Philosophy 101

Course Title: Knowledge and Reality

Syllabus:
Class 1 – Socrates only knew that he knew nothing. We don’t even know that.
Class 2 – Reality doesn’t exist. Prove it.
Class 3 – Is there a God? What’s the negation of “An existent God exists?” And what about Tinkerbell?
Class 4 – Observation is useless, intuition lies, reason is unreliable, science is pointless. Have fun with those chem sets.
Class 5 – There is no free will, no consciousness, and your essay is due. Alternatively, prove it’s not your fault you didn’t turn it is, as your zombie has been attending class up to this point.

Will’s one-liners:

“So there’s this cosmic background radiation, right, which supposedly can give us all the information about all particles some time after the big bang. So we just plug it in and solve for the universe…”

“Okay, I’m not condoning this kind of experimentation, but let’s just say you have a baby on an acid trip…”

“It’s just like that ride in Disneyland!”

* * *

And in unrelated quotation:

- “I’ve never seen you away from your whiteboard.”
- “Yeah, I’m using it a lot this year. Scratch work. I forgot to buy paper.”

 

I just lost The Game again.

The classes here are, of course, harder than anything I encountered in high school. By far, by far. Other people seem to have remarkably more knowledge coming in than I do, and working the first “Review” problem sets is agony in which I feel like I am mooching much more knowledge from my friends than I am actually contributing.

Fortunately, when queried pretty much everyone here gives that same response. So I’m not that worried. PASS/FAIL, right?  Right?

Other things of note: everyone here speaks French.

* * *

In a discussion on dreams of death and dying:

“Once, I dreamed that I was dead, but they made a special exception so that I could finish my Calculus class.

People kept asking me where I lived, and I said, well no, I didn’t.”

 

Home from frosh camp,

but still a prefrosh, at least until after Rotation. Or so many, many people have insisted. Nomenclature is important here.

Just my fourth day at Caltech, and already I’m procrastinating an assignment (the WAFT makeup writing test) in favor of mandatory activities, desserts, and socialization. Plus there’s livejournal, and Daily Show and House episodes to catch up on, and of course this blog. In a week or two, I know staying current on these things will be ancient history, but hey. The Fleming Cannon hasn’t fired yet. I can have my diversions.

Frosh camp is over, and there were some definite highlights. I…

…danced until 12:20 in the morning. I assume the dancing continued after that, but it was over for me. First school dance I think I’ve willingly danced at. Yay socially awkward, yay!

…learned that all at Caltech is not glowsticks and bonfires, but at least some of it is.

…practiced essential study habits such as teamwork (Iraq is dynamite, BOOM!), creativity, willingness to get one’s feet wet and/or sandy, and ability to chug orange soda (a skill that I can claim.)

…had AP test flashbacks.

…assisted in building an aquatic vehicle out of assorted parts. And when I say assisted, I mean I made the little pirate flag.

…lost my high school sweatshirt. Will have to buy a Caltech sweatshirt here. Symbolism, n’est-ce pas?

* * *

Quote of the Day, at the Avery RA’s Apartment Dessert Reception:

“Yeah, so I figure I’m going to graduate from Caltech, make 100,000 dollars a year, and live under a bridge.”

“A bridge that you designed.”