The physicist Richard Feynman used to make a joke36 about a posteriori conclusions – reasoning from known facts back to possible causes. 'You know, the most amazing thing happened to me tonight,' he would say. 'I saw a car with the licence plate ARW 357. Can you imagine? Of all the millions of licence plates in the state, what was the chance that I would see that particular one tonight? Amazing!' His point, of course, is that it is easy to make any banal situation seem extraordinary if you treat it as fateful.
Richard Feynman humorously illustrated the concept of a posteriori reasoning through a personal anecdote about seeing a car with an unusual license plate. By highlighting the coincidence of encountering the specific plate ARW 357 among millions, he emphasized how people often perceive ordinary events as extraordinary by attributing deeper significance to them. This playful commentary reveals the potential human tendency to seek patterns and meaning in randomness.
Feynman's jest underscores the idea that what might appear remarkable can sometimes be explained by simple chance. In the context of Bryson's book, this reflection serves to remind readers that the extraordinary can often be rooted in mundane occurrences when we impose our narratives upon them. Ultimately, it invites a more critical perspective on how we interpret and assign meaning to the world around us.
