The role of chance and contingency in life (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, January 19, 2015, 14:53 (3385 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

George:This article by Prof Alice Roberts may be of interest
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> > > http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/18/scientists-wrong-luck-cancer-genes-alice... > > 
> > > Randomness is useful - even necessary.
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> >David: Thank you for this article.I view this as a parallel to Gould's approach that everything is contingency, and that pure chance led to humans. I take an opposite view as you know. In this area of thought it is all opinion with nothing solid.
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> Tony: I think these scientist should, perhaps more than anyone, understand that the appearance of randomness is a far cry from the reality of randomness. > 
> That apparently random event was not random at all, it was the intersection of a million different choices spanning my entire life, and part of my mom's life before I was born. (How she developed HER love of music.) I don't believe in destiny, but just as destiny is an illusion, so is randomness.-In your explanation you have described a series of contingent choices. This means the pattern was directed by your desires. In Darwinian evolution, as a theory, chance plays a huge role. That is the randomness I was discussing. At your level of discussion, in my life, a world-famous cardiology professor approached me to be his research fellow. That was a chance event in my life. At that juncture I had several sub-specialty interests, and he did not know I had a strong attraction to cardiology. We knew each other but had never spoken about it. I accepted and never regretted it. I view it as a combination of random and directed. My life has been a series of these events.