| Home | Candide Liebniz asserted, “This is the best of all possible worlds.” Voltaire satirized Liebniz in his story Candide. In the story Dr. Pangloss teaches that, “All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.” Of course, every possible misfortune happens to the characters in the story. Still Pangloss insists this is the truth. The physicist Freeman Dyson isn’t so sure but he does say, “This is the most interesting of all possible universes.” Among other things, Dyson finds it interesting that particles seem to have a mind and make choices. At my advanced age I have seen many interesting things. One of the things I dislike about getting older is I am going to miss so many interesting and wonderful things in the future. I really envy kids who will be around to see what’s happening 50 or 100 years from now. Of course children have little comprehension of all the almost magical technological advances that surround them. They just take them for granted. One list I saw put the humble TV Dinner at the top. Saying that it, along with the microwave had revolutionized family life. Of course there is the Internet, and my granddaughter can’t imagine not having instant messaging. Don’t forget pocket calculators and compact disks. What kids can’t comprehend is how inexpensive this technology is. 75 years ago a phonograph record with 3 minutes of music would cost 2 days pay. 35 years ago my father-in-law bought a Sony handheld radio that cost over $100 an was not as good as one you can find at ‘99 Cents Only.’ When I was a kid we lived on a farm and had no running water, indoor
plumbing or electricity. We thought we were middle-class because we
had a library of several hundred books and a set of Brittanicas. And
yes, we were happy! Today we are surrounded by all this technology and
as long as we don’t focus on world events we are still happy.
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