Week Two Assignments - Quantum Mechanics

On Uncertainty:
As a student of metaphysical thought since early adolescence, I find that the idea of uncertainty does not in any way make me uncomfortable. I actually find that I resist the idea of certainty more often than not; for instance I find that in any of my examinations of interpersonal behavior, I spend a great deal of time wondering about the many different circumstances in another’s life which lead them to a particular place in time and hence to a particular way of behaving/being. Because of this, I find it difficult to classify a person’s behavior as being due to anything certain, or any one thing which may have been a part of their experience – and because of this I also acknowledge that there are so many variables in another’s experience that I could never know or even understand or appreciate – due to my own personal and specific life experiences - and so the examination is by definition, uncertain.
On Causality:
I found the idea that in quantum particle experiments, that the intention or thought of the experimenter has a direct affect on the experiment itself to be totally fascinating and a little mind blowing. I do know from my own personal experience that intention is a crucial element in much of my own spiritual practice; and I have suspected for some time that intention is also a driving force in the world all around us as well – but to find that there is scientific thought which examines this phenomena was news to me.
I guess a good example from my own life which illustrates my understanding of the concept, at least in a very rough sense, would be a time some years ago when I had a car in the shop for repairs – and which I had to leave at the mechanic’s overnight. My mother happened to drive by the shop after hours, and saw my car sitting outside in the lot – and she called me worrying that my car was not safe outside and then she spent the rest of the night obsessively worrying that something would happen to it. In the morning I got a phone call from the shop, telling me that my car had been broken into overnight…..(as a result I often go to great lengths to keep information of that sort out of my mother’s radar). J
Is the Universe Weird?
This is a really interesting question. I looked up the definition of “weird”, just to make sure that there weren’t any different definitions of a scientific nature that I didn’t know about, and the first thing that came up was that the word relates to the supernatural. What I am finding so far in this course, is that an understanding of these principles does seem to involve a certain amount of ability to also understand the supernatural; and I have found in my own life and spiritual studies that the supernatural plays a big part as well. I also found a reference to the “Weird Sisters”, or another spelling would be “Wyrd Sisters”, which is the representation of a triple goddess from Norse tradition, also known as the Norns, or the Fates; Urd/Past, Verdandi/Present, Skuld/Future. It sometimes seems to me that the ancient world and its peoples had a pretty good understanding of how everything works, even without our modern scientific minds.