Translations:Dahr/3/en

The dream Satih interpreted for the Yemeni king foretold the annexation of his land by the Aksumite Empire, their later expulsion, and the coming of Islam. Today we have equations that let us calculate the motion of a pendulum and the trajectories of the planets. These equations have been tested and confirmed time and time again, and they allow us to calculate the movements of every object in the universe, given enough information about their past. This means that any universe that started in the same state as ours 14 billion years ago, with all of the particles in the same exact positions, would have eventually given rise to you reading this and me having posted it. And it also means that as you contemplate a difficult decision, there is really only one possible outcome. You are no more free to choose otherwise than water is to flow uphill. You can either see this as liberating and comforting, or as hopeless and damning.