Sophist: The odds of something like chalk falling up are nowhere near close to once or twice in a sun’s lifetime. Think of it this way. There are on the order of 1022 particles in a piece of chalk. For chalk to fall up, every single one of these particles would have to disobey the law of gravity at the same time. I don’t know how likely that is, but I would wager that it’s quite small. So, if the odds of them each doing this is independent of each other, a rough approximation is going to be on the order of
ε1022
where ε is the probability of any one particle doing so. Even if this parameter is a 50-50 chance, this is a stupidly low probability and will, for all intents and purposes, never occur.
Anyhow, to Nattie: it might be interesting to read some Douglas Hofstadter if you’re curious for views on how consciousness can arise as an emergent effect. I realize that this is a different topic, but if people are insisting that consciousness affects nature in a weird way, you not only have to ask what this weird way is, but also what consciousness is.
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