God as Lazy Programmer
anecdote · quantum physics joke ·
retold in 6 talks
God is described as a 'lazy programmer' who left reality 'non-all' (incomplete) not out of ignorance, but because it is ontologically undetermined, allowing for the gap of subjectivity.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 6
“God was also a little bit of a lazy programmer, too lazy to... non-all.”
“quantum physics is one big proof that god is lazy. he didn't want to do all the work”
“I use consciously this obscene expression that quantum mechanics caught god with his pants down as it were. Ah you were too lazy here”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 3 jobsuses
freedom as inner necessity
×1
caught God with his pants down
×1
the Real
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Anton Zeilinger2John Paul II2Susan Sontag2Roger Penrose2Édouard Balladur2Anthony Minghella1Vyacheslav Molotov1Cindy Crawford1
alongside works
Every retelling 6
God is described as a 'lazy programmer' who left reality 'non-all' (incomplete) not out of ignorance, but because it is ontologically undetermined, allowing for the gap of subjectivity., illustrating non-all of reality,subjectivity
1:12:50 Slavoj Žižek & Sean Carroll: Quantum Physics, the Multiverse, and Time Travel | RP #1182023-07-23 · 1:48:39
A European joke that quantum physics proves God is lazy and didn't want to do all the work of determining every particle, leaving the universe open., illustrating science-physics,freedom is not contingency
Žižek uses the obscene phrase 'quantum mechanics caught God with his pants down' to argue that God was too lazy to fully constitute reality, leaving the micro-level indeterminate, which quantum waves measure., illustrating God with his pants down,Real (Lacanian)
Cites Paul Claudel's conservative theology: the ultimate mystery is not that we are impotent without God, but that 'God is impotent without us,' requiring the community of believers to actualize the divine through love., illustrating religion-theology
22:00 Slavoj Zizek's "THE PARALLAX OF LACK AND SURPLUS IN POLITICS" (LACK V, 2025)2025-03-15 · 1:28:55
A joke among physicists that God didn't program atomic details because He underestimated human intelligence, resulting in quantum indeterminacy., illustrating caught God with his pants down,materialist reality
A Slovene expression used to describe the temptation of linking attractive scientific theories (like Jaynes’) directly to Hegel, implying it is pretentious or obscene., illustrating philosophy-general,Hegelian dialectics