or cite an description of 'the sufficient reason for the PSR'. Since +99% of nature is vacuum consisting of random (i.e. a-causal) quantum fluctuations, to the extent the PSR obtains, it is an ex post facto mirage of epistemology (like 'intentionality') and not a feature (or bug) of fundamental ontology (pace Leibniz et al). Of course, I could be mistaken ... but then the question of "What is the PSR of random processes (e.g. vacuum fluctations, quantum uncertainty, spontaneous symmetry-breaking, etc)?" seems begged at least. :chin:

https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/693943

https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/720487
Agent Smith October 15, 2022 at 17:05 #748611
Reply to Yohan If everything happens for a reason then, everything is meaningful, oui mon ami?

Reply to 180 Proof

I get where you're coming from, but in my humble opinion the reason why x happens is to be found in the future (light cone) of x and not in the past (light cone). For instance John missed his plane because he was supposed to meet Jane, the woman he has to marry, on the next available flight. So, the reason for the random (acausal) origins of our universe will/can only be known when the universe meets its very own Jane so to speak.
180 Proof October 15, 2022 at 20:20 #748691
Reply to Agent Smith Never mind.
Agent Smith October 15, 2022 at 20:21 #748693
Quoting 180 Proof
Never mind.


:smile: Too much, eh?
Agent Smith October 16, 2022 at 04:10 #748801
What is luck anyway? Is it the name we give to the set of variables tha we have no control over or is it just a synonym for our blind spot? Sometimes these uncontrolled/unforseen factors can work in our favor (good luck) and at other times they foil the best of plans (bad luck).
180 Proof October 16, 2022 at 06:04 #748824
Sir2u November 16, 2022 at 22:56 #756892
I was asked to define luck by a workmate, this is what I came up with.

Luck is nothing more than the coincidence of time, place and purpose.

I am in the right place at the right time to catch a plane, I am lucky. Too late or wrong airport, I am unlucky.

I am in the wrong place at whatever time to find the treasure, I am unlucky
Agent Smith November 29, 2022 at 12:33 #759345
Reply to Sir2u Nice definition. Luck, to me, is, sensu latissimo, a conjunction of favorable (good luck) or unfavorable (bad luck) elements that have both short-term and long-term impact on one's life.