(Grampa is napping in his armchair. William, Ayla, Abbey, Mira, Liam, and Josh all come tramping through the door without knocking.)

Grampa: (waking up, yawning) We’re going to need a bigger boat.

Liam: That’s a line from “Jaws”.

Grampa: Well, it happens to fit right now.

Ayla: If you want, some of us can go to Taco Del Mar for lunch. I guess we should have called to warn you.

Grampa: Not at all. I’m just kidding. A small boat is a cozy boat. There’s lots of chili the freezer. It’ll just take a while to microwave.

Abbey: I’ll start on doing that. These philosophical arguments drag on too much for my enjoyment, anyway.

Grampa: Thank you, Abbey. You try to give us what we need right here and now.

Liam: “Jesus Christ Superstar” allusion. Well, you don’t do that by accident.

Grampa: Alright. That’s true. But Will, Josh …you look impatient already.

Will: We are. What’s the other value or value set that is founded in the physical world? And why does your case for the realness of values make you believe in God. Most of our parents think all forms of theism are a lot of hooey.

Grampa: That’s for sure. But you guys …you’re not that jaded yet.

Josh: But to the quick of the ulcer, as you say. What is the other fact of reality that you think impacts and shapes and …informs, that’s the word …how our values and our cultures have evolved. Let’s just fasten our attention on that.

Grampa: Fastening like a pit bull. Alright. In a few words, quantum uncertainty is a fact of reality, but it means for ordinary life that life is always tentative and dangerous. Hazardous. The future is made of a multitude of possible futures, but I go into only one. There are many events possible, but for me only one future will be realized. Each of the possible futures has a degree of probability associated with it. A degree of probability ranging from very unlikely to almost certain. Then many factors influence which of them actually occur.

Josh: Including the rolls of the dice that are happening right down at the level of atoms and quarks all the time?

Grampa: Some physicists don’t think quantum events affect things at the macro level where we live, but I think they can and do.

Josh: Isn’t there enough uncertainty at the macro level already without the effects of quantum forces? This part I know. Things like the weather are tough to predict because there are so many factors involved. Or at least it’s tough to predict far in advance. A few days is the best we can do. Too much data if we look further.

Grampa: All true, Josh. And I believe that events like the weather are affected by quantum scale events. But the important thing to get is this: we have to live in an uncertain, but not chaotic, universe. There are probabilities associated with every one of those possible futures, and for at least some of them, we can lower or raise the probabilities.

Ayla: We do have some free will, in other words. Well …I’m helping Abbey, but I’m also listening. So go on, Grampa.

Grampa: You’re all listening. I can tell. But …yes …I’ll say the thing you want to hear. We do have some free will. All living things do. They can get out of the way of the rock slides and the avalanches. Or at least defend themselves. And the smarter they get, the further ahead they can estimate the probabilities of events and the more reliably they can do things to alter those probabilities.

Mira: Dad still runs the vineyard. He has to think ahead or he won’t get a crop. Or at least, the chance that he will is not very great if he doesn’t do some things that will shape the future for twenty thousand grape plants.

Grampa: Well-chosen example. Agriculture is a good example of a human activity that demonstrates our free will, Mira. Well chosen.

Will: I am determined to get to the end of this whole line of thought. So the world is hazardous. Quantum theory says it has to be and always will be, no matter how smart we may get in the future. There’ll always be hazards, right?

Grampa: Yes.

Will: And I’ll concede that it certainly looks like we have free will, or at least some degree of free will. But then …what are the values or virtues that we need to learn in order to inform - as you put it - our lives so that we survive and multiply?

Grampa: First comes freedom. We can be pretty strong, smart, and determined each of us by herself or himself, but that’s minor compared to how much fitter we get if we have a whole tribe or community that’s filled with a lot of different kinds of people. Different kinds of physiques and talents. Then we significantly improve the odds that no matter what surprises the future may throw at us, there will be someone in town who has an answer to the challenge. That person then shows the rest of us what to do to get through the plague or the famine or to get out of the way of the tsunami …whatever …and most of us listen, and the tribe survives.

Liam: Very social, your idea of fitness, isn’t it? We have to be a team if we want to go on. The individual with his talents is still only a small factor in the whole calculation of whether a tribe is going to go on.

Grampa: You’re a very strong lad now, Liam. But we all get old. And the smart lose their acuity and the musicians go deaf and so on. And even the dullest people can sometimes have a something to give to the tribe that turns out to be lifesaving.

Ayla: So freedom means letting your neighbor be herself or himself, doesn’t it?

Grampa: As long as that person is not limiting your activities, then, yes. That’s what freedom means. The right of every person to pursue their own interests.

Will: But I think I see where you’re going to go next. You said about courage that it works as our social response to the hardship of life only if it is balanced out by wisdom. We have to teach our kids to be brave, but also wise.

Grampa: Knowledgeable is also a good word. But yes, you’re recalling our talk well. That’s what culture is about. The old folks pass lessons on to the young and the wisdom accumulates over the generations.

Mira: Except that we don’t want to listen to our parents most of the time.

Grampa: Ah, you’re seventeen, Mira. You will. Start to listen, I mean.

Mira: We listen to you.

Grampa: Which is why I have to be careful about what I say.

Josh: We’re getting sidetracked again. If I concede that it looks like freedom as a value taught to young people makes more individuals want to chase their best ideas and their dreams, then just like wisdom balances and focuses courage, there must be some other value that balances freedom.

Grampa: Why would you need to balance freedom? Free is a good thing to be.

Will: Oh no. We ask the questions here. You’re the suspect being questioned.

Grampa: And you’re the detectives.

Will: Something like that. And freedom by itself would have downsides too. I can see that. A tribe that was fixated on freedom would soon be full of a big bunch of factions all arguing with each other and no one listening. Soon they’d all be at one another’s throats. In a generation, they’d fragment …what do the historians call it? …balkanize, right?

Ayla: I was right. You’re going to say we have to learn to love one another, aren’t you? Every individual, every faction, treating all of the others with respect.

(A silence fills the room. All the young people are staring at Grampa. His eyes are filling up with tears.)

Grampa: You make me very happy, Ayla.

(Another awkward moment of silence.)

Abbey: (softly) Everything’s ready, guys. Let’s eat.

Grampa: Lunch for seven. A lucky number. Abbey’s right. Let’s eat.