Intermittent Faults and Consciousness

I do love the Koleje Mazowieckie app on my phone. It allows me to buy my train ticket to town in less than a minute, often while on the platform of Chynów station, with the lights of the approaching train in the distance. 

But for all the convenience it offers, the app isn't perfect. Sometimes, I tap the icon, and the app opens, but I can't do anything in it. It just opens - and freezes. Now, I find I can forestall this eventuality merely by thinking about it. But if, in my hurry to buy the ticket before the train pulls into the station, I automatically tap the icon while thinking about something else - then it malfunctions. I curse, close it, reopen it, and this time - magically - it works. Every time.

The same phenomenon for my online banking card-reader - pop in the card, press the button - and I get an error message. Unless I think for a second - will there be an error message? After processing that thought, the card reader comes to life and the transaction goes through without any problem.

My mornings all start with the coffee-making ritual. The Bialetti goes on the gas hob; I press the ignition knob to spark the flame. 'Click-click-click-click' - if I'm not thinking about what I'm doing, the flame goes out as soon as I release the knob. If I am aware, however, the flame catches after a few clicks.

Intermittent faults can be maddening - there seems to be no causal link between action and outcome - it seems utterly random. You know the thing - there's something wrong with your car, you take it to the garage, and the mechanic can't replicate the fault. He says all's well - you're driving it home... and there it is again.

Can focusing on the outcome change the outcome? Am I able to avoid the malfunction by thinking about it? This is nothing new. I remember from youth, pouring surplus boiled water into the stainless-steel kitchen sink, for example, if I did this without thinking, the sink would 'pop' loudly. Paying attention to what I was doing - it didn't. (Here's more about this phenomenon - from 2009).

Today - another day when hot and humid weather persuaded me to postpone my walk until after nightfall. I set off. Did I consider the possibility that it might just rain? I did not (my subconscious Bayesian inference was that if it hadn't rained for the past three evenings, it won't today). And just as I got into Sułkowice, with 6,000 paces on the clock and another 6,000 to get home - it started to rain. Heavily. No problem... I checked the train app. There's a train due in just over half an hour. I'll buy a beer and packet of crisps and wait it out in the shelter in Sułkowice station. So I bought the beer and crisps, sat down out of the rain, checked the app... the train was showing a five minute delay. I hadn't counted on that. It stretched out... the train finally arrived 12 minutes late. I got off at Chynów; on the platform, no rain. But as soon as I walked through the underground passage between platforms, I could hear the rain start to hammer down again on the station roof. And I take a soaking on the 12-minute journey home.

After writing the bulk of this post before my walk, I feel as though as the Cosmos is trying to reinforce this message - should you overlook a possibility, the chances that it will happen become greater than they would have been had you consciously considered it.

Rational materialists will be quick to debunk. I'm sure that when aware of a potential pop from the sink, I'd pour the boiling water just slightly more slowly; enough of a difference not to make the thermal shock so great as to cause rapid expansion of the steel. That I can say. But as for the apps, or the rain, or the delayed train... please, accept the mystery.

I feel that certain aspects of the nature of the Universe are not yet ready to reveal themselves to us. Can we train ourselves to will the outcome?

This time last year:
The Epigenetics of Thrift

This time three years ago:
Between Warka and Radom - Bartodzieje

This time five years ago:
Purpose

This time six years ago:
Dreamscapy

This time eight years ago:
Sad farewell to Lila the cat

This time nine years ago:
Your papers are in order, Panie Dembinski!

This time ten years ago:
Topiary garden by the Vistula

This time 12 years ago:
Raymond's Treasure - a short story (Part II)