Max Hawkins suddenly realized that his life dream of working at Google, living in San Francisco and have pleasant weekends with his family in the countryside lacked something: personal autonomy. Despite having fit his life almost exactly to his preferences, he felt trapped. In response, he decided to outsource his decisions and choices to a randomized algorithm he built, Flukes. He wanted a “differently predictable” life. Weeks went by and after the initial excitement of exploring local pockets of surprise, he started getting an increasing sense of anxiety, stress and loss of control. Max failed to get a simple basic element of his life: causation in complex systems. We tend to think about cause and effect as A causes B. In reality, it is always a set of things happening (or not happening) that cause another set of things to happen (or not happen). Flukes still generates randomized clothes and meal selections. Sushi on foie gras for dinner.

A mix by

Flukes

Quale is commonly defined as the subjective aspect of a sensation. For all of us, the world and everything that happens in it is experienced subjectively. In quantum theory each quantum is a tiny chunk of energy. In subjective experience, each tiny chunk of unitary experience is a qualia (pl of quale). Qualia are units of perception, and reality is a perceptual collage. The redness of a rose is subjective and your willingness to believe something is influenced by how much you want and need that to be true. “Until we know we are wrong, being wrong feels exactly like being right.” The universe is evolving but in what direction? And is there a way to agree on that? No. When there’s an absence of perfect information, emotion, passion, and tribal identity fill the void.

Quale

In a world of abundance, scarcity is bliss. An hour or so of pure groove, roaming from new releases to all-time fav, from electronic to rock’n’roll, hip-hop, funk and soul, cutting out through noise and the “I liked it before it was cool”. Bonus package: some words in there may even resonate. Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

Brus_Wayne