The first law of motion

The future is imprinted in human genes. Much of what humans do have to do with the future and preparing for it. Intelligence is a predictive sensibility. The mind processes cues in the present and calculates what will happen in the future as a result of those cues.

The human reaction to these calculations drives the person both at the rational and emotional level. The human behaves accordingly.

Doomsday prophecies and post-apocalyptic narratives have driven the human imagination for the past century. The period of the Renaissance was driven by the quest for discovery and conquest. Modern times was driven by the urge towards individualism and liberation. The present age is driven by the fear of our collective doom; if not by nuclear annihilation then by global warming and climate change.

There is a prevalent fear of death leading to the dream of the universal panacea, the perfect cure, the wonder drug, the thing that would make us live forever, the fountain of youth; Consequently also, the urge to salvation if not the dream of escape. It is the driving force which moves our everyday lives. And we feel it best when we are left alone to wonder: How much time do we really have? How have we used it in the past? How should we use it from hereon?

Newton’s first law of motion states: An object at rest remains at rest, an object in motion remains in motion unless an outside force acts upon it. And so we find ourselves here, caught somewhat inside the inertia of our everyday lives; in a sense, waiting, even yearning for that “outside force” to come into our lives to shake things up a little. How big, that outside force is determines also how far we will be moved. Or so we think.

But this is not to say our everyday realities are at all awful. The pay is good. The work, not bad. And things could always get better, could they not? And we are helping others just by being here and doing it. We are ensuring not just our future but also the future of those we love. We are not suffering, are we? If this is all we will ever do for the rest of our lives, well, we can live with that.

We are sure of it. This is our equilibrium, our homeostasis. We are objects at rest.

But then comes the human capacity to dream. How different would the world be if Newton were a writer of pulp how-to books and lists? What if his first law was thus written: The object at rest dreams of motion, the object in motion dreams of rest, and soon the object longs for some outside force to act upon it and thus find its dreams fulfilled?

There is the future. One cannot argue with that. But then, there is also the present. And often we lose sight of it. We lose sight of it not for any shortcoming of the imagination. We lose sight of it more importantly because life is always easier that way. It is simple inertia. Simple human nature.

And then we gaze into the window, the hills in the distance, the deep blue sky, the world out there, somewhere. There, the door. We think: the throw of the dice, chaos. We think: the mysterious possibilities of the unknown, the unpredictable, the random. There is the road. We think: disequilibrium, acceleration. We wonder: What if?

Our choice! we reassure ourselves. We are done with today’s work. From where we sit, 49 steps to the motorcycle. Only 20 to the sofa and the television. The future.