Benjamin Cain
1 min readJan 22, 2022

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Rolling a die is a deterministic process. But with quantum mechanics, chaotic systems, and the spontaneous emergence of higher-level properties, we can speak of chance or accident to fill in the gaps of our deterministic understanding.

No one knows how exactly life began. Yes, it makes sense that after enough trial and error, the universe might create all possible combinations of matter and energy, including living ones. But chance and accidents (as in anomalous exceptions to norms) are part of that godless creative process. That's not a subjective observation.

I agree that natural creativity can be interpreted in different ways. What I'm saying is that a species that goes out of its way to transcend its niche and to organize an artificial one is implicitly disgusted with the wilderness. We can call that the civilized aesthetic reaction to nature. It's not just my choice since it's implicit in the wisdom and the artistry that distinguish Homo sapiens.

I know you'll emphasize how we spent hundreds of thousands of years as nomads in the wilderness. But that's precisely the trial and error process at work once again. It took chance to invent the foundations of civilization. It wasn't a smooth process, and there may have been conning and coercion involved.

At any rate, behaviourally modern humans are implicitly promethean or satanic in their hostility towards nature. Stone Age humans might not have known any better or they may not have had much choice but to stick with the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

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Benjamin Cain
Benjamin Cain

Written by Benjamin Cain

Ph.D. in philosophy / Knowledge condemns. Art redeems. / https://benjamincain.substack.com / https://ko-fi.com/benjamincain / benjamincain8@gmailDOTcom

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