Jimbo’s Assumption Why Now?

The immediate reason was to mark the arrival of a grandchild. Maybe in ten or more years, she’ll read the work, assuming book readers still exist by then.

A deeper reason is as a reaction to the sad times we are enduring. Solace exists in the deeds of our forebears, some ancient, others recent.

“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.”

Professor Hawking

The insights of Professor Hawking are consoling:

“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.”

Free will and choices

Despite a world afflicted by rising sea levels, debt, and conflict, infested with autocrats, wannabe dictators, and some outright monsters, it’s important to recognise that many of us enjoy free will, the capacity to make choices and do the right thing. Our human history is populated by such notables: sacrificing, signalling empathy, creating beauty, and offering ingenuity. Cleverness is the trait that will save us if anything can. We depend utterly on science and a succession of scientific ideas.

Celebrating our better part

To celebrate our better part, I composed Jimbo’s Assumption, referencing a few of the professor’s antecedents: an ageless computer contemplates our recent 100k years, a mere blink of a galactic eye, pondering 50 wizards from Hero to Maxwell and beyond, accompanied by an engineering student while he dreams. From Newtonian mechanics via the Carnot cycle to wine coolers and corkscrews, refrigerators and ring-pull beer cans, fruits of our genius and perseverance.

Humour

Humour exists. Uncommon in the galaxy.