Macrosoft
The recent sequence of catastrophic events in Japan should effectively silence the debate persisting in the deepest philosophical lairs of quantum physics. A dialectic tween the scholars representing the universal continuity of energy transferrence and those other elders intuitively understanding energy, particles, and matter to function in a discontinuous manner that cannot be foretold or even accurately measured from our sphere of reference. Mortal, finite beings we are, of course, not to be confused with the conductors of the cosmic symphony.
Without logistically regressing to the realm of astrophysics, suffice it to say that we are not even bit players in the cosmic drama unfolding around us as a matter of constancy. The tectonic plates are a living component of the planet, shifting as far toward immediate equilibria as is possible in finite time. They are a dynamic example of how catastrophic change is liable to be when unable to be predicted with any reasonable certainty by those whose entire cultures are contingent upon a static interpretation of time and space. What has been accustomed for generations of kindred folk may literally be instantaneously obliterated and catastrophically changed forever. The human mind's reliance upon continuity in it's cause-and-effect understanding of the physical realm did not prepare it for the discontinuous quantum motion exhibited by either extremely miniscule discrete particles or enormously gross particles. Thus, the prolonged and painfully pitiful demise of empiricism.
When the motion of a particle or particles cannot be substantially measured, in the sense of gaining any statistical certainty of motion or substance/position, it's present and future coordinates cannot be known or even reasonably predicted. In this sense, it is "soft", not possessing a continuous nor measurable form or position, being subject to imperceiveabilities and not clearly able to be defined. Just as in the realm of the subatomic particle, so with the macrosphere.
The Darwinian conception of time is envisaged as slow, gradual, and continuous Newtonian progression of geological cause and effect culminating in the process of natural selection, which favours the proliferation of species that are suited to adapt to the environmental conditions present.
Velikovsky, on the other hand, conceived of time as a discontinuous function which, at times, moved in an unpredictable and catastrophic manner. Evolution of biology on this planet has been dictated by sudden and tumultuous change due to celestial events beyond our understanding or tectonic activity beyond our predictive capability. Biology is left to adapt to the quantum-type shifts in environmental conditions if it has any hope of survival.
Darwin might have explained away the extinction of the dinosaurs as a process that unfolded in a continuous manner, with the terrible lizards dying out in gradual sequence as they were unable to adapt to or survive the ever changing environmental conditons which were largely a function of geological process and time.
Velikovsky would have explained the extinction of the dinosaurs as a sudden event, the beasts unable to survive the harsh conditions created by the catastrophic impact of a large extra-terrestrial body which would have changed the entire composition, temperature, and activity of both the troposhere and lithosphere on this planet.
The ancients would have interpreted such violent celestial and tectonic phenomena as a function of Yahweh, or some other divinity having chosen to reprimand humankind. The modern scientific mind has substituted empiricism for mysticism, yet faces the same dilemna: the inability to accurately foresee and predict catastrophic change. Indeed, it may be a necessary function of existence that those intelligently engaged may be blind to the very forces to which they are contingent upon.
As time draws closer to the end game for our species, we may ask ourselves what good are the sciences upon which we rely if they cannot protect us from impending doom. If the predictive quality of the empirical sciences is limited to the laboratory or the controlled confines of our sphere of reference, then how are we to prepare for the next mass extinction event which will undoubtedly involve our own species? This mass extinction event may or may not be precipitated by our own actions / insults against the biosphere, but one thing is sure. The angel of death will not announce its arrival months in advance, it will come as a thief in the night.
Silent and sudden.
Perhaps piety to Yahweh will prevent this catastrophe, you ask?
We cannot hide behind religion, science, nor technology.
Just like a bad trend that has overstayed its novelty, we will be discontinued.
Yahweh will not warn nor spare us in our entirety.
Death is too good for us, He wants to watch us suffer ...
