Tori Alexander: "...Coincidences are really a lot of fun,
if you let them be coincidences. Take another look at Nabokov's writings
on mimicry with this in mind and he'll make you laugh. It's hysterical,
really, the jokes that nature can play on us. Nabokov got the joke!*
JM: I loved Laura Buxton's "red balloon story"
and other reports about coincidences.Some of the commentaries from the
site follow Arthur Koestler's observations in his book "The Roots
of Coincidence." - namely, that statistically predictable events touch
people differently when examined at an individual level: some enjoy the
joke while others see it as a signal or a blessing. I suppose Nabokov
was affected in both ways and selected humor when he, as an author,
played God...
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*V.A added: "Your comment is spot on" [...] "It's
interesting to note that...scientists argue using probability theory that such
coincidences are to be expected to occur every so often, and it is just a
coincidence, remarkable though it may seem and no other explanation is
necessary. NeoDarwinists, in contrast to these scientists who do
appreciate the jokes that chance plays on us, believe that the coincidence that
one butterfly might look like another needs an explanation. (This is
not very remarkable, since all butterflies share a common wing "groundplan" that
can only be altered within limits.) NeoDarwinists suppose that predators
gradually (more or less) select for more similar forms and so "create" the
mimicry...While butterfly prey may select for a similar form once it is in
existence, natural selection is not needed to explain how it arose in the first
place. It arises by a fairly likely chance."
JM: Spot on! ...an interesting choice of wording
- because it came from you.
I began, at last, to understand one of
the NeoDarwinistic readings of natural selection, set in contrast
to other scientist's views on the effects of chance. One must
now reconsider Einstein's exasperated comment "God does
not play dice" and Mallarmé's preface about "Un Coup de Dés
jamais n'abolira le hasard." Thanks.