Can you show or explain how it does? Welcome to the world of belief systems and preferences.<p>The lightening is not &quot;searching&quot; anything. Inequalities within the system are resolving to destinations and expending themselves. That energy is discharged into many endpoints merely indicates that the amount of energy on one side of the inequality can overflow many receptacles on the receiving end, before overflowing all the way to the ground state offered by the earth.<p>Is this really so hard to comprehend? In a non-vacuum filled with charged moisture, why should it surprise anyone that mid-air electrical arcing should take curious paths? Why must the lightening be anthropomorphized, such that it &quot;thinks&quot; and then &quot;chooses&quot; the &quot;best&quot; route to the ground?<p>If the static charge had been less intense, and satisfied an equilibrium before even reaching in the ground, would it still have &quot;chosen&quot; anything?