They sat upon grass mats in one of the cottages over cups of pale green tea. Yuki sat beside Blair, and her shoulder touched him now and then. When this happened he found it difficult to concentrate on what Naito was saying.
"Your western science," said Naito, "is only beginning to learn what we know. And from a totally different viewpoint. Your Dr. Norbert Wiener has beautifully clarified the essential fallacy of the Newtonian viewpoint, that nature acts and reacts according to rigid laws. He shows, instead, that it is highly probable nature will do this. Probable enough so that for everyday purposes one may depend on it. Do you follow me, Mr. Blair?"
"I'm afraid I'm not very much up on my science."
"Well, I'm trying to explain it in terms a westerner will understand. You saw a quantity of water run uphill. It was not an illusion, Mr. Blair. It is highly probable that water will not run uphill, but it is also possible that, under certain circumstances, it may. And as for the balloon—tell me, why does gas exert equal pressure in every direction?"
"I'm sure I don't know."
"But you must remember, surely. The molecules of a gas fly about in random directions. They exert force upon the walls of any container the gas happens to be in. Entropy—or the universal tendency toward disorder that Wiener speaks of—keeps an average of them exerting force in all directions. So the pressure remains equal in all directions, and we can measure it, and be certain, reasonably certain, that the next man who measures it will get the same result."
"I remember Boyle's law."
"Exactly. And Boyle's law, or Ohm's laws, or Newton's laws, or anyone else's laws are based on probability—nearly overwhelming probability. But what happens in the rare, almost unthinkable case where every factor does not act according to the most pragmatic law of all—the law of averages?"
"We're getting way up in the clouds now," said Blair.
"Please try to see it."