Skip to content
quotesby

It's the fault of those physicists and that synchronicity theory, every particle being connected with every other; you can't fart without changing the balance in the universe. It makes living a funny joke with nobody around to laugh. I open a book and get a report on future events that even God would like to file and forget. And who am I? The wrong person; I can tell you that.

Philip Kindred Dick#16

LifeScienceCosmosMeaningExistentialismFateIsolationPhysics

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker feels overwhelmed by cosmic interconnectedness and the absurdity of existence, seeing themselves as insignificant in a vast, unresponsive universe.
In plain terms
Everything is connected so much that even small actions matter, making life feel like a joke with no one to share it.
What can you take from it?
Cosmic scale can make personal identity feel trivial.

Where it applies

  • philosophical contemplation
  • existential crisis
  • scientific wonder

Putting it to work

  • reflect on personal significance
  • study physics theories
  • journal feelings

Questions to consider

  • What makes life feel real to you?
  • Does connection bring comfort or burden?

Another view

It assumes the universe lacks any form of response or meaning.

More from Philip Kindred Dick

  1. Whom the gods notice they destroy. Be small...and you will escape the jealousy of the great.

    Permalink to quote #15
  2. Can anyone alter fate? All of us combined...or one great figure...or someone strategically placed, who happens to be in the right spot. Chance. Accident. And o…

    Permalink to quote #17
  3. (Insanity) is not hubris, not pride; it is inflation of the ego to its ultimate - confusion between him who worships and that which is worshipped. Man has not …

    Permalink to quote #14

Related quotes

  1. I think, ofttimes, that lives of men may be Likened to wandering winds that come and go Not knowing whence they rise, whither they blow O'er the vast globe, vo…

    Paul Hamilton HaynePaul Hamilton Hayne quote #1
  2. Many people would claim that the boundary conditions are not part of physics but belong to metaphysics or religion. They would claim that nature had complete f…

    Stephen HawkingStephen Hawking quote #1
  3. When I investigate and when I discover that the forces of the heavens and the planets are within ourselves, then truly I seem to be living among the gods.

    Leone Battista AlbertiLeone Battista Alberti quote #2