Tuesday 19 June 2001

Pic of the day: My new electric razor, bought yesterday and charged up overnight. Braun. Not the best a man can get. But quick. (For those of less razor lore, Gillette has trademarked the slogan "The best a man can get", and you would not believe the ecchi comments this has engendered in the marketplace.)

Itland's razor

For now I need your hidden love,
I'm cold as a new razor blade.
You left when I told you I was curious,
I never said that I was brave!

Leonard Cohen, So long Marianne.

***

It is a strange thing with me: If I buy something that is not luxury, I feel like I have not bought it at all. This is a bit inbetween ... I don't feel like I've spent $80, but I have. I went to the Shop of Angels (not its real name) and stood looking at the goods for a long time until one of them came over and told me which razor he used himself. Of course, chances are that he gets them a bit cheaper. Still, it looks practical enough. And at least I won't lose a bus because I need ten minutes to shave. If all else fails, I can put it in my bag and shave at the office, though I would hope to avoid that. It is really loud.

But generally, wet shaves are my style. This has varied a little over the years. I think my first razor was an electric, and it lasted for many years. But I got the taste for wet shaving sometime in my late teens, I think. And when my last electric razor broke down soon after I threw away the warranty, I have wet shaved exclusively since. It is better for the skin, it gives a closer shave and a softer skin, and it takes longer time. And not least, it is no big investment to get a razor handle. It's the razor blades that cost, and those are bought only a few at a time so the cost is not noticed. But eventually I did notice.

This is so very much me, to pay a little all the time instead of paying a lot once. I prefer renting, leasing or part payments for whatever goods this is applicable. Even when it costs more in the long run, it doesn't feel that way. And I prefer to have regular expenses, rather than sometimes to have money and sometimes not.

***

The moustache is targeted now. With this equipment, it would take no more than a rash decision, and the lip rug would be gone like the memories of youth. This could easily happen: I originally grew a little fur on my face to look older. Back when I was 25 and still was asked "kid or adult?" at the bus. But over time, my youthful countenance has deserted me. From looking years younger than I was, now in a matter of three years I have more than caught up. The fur is no longer necessary by any stretch of the imagination.

So, more likely than not, the face bush has to go. True enough, an Old Friend once commented that now it wasn't Magnus without the moustache. Then again, perhaps it isn't Magnus anymore anyway.

***

For the more philosophically inclined, the most famous razor probably belongs to Occam (your spellage may vary, as this is back in old England or thereabout). Rather than shaving faces or legs, he shaved woolly theories by applying what became known as Occam's Razor: "Do not multiply entities beyond necessity." (You may know this one in Latin, much good it does you.)

Do not read further today if you have been plagued by religious worries or mental problems. Danger! Danger! Madness, death and destruction ahead!

Occam's Razor got a renaissance when atheists started to apply it to creation. Their logic goes like this:
Theory a: The universe has always been there, or spontaneously came into existence.
Theory b: The universe was created by God. God has always been there, or spontaneously came into existence.
None of the two theories solve the question of creation, as both rely on one entity to just handily be there as needed. But one theory has one entity more than another, while explaining no other phenomena. Occams Razor dictates that in this case, we shave off God and keep the universe.

Perhaps surprisingly, I agree with this. Surprisingly because I am a christian. Or unsurprisingly, because as a christian I believe that the proof for God is not the universe, but the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without that episode, the specific god mentioned by christianity is in much doubt. A lot of other gods would fit the bill, some of who are very far from our normal god concept.

The universe might for instance have evolved from earlier universes which give birth to new universes. Over time, the universes would be optimized for a higher reproduction rate. A universe might spontaneously create new universes through massive black holes, for instance, but the laws of nature in these baby universes would be unpredictable. They may not even have suitable natural laws to generate black holes themselves, and so would go extinct. It doesn't take much variation in gravity before a universe either collapses before it can reproduce, or gets so thinned out that few if any black holes appear. (Not to mention that there must be an overweight of either matter or antimatter, and this usually should not be since usually laws of nature are symmetric.)

However, a universe that by mere chance was optimized for intelligent life ... now that would be different. If intelligent life repeatedly came into existence, it might eventually reach a level where the sentient beings became able to harness cosmic phenomena. They would in fact probably want to do this, in order to ensure the rich sources of energy. Intelligent life being what it is, the thought would have to beset them: What if we could make new universes like our own? Even if we were not able to travel into them, they would still be monuments that would last virtually eternally. What if we could produce a universe that was even better suited for intelligent life than our own? And so the evolution of universes would take a strange new turn, being forever linked to the evolution of life. The more successful a universe was in creating and nurturing highly intelligent life, the more successful it would be in ensuring reproduction of new universes.

"A chicken is an egg's way of making more eggs", so evolutionists put it. In the same way, a god might be a universe's way of making more universes. Now that is a scary thought if there ever has been one, in the history of the universe.

No wonder I prefer a god who could feel hunger, sadness, fear ... and love. Lots and lots of love.

... I never said that I was brave ...

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Disclaimer: There is no proof that black holes may develop into new universes. Some cosmologists think so, many don't. So far the proponents of this hypothesis have been unable to convince the rest, either by observation or by maths.