Life Is Random

You know this, right? You know that life is so full of random forces, encounters, and events that we may as well just summarize the situation by stating plainly that "life is random". Starting right from when a specific random sperm met a specific random egg. Oh, we do try to exert free will, but if you are strong believer in the impact of these exertions, I encourage you to read the neuroscientist, Robert Sapolsky.

You pause a moment and double-check the blog URL. 

Yes, you're still on https://whiskycabinet.blogspot.com/, not https://philosophywanker.blogspot.com/.

Patience, grasshopper.

But whisky selection is surely not random, you say. The tasting themes The Cabinet so artfully crafts six times a year are clearly the product of deepest thought and learned consideration, are they not? I'm glad you think so. I'm glad that you are comforted by this illusion. But the truth is - sensitive readers may wish to skip ahead to the next paragraph - most of the time it's a last minute inspiration pulled out of the air. A whim. And what is a whim but the random sparking of a neuron. I apologize if I have disappointed anyone with this revelation.

So we decided to celebrate the true nature of life and strip the artifice away from the process. Our many whiskies were written on slips of paper and placed in a hat. A Laphroaig hat, no less. (Although, as you'll see, this had no impact on the outcome.) The hat was given a shake. The slips were given a stir. Random drinking began.

1: Bruichladdich Organic 2010.

2: The King's Inch.

3: Ardbeg An Oa

4: Deveron 12 year old.

We were delighted. These are not all stellar malts (for the record, the favourite was the Ardbeg, and the least favourite, the Deveron - no surprises there), but the process of serendipity and surprise was very enjoyable.

Those of you with sharp memories will have noticed that two of these random selections appeared at the last meeting, despite there being about 40 to choose from. This, dear reader, is what is known as Poisson Clumping. No, it has nothing to do with fish. It is named for the French mathematician who first described how random events will tend to cluster. An even distribution is the opposite of random. That's how you can get heads on six coin tosses and it's still random. Or pick An Oa and King's Inch just a couple months after they were last sampled. 

So that's 60% philosophy, 25% mathematics, and only 15% whisky description. I hope the photographs make up for it. And if not, just think of the blog as random too. 

Slainte!

Since you made this far, I have a bonus quiz question for you. Which photo in this post was not taken by the Official Photographer to The Cabinet?