There is a difference between looking for a type of thing, such as blueberries or gaps in the trees that provide a view, and a specific thing, such as car keys. The specific thing can only be in one place, and the likelihood of any given place might turn out to be entirely irrelevant. The searching is frustrating.
I swear there was an alternative-world scenario by Borges in which your keys would actually be 20% in one place, 15% in another, so that you could eventually get up to a good enough percentage to make them usable. I can't find it. Perhaps I made up the idea myself and only thought that Borges would be the correct person to write it up.
I'd think one side effect would be that the door you think is open has a probability of actually being shut when you try to walk through it.
ReplyDeleteThis is not quantum mechanics. You know where your keys are, you have just forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI find its useful to try to remember where they are, as opposed to just looking around.
I always just figure they'll be in the last place I look.
DeleteGeorge Gamow wrote several books trying to explain various science concepts. One was made into a movie; I haven't seen it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIKOFLRQuc8 Unfortunately he wasn't the world's greatest raconteur, but some of the explanatory scenes are memorable. Possibly Borges would have done better.
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