DATo
11-10-2014, 12:03 PM
Causality
by
DATo
causality (kô- ZAL- eh - tee)
noun
1 the relationship between cause and effect.
2 the principle that everything has a cause.
At the far end of a pool table a collection of brightly colored balls are set in a precise, triangular arrangement. A man stands at the opposite end of the table and before him on the dark green felt with which the table is covered rests a single white ball. In his hand he holds a long stick with a small pad affixed to its tip.
In a factory in Seoul, Korea, Kim Tong-heyon was at work assembling alarm clocks. Kim had assembled many different devices in his long career with his employer. He especially enjoyed the six months he had spent assembling bread toasters. The toasters were easy to assemble and he could quickly fill his daily quota, but he was smart enough to take his time. He learned long ago that filling one’s quota too soon only resulted in getting the quota raised. Alarm clocks, he determined, were far harder to assemble. There were many small components which had to be painstakingly put in place and secured with tiny screws. He had always been curious to know where all the devices he had assembled during his long career had eventually gone, for they were shipped for sale to all points of the globe.
Today Kim was distracted for he had argued with his wife the night before. Kim’s wife had been informed by her sister, who worked for a department store, that very expensive window curtains of impeccable quality would be going on sale where she worked, the very next morning, at a fifty percent reduction to the regular price. It was certain that the best patterns would be snatched up immediately as soon as the sale was announced over the store’s loudspeakers. By knowing of the sale in advance she had hoped to give her sister an edge which would place her sister in the housewares department when the sale was announced. When Kim’s wife had declared her intention of buying the curtains to her husband as they were seated at the dinner table he became very angry. Did his wife not know that there were far more important expenditures which required attention than her sudden, frivolous penchant for curtains? KIm was holding a partially assembled alarm clock in his hand. He had inserted the screw which held the alarm activation lever and had only partially tightened the screw - two turns - when it occurred to him that he should have reminded his wife of the new coat and shoes she had purchased only the week before. Why had he not thought of that during their argument? He placed the alarm clock back on the table in frustration - he had not completed the tightening of the screw.
If the man were to strike the white ball with the tip of the stick in a specific manner, and with great force, in the direction of the mass of balls at the other end of the table, the white ball could be made to roll, with great speed and force, to strike the other balls at the far end of the table.
In Indianapolis, Indiana, a year and seven months later, twenty-two year old Terry Halper dreamed that he was painting the front porch of his newly acquired, fix-er-up home. His pretty, young wife of fifteen months was bringing him lemonade in a large pitcher. In his dream Terry dutifully filled the paint bucket with lemonade and began to paint where he had left off. "Wait," he thought, "this cannot be. I shouldn’t be painting the porch with lemonade." This shocking manifestation of logic caused Terry to become somewhat alert. He was aware that it was night, that he was in bed, and that there was great likelihood that he could be dripping paint on the sheets and blankets of the bed. He felt for the paintbrush but it was gone. As he became more alert he realized that he had been dreaming and wondered what time it was. Would he be able to get more sleep or was the alarm about to go off, as it often did, just after he woke up? Terry turned his head to the night stand next to the bed to check the time which was illuminated by a small light bulb located within the clock. "Holy Jesus!" Terry thought, "It should have gone off a half-hour ago!" Terry was now immediately awake.
There would be no coffee, no shower, no toasted bagel. Terry would have to move smartly if he were to be able to clock in at work on time. The entire crew would be straggling in right about now and he had still to drive the twenty minutes to the machine shed. His crew was about to begin the digging of a new storm sewer for a subdivision being constructed on West Ralson Road. They weren’t going to get far without him because his job was to transport and operate the enormous backhoe necessary for the excavation. Terry hurriedly kissed his wife’s forehead, careful not to wake her and fairly ran out the back door. As he approached his pickup truck he noticed that the front tire was flat. He had known that the air pressure was low for a couple of days. Why hadn’t he topped it off? He repressed an urgent impulse to yell out loud. There wasn’t time for that. He ran back inside and took the keys to his wife’s Chevy Cobalt. He didn’t have time to write a note. She would see the truck in the driveway when she woke up as well as the flat tire and know what had happened.
The energy of the white ball will be absorbed by the first ball which it encounters in its flight across the table and then the energy would be translated to the other balls in the grouping. This would send the collection of colored balls flying, much like a chain reaction, in many different directions. Some balls will strike other balls as well as the edges of the table and bounce in a new directions. Some may fall into the holes arranged along the periphery of the table.
Kim Tong-heyon’s sister-in-law heard shouting as she approached Aisle 9 of the department store. A mother was scolding her six year old child for opening and spilling the contents of a bottle of bubble-blowing liquid in the toy section. Kim’s sister-in-law approached, smiled, and told the mother not to worry about it. Things like this often happened in the toy section. Children are always overly active when around so many toys. She then walked to the back of the store to get a mop intending to clean up the mess. As she passed the manager’s office she heard him say on the telephone, "The new curtains from India will be arriving today and I need to move our present stock to make room for them. I am going to discount the current display by fifty percent tomorrow morning. That should empty the shelves quickly."
If one knew in advance every variable at work in this event - the force with which the white ball was struck by the stick; the friction imposed by the felt the white ball was rolling on; the point on the surface of the white ball which was struck .... but no, we must probe further, we must include every possible variable ... the barometric pressure of the atmosphere in the room; the speed of rotation as well as the magnetic pull of the earth at the specific point in space at which the pool table rests; the temperature and humidity in the room when the white ball was struck; and virtually everything which could possibly affect the result - one would be able to predict in advance, and with categorical certainty, the exact position at which every ball would come to rest.
Terry Halper was making good time. He knew he would arrive at work later than normal but with enough time to clock in and even with perhaps a few minutes to spare. He hated the confined atmosphere of his wife’s car for he was used to driving his own spacious and stalwart Ford F-250 pickup truck. He smiled and tried to invent rebuttals in advance for the ribbing he was surely going to receive from his coworkers when he arrived in the sissy, girlie-car. On any other day he would have entered the intersection at about 5:40 AM but today he was entering it at 6:15 AM. Terry laughed aloud as the last thought of his life was born, "With your beer guts you wouldn’t be able to even fit behind the wheel of this car." Terry Halper entered an intersection a half hour late, long enough for the machinations of fate to decree that the driver of a speeding car approaching from his left would make the erroneous calculation that he could survive running a red light. The small car crumpled under the enormous impact like cardboard.
"Your home is so beautifully decorated. The curtains are simply perfect for this room."
"You cannot believe the fight I had to endure with my husband last year when I bought these curtains."
"Well, for once I can understand why a man would be so upset. They must have cost your husband a small fortune."
Kim’s wife leaned closer to her guest as she poured the tea and comically whispered, as if anyone could overhear, "You wouldn’t believe how little was the cost."
A child spilled a bottle of bubble blowing liquid.
The white ball, having completed its task, slowly comes to rest.
by
DATo
causality (kô- ZAL- eh - tee)
noun
1 the relationship between cause and effect.
2 the principle that everything has a cause.
At the far end of a pool table a collection of brightly colored balls are set in a precise, triangular arrangement. A man stands at the opposite end of the table and before him on the dark green felt with which the table is covered rests a single white ball. In his hand he holds a long stick with a small pad affixed to its tip.
In a factory in Seoul, Korea, Kim Tong-heyon was at work assembling alarm clocks. Kim had assembled many different devices in his long career with his employer. He especially enjoyed the six months he had spent assembling bread toasters. The toasters were easy to assemble and he could quickly fill his daily quota, but he was smart enough to take his time. He learned long ago that filling one’s quota too soon only resulted in getting the quota raised. Alarm clocks, he determined, were far harder to assemble. There were many small components which had to be painstakingly put in place and secured with tiny screws. He had always been curious to know where all the devices he had assembled during his long career had eventually gone, for they were shipped for sale to all points of the globe.
Today Kim was distracted for he had argued with his wife the night before. Kim’s wife had been informed by her sister, who worked for a department store, that very expensive window curtains of impeccable quality would be going on sale where she worked, the very next morning, at a fifty percent reduction to the regular price. It was certain that the best patterns would be snatched up immediately as soon as the sale was announced over the store’s loudspeakers. By knowing of the sale in advance she had hoped to give her sister an edge which would place her sister in the housewares department when the sale was announced. When Kim’s wife had declared her intention of buying the curtains to her husband as they were seated at the dinner table he became very angry. Did his wife not know that there were far more important expenditures which required attention than her sudden, frivolous penchant for curtains? KIm was holding a partially assembled alarm clock in his hand. He had inserted the screw which held the alarm activation lever and had only partially tightened the screw - two turns - when it occurred to him that he should have reminded his wife of the new coat and shoes she had purchased only the week before. Why had he not thought of that during their argument? He placed the alarm clock back on the table in frustration - he had not completed the tightening of the screw.
If the man were to strike the white ball with the tip of the stick in a specific manner, and with great force, in the direction of the mass of balls at the other end of the table, the white ball could be made to roll, with great speed and force, to strike the other balls at the far end of the table.
In Indianapolis, Indiana, a year and seven months later, twenty-two year old Terry Halper dreamed that he was painting the front porch of his newly acquired, fix-er-up home. His pretty, young wife of fifteen months was bringing him lemonade in a large pitcher. In his dream Terry dutifully filled the paint bucket with lemonade and began to paint where he had left off. "Wait," he thought, "this cannot be. I shouldn’t be painting the porch with lemonade." This shocking manifestation of logic caused Terry to become somewhat alert. He was aware that it was night, that he was in bed, and that there was great likelihood that he could be dripping paint on the sheets and blankets of the bed. He felt for the paintbrush but it was gone. As he became more alert he realized that he had been dreaming and wondered what time it was. Would he be able to get more sleep or was the alarm about to go off, as it often did, just after he woke up? Terry turned his head to the night stand next to the bed to check the time which was illuminated by a small light bulb located within the clock. "Holy Jesus!" Terry thought, "It should have gone off a half-hour ago!" Terry was now immediately awake.
There would be no coffee, no shower, no toasted bagel. Terry would have to move smartly if he were to be able to clock in at work on time. The entire crew would be straggling in right about now and he had still to drive the twenty minutes to the machine shed. His crew was about to begin the digging of a new storm sewer for a subdivision being constructed on West Ralson Road. They weren’t going to get far without him because his job was to transport and operate the enormous backhoe necessary for the excavation. Terry hurriedly kissed his wife’s forehead, careful not to wake her and fairly ran out the back door. As he approached his pickup truck he noticed that the front tire was flat. He had known that the air pressure was low for a couple of days. Why hadn’t he topped it off? He repressed an urgent impulse to yell out loud. There wasn’t time for that. He ran back inside and took the keys to his wife’s Chevy Cobalt. He didn’t have time to write a note. She would see the truck in the driveway when she woke up as well as the flat tire and know what had happened.
The energy of the white ball will be absorbed by the first ball which it encounters in its flight across the table and then the energy would be translated to the other balls in the grouping. This would send the collection of colored balls flying, much like a chain reaction, in many different directions. Some balls will strike other balls as well as the edges of the table and bounce in a new directions. Some may fall into the holes arranged along the periphery of the table.
Kim Tong-heyon’s sister-in-law heard shouting as she approached Aisle 9 of the department store. A mother was scolding her six year old child for opening and spilling the contents of a bottle of bubble-blowing liquid in the toy section. Kim’s sister-in-law approached, smiled, and told the mother not to worry about it. Things like this often happened in the toy section. Children are always overly active when around so many toys. She then walked to the back of the store to get a mop intending to clean up the mess. As she passed the manager’s office she heard him say on the telephone, "The new curtains from India will be arriving today and I need to move our present stock to make room for them. I am going to discount the current display by fifty percent tomorrow morning. That should empty the shelves quickly."
If one knew in advance every variable at work in this event - the force with which the white ball was struck by the stick; the friction imposed by the felt the white ball was rolling on; the point on the surface of the white ball which was struck .... but no, we must probe further, we must include every possible variable ... the barometric pressure of the atmosphere in the room; the speed of rotation as well as the magnetic pull of the earth at the specific point in space at which the pool table rests; the temperature and humidity in the room when the white ball was struck; and virtually everything which could possibly affect the result - one would be able to predict in advance, and with categorical certainty, the exact position at which every ball would come to rest.
Terry Halper was making good time. He knew he would arrive at work later than normal but with enough time to clock in and even with perhaps a few minutes to spare. He hated the confined atmosphere of his wife’s car for he was used to driving his own spacious and stalwart Ford F-250 pickup truck. He smiled and tried to invent rebuttals in advance for the ribbing he was surely going to receive from his coworkers when he arrived in the sissy, girlie-car. On any other day he would have entered the intersection at about 5:40 AM but today he was entering it at 6:15 AM. Terry laughed aloud as the last thought of his life was born, "With your beer guts you wouldn’t be able to even fit behind the wheel of this car." Terry Halper entered an intersection a half hour late, long enough for the machinations of fate to decree that the driver of a speeding car approaching from his left would make the erroneous calculation that he could survive running a red light. The small car crumpled under the enormous impact like cardboard.
"Your home is so beautifully decorated. The curtains are simply perfect for this room."
"You cannot believe the fight I had to endure with my husband last year when I bought these curtains."
"Well, for once I can understand why a man would be so upset. They must have cost your husband a small fortune."
Kim’s wife leaned closer to her guest as she poured the tea and comically whispered, as if anyone could overhear, "You wouldn’t believe how little was the cost."
A child spilled a bottle of bubble blowing liquid.
The white ball, having completed its task, slowly comes to rest.