I M Probulos.com

This is in response to feedback concerning my Amazon Kindle book, The Statistical Theory of Everything.

Note that the concept was originally coined by Isaac Asimov and grew from my research and work on the 12 Unthinkable Horrors of Human Existence. While some feel that viewing the world as a bell curve of events is obvious, most do not view it that way. I take a very deterministic, reductionist perspective and prefer to not feel that the universe, god, or “quantum forces” are concerned about me, interact with me, or a have a purpose for me. Believing this does not make me sad, but gives me great joy and purpose. Rather than accepting life as “it is what it is” I always strive to accept those events or people I cannot change and actively try to improve what I can. Yes, it is a call to action—as you call it. On a personal level, I just hate the phrase “it is what it is” as I don’t think it adds any additional information to the conversation. It doesn’t explain whether one has the ability to change what “it” is.

Concerning whether the human race could move every human being, or even significant populations to the right on the STE line for a given parameter, such as poverty, health, or equality, I believe we have made great strides over the last 10,000 years. Even with approximately a billion people living in poverty, lacking basic sanitation, electricity, running water and healthcare, there are now hundreds of millions of Chinese and Indian middle-class where none existed before. Also, the move could be virtually imperceptible or on a much smaller scale, for example, your local Boy’s Club versus the entire country of Somalia. Worldwide, the human race has made improvement in the rights of children, women, minorities, the handicapped and homosexuals.

Just fifty years ago John Wayne slaughtered American Indians with joy and impunity. Today that would be unthinkable. We are moving to the right of the STE line concerning social justice.

In my Freethought and Writing meetup groups, one of the participants often mentions that none of us will ever achieve anything noteworthy (a Pulitzer, Nobel prize, or NY Times bestseller) however, per the STE, I believe someone must achieve these goals—and it could be me. Many authors were flat broke (J. K. Rowling, who is now a billionaire) before they achieve success. Nelson Mandela was in jail for 27 years (!) and become a Nobel peace prize winner (1993) and President of South Africa. Yes, these unique, top ten out of seven billion events are what the STE predicts.

And publishing 20 Amazon Kindle books in one year, while working another job, is the type of positive activity that could make that improbable event happen. Believing “it ain’t going to happen” is not what keeps me writing—a belief that someone must be to the far right of the STE line, does. Establishing a sense of purpose to those (non-believers) most often associated with hedonistic, selfish and purposeless lives, is part of my mission and message.

This is not The Secret, or wishful thinking, or a belief that the “universe loves me and wants me to be successful.” I have to earn it and there is no supernatural “puppet master” determining my fate.

Two books that corroborate my thesis and also provide further insight are: The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, by Steven Pinker [Amazon link]

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond [amazon link]

The first book explains, in great detail, why we are better off now, and the second book explains why some societies are so much further technologically than others. Also, when you hear Pat Robertson declare that the poverty in Haiti is the result of a “pact with the devil” made hundreds of years earlier, the STE concept and rational, empirical research starts to look pretty good. I find the concept of punishment for “the sins of the father” horrible and not consistent with either a loving or omniscient deity. The poverty of nations such as Somalia and Haiti is consistent with the STE though. Those nations, by definition, must be there. But we should not give up hope that we can improve “the well-being” of individuals or nations.

If you want even further “out of the box” thinking, read my short novella, The Other God’s Earth [amazon link] for an alternate universes, with a different type of god, who incents the human race for their contribution to moving all living things to the right of the STE line.

Now, that is a deity, I could believe in. And, remember, belief in the STE means that someone must be the happiest, richest, healthiest, and most self-actualized.

Why not be you?

I. M. Probulos