But is the “cause” willful, incidental, accidental or merely physical? A tree falls in the woods … because of gravity. Gravity is the “cause”, but there is no “will” present.

Everything we see in the universe can be best explained by a bottom up, purposeless chain of physical events – the big bang, star formation, planetary discs, weather, evolution. It’s all physical computation on an atomic substrate – a vast Babbage engine. If some small part of the greater pattern is intelligible to humans it’s because it was in our evolutionary best interest to be smarter than the hyenas, wolves and big cats. Dogs understand cause and effect, but we understand it better.

I kick myself every day for not having saved the link, but I saw a speech given by a cellular automata researcher. He created little worlds every day. Sometimes he gave them purpose, sometimes not. But even in the worlds where he gave no purpose to the creatures, a purpose arose – reproduction. This un-created purpose arose out of the “rules” of the universe in which the little life forms found themselves. The scientist did nothing to create the purpose. Coincidentally, reproduction seems to be the sole (first) purpose in this universe, since all works of art and beauty are for naught if there is no one around in 100 years to observe and enjoy them.

As I see it, there are only two possible explanations: Jefferson’s Deism or a physical mechanism by which universes can spawn randomly. I give Deism less than 1% odds, simply because every other observable process is a physical mechanism. I don’t know what causes big bangs, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out one day.

Oh, and Richard? Have filet mignon more often. It’s awesome.