Showing posts with label Free Will. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Will. Show all posts

Sunday, October 29

We Don't Have Free Will

After more than 40 years studying humans and other primates, Sapolsky has reached the conclusion that virtually all human behavior is as far beyond our conscious control as the convulsions of a seizure, the division of cells or the beating of our hearts.

This means accepting that a man who shoots into a crowd has no more control over his fate than the victims who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It means treating drunk drivers who barrel into pedestrians just like drivers who suffer a sudden heart attack and veer out of their lane.

"The world is really screwed up and made much, much more unfair by the fact that we reward people and punish people for things they have no control over," Sapolsky (left) said. "We've got no free will. Stop attributing stuff to us that isn't there."  READ MORE...

Wednesday, March 16

Quantum Mechanics and Free Will


Credit: francescoch/Getty Images

A conjecture called superdeterminism, outlined decades ago, is a response to several peculiarities of quantum mechanics: the apparent randomness of quantum events; their apparent dependence on human observation, or measurement; and the apparent ability of a measurement in one place to determine, instantly, the outcome of a measurement elsewhere, an effect called nonlocality.

Einstein, who derided nonlocality as “spooky action at a distance,” insisted that quantum mechanics must be incomplete; there must be hidden variables that the theory overlooks. Superdeterminism is a radical hidden-variables theory proposed by physicist John Bell. He is renowned for a 1964 theorem, now named after him, that dramatically exposes the nonlocality of quantum mechanics.

Bell said in a BBC interview in 1985 that the puzzle of nonlocality vanishes if you assume that “the world is superdeterministic, with not just inanimate nature running on behind-the-scenes clockwork, but with our behavior, including our belief that we are free to choose to do one experiment rather than another, absolutely predetermined.”

In a recent video, physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, whose work I admire, notes that superdeterminism eliminates the apparent randomness of quantum mechanics. “In quantum mechanics,” she explains, “we can only predict probabilities for measurement outcomes, rather than the measurement outcomes themselves. The outcomes are not determined, so quantum mechanics is indeterministic. Superdeterminism returns us to determinism.”

“The reason we can’t predict the outcome of a quantum measurement,” she explains, “is that we are missing information,” that is, hidden variables. Superdeterminism, she notes, gets rid of the measurement problem and nonlocality as well as randomness. Hidden variables determine in advance how physicists carry out the experiments; physicists might think they are choosing one option over another, but they aren’t. Hossenfelder calls free will “logically incoherent nonsense.”

Hossenfelder predicts that physicists might be able to confirm superdeterminism experimentally. “At some point,” she says, “it’ll just become obvious that measurement outcomes are actually much more predictable than quantum mechanics says. Indeed, maybe someone already has the data, they just haven’t analyzed it the right way.” Hossenfelder defends superdeterminism in more detail in a technical paper written with physicist Tim Palmer.  

AUTHOR  -  John Horgan directs the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology. His books include The End of Science, The End of War and Mind-Body Problems, available for free at mindbodyproblems.com. For many years he wrote the popular blog Cross Check for Scientific American.


TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...


Friday, December 11

Freedom of Choice

Philosophy of Choice  --  is a corollary of the proposition of free will or the ability voluntarily to decide to perform one of several possible acts or to avoid action entirely.   An ethical choice involves ascribing qualities such as right or wrong, good or bad, better or worse to alternatives.

In order to have a Corollary, one must form a proposition or concept from a proposition or concept that has already been proven...  therefore, ONE'S CHOICE(S) comes from ONE'S FREE WILL...  and FREE WILL means one's ability to act with one's own discretion...  therefore, making choices without influences either external or internal...  however, exercising one's free will is always contingent upon all factors that may influence the outcome of that decision.

Psychology of Choice  --  explores subconsciously why people make the choices they do as they decide making decision based upon two or more options; what motivates us to make these decisions, and what these choices are meant to satisfy within us. 

Our subconscious refers to that part of the mind which is not fully aware but which influences one's actions and feelings...  and, it may be difficult to accept having parts of our mind not being fully aware of anything...  it would seem that our mind is either aware or not aware...  BUT, that logic is INCORRECT.

When one reflects upon these definitions, one should come to the conclusion that we NEVER exercise our FREE WILL and/or CHOICES without some sort of external or internal influences which could be seen as an INTERACTION OF FORCES...

Even Jesus's choices were influenced by His Father, God...  Jesus never exercised his free will without first considering the influences and the potential outcomes of his free will, or what was motivating his free will and/or choices.

Whether we like it or not, we can never escape these influences or motivators of our behavior and our FREE WILL is NEVER exercised without influences even though we think it is just us who is making these choices.  We never makes choice on our own.  We never exercise our free will on our own, regardless of what anyone else tells you.


Therefore...

do we really have 

FREEDOM OF CHOICE?




Wednesday, November 18

Free Will and Choices

There is a common belief among mankind whether it be from man or from woman and whether you believe in a Creator or not that ALL OF US WERE born with a certain amount of FREE WILL and that this WILL is used on a daily basis to make our CHOICES and it is these CHOICES that determine the direction into which our lives will proceed and it is these CHOICES that determine or predetermine most if not all of our future outcomes.

There is no denial that we make choices and/or that for some of us, our choices are made for us whether these decisions come from our parents, our teachers, our leaders, our bosses, and/or our spouses.  And that these choices do influence in some degree our future outcome and life's directions.  HOWEVER, the concept of free will is a different matter altogether in that free will means the following:  the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one's own discretion.

Consequently, free will has nothing to do with any religious beliefs as it is simply an act of bring born into the world of mankind...  and, we all know that giving birth results from the sexual union of a man and a female...  and, we can make the assumption that this union has nothing to do with the will of a Creator or any such other religious nonsense...  especially since giving birth is as natural as breathing air...  and, we can assume that the properties of our physical body have nothing to do with a Creator either as they are simply the result of millions of years of mutated evolution.

As was evidenced by Jesus and his sayings as recorded in THE BIBLE, if he had FREE WILL then Jesus would not have needed to obey the will of GOD...  but, the will of GOD is necessary and the foundation of most all religion.

So...  therein lies our problem.

NOW...  let's look at the concept of time and the scientific fact that time has a past, present, and a future even though we can neither see our past or our future, yet we know as sure as we are breathing that it is there.

We also know from our space program that astronauts age less in space than they do on earth.  Using this knowledge as a foundation, we can now make the assumption that when we send astronauts further and further out into space and we keep a record of their time relative to earth that their present would be our future.  It is also possible that if these astronauts were the same age as those monitoring their progress that the monitors could die of old age before those astronauts return and still have almost half their lives to live.

Now, let's return to creation and see if it was a Creator that brought it about or some scientific anomaly.  Science believes that our universe was created by the bursting forth and expansion of a black hole.  By definition, a black hole is a compression of matter...  so, what comes out is that which was first inside since a black hole cannot exist with nothing inside.

Yet, science cannot explain where all the stuff that was expelled from that black hole came from...  and so, we must turn to a Creator for the only logical explanation which is a prime example of OCCUM'S RAZOR which states:  Occam's razor is the principle that, of two explanations that account for all the facts, the simpler one is more likely to be correct. It is applied to a wide range of disciplines, including religion, physics, and medicine.

With this new concept in mind, we can easily explain the notion that if our Creator wanted to, He could see our past, present, and future and if it was His Will He could decide our choices for us by changing facets of our past which would cause us to make different choices in our present, thereby nullifying the fact that we had any free will at all.


Saturday, September 26

Saturdays are Peaceful

                                          
Even though I am retired and cannot really tell one day from the next day, SATURDAYS are still special in that they remain, at least for me, peaceful...  that is to say that Saturdays reflect the end of a week's worth of labor and one can relax and simply enjoy the SLOW-PACED unfolding day...  and, while Sundays are another day off...  they are different because the next day we return to work whereas with Saturdays we still have another day off...

SATURDAYS for me are days of reflection, pondering what I cannot understand or will ever know, sitting on the porch witnessing the activities of my community neighbors (which is nothing done outside) and watching the animals, especially the rabbits and birds that enjoy safety and security on my property.

Spring, Summer, and Fall SATURDAYS are spent on the back screened-in porch contemplating the benefits and frustrations of still being alive in today's AMERICA...  an AMERICA that is divided along several lines of political ideologies and philosophies which has little to do with LIFE's PURPOSE...  at least as I see it.

Life is about LIFE which is about living and living is about appreciate and gratitude and that revolves around one's being given life (birth) and whether we wanted life or not is meaningless and irrelevant since life is what we have.

In other words, I did not REQUEST that I be given life via birth from my mother and yet, life is nonetheless what I have received; consequently, I am grateful for that life and appreciative for what that life has allowed me to SEE...  EXPERIENCE...  and DOUBT...

  • We have not been designed (???) to live a long time.
  • We have not been designed to live without food or oxygen.
  • We have not been designed to want the same things.
  • We have not been designed to think the same way.
  • We have not been designed to serve each other.
  • We have been designed to procreate.

WHY?

It seems inconceivable and illogical that human beings simply EVOLVED into what we are today and it seems inconceivable and illogical that we should only live 8 decades +/- and then we simply die and
it seems inconceivable and illogical that we have been given free will and choice during our lives but had no free will or choice with our births and deaths outside of suicides...  and yet, this is exactly what has taken place with our lives and with our living of those lives.

BUT, regardless of these inconsistencies, most of us do not appear to be appreciate of our own lives or the lives of our friends and neighbors and potential enemies and those we do not yet know or will never know...  and yet, WE ALL HAVE BEEN GIVEN LIFE.
  • manufacturing of HATE also evolve inside of us over the years?
  • Did the inability to show appreciation or gratitude evolve inside of us over the years?
  • Did the desire to acquire wealth, position, and power evolve inside of us over the years?

SATURDAYS for me are days of reflection and pondering...  and, in so doing I am filled with an inner peace inside even though there is turmoil all around me.





Wednesday, September 16

Overlooked Matrix Themes

The Matrix is a 1999 American science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis.  It depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality, the Matrix, created by intelligent machines to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source.  When computer programmer Thomas Anderson, under the hacker alias "Neo", uncovers the truth, he "is drawn into a rebellion against the machines" along with other people who have been freed from the Matrix.

The Matrix is an example of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction.  The Wachowskis' approach to action scenes was influenced by Japanese animation and martial arts films, and the film's use of fight choreographers and wire fu techniques from Hong Kong action cinema influenced subsequent Hollywood action film productions. 

The film popularized a visual effect known as "bullet time", in which the heightened perception of certain characters is represented by allowing the action within a shot to progress in slow-motion while the camera appears to move through the scene at normal speed, allowing the sped-up movements of certain characters to be perceived normally

THEMES:
  1. Freedom
  2. Free Will
  3. Positive Thinking
  4. Belief in One's self
  5. God as the Matrix Architect
  6. Oracle as the intuitive soul
  7. Neo as savior Jesus
The special effects of the trilogy of movies overshadowed most of the themes that the movies could have explored but did not, leaving the viewers to simply be amused and amazed and if thoughtful enough explore the deeper meanings that the movie was also trying to convey.  These themes were lost and we as an audience collectively abandoned all of the controversial themes in lieu of being entertained.


Wednesday, May 20

CHOICES

As members of the Human Race and whether we are Christian or not, and whether or not we have any spiritual beliefs in any religion or in an philosophy, we all believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that we all have FREE WILL and that we are empowered to make our own choices even if we refuse to take responsibility for those choices and instead try to blame someone else...

CHOICES...

We all makes choices...

Sometimes, we make good choices...

Sometimes, we make bad choices...

But, we all possess the FREE WILL to make CHOICES.

Throughout my entire life, my choices which at the time they were made were arrived at through careful analysis of the situation based upon the knowledge available to me at the time and were infused with all sorts of preconceived ideas that were in my head (right or wrong) based upon how I had previously responded to circumstances in which I had been confronted.



  1. My choice to go to College
  2. My choice to leave College
  3. My choice to get married
  4. My choice to enlist in the US Navy
  5. My choice to return to College
  6. My choice to accept work with a variety of employers
  7. My choice to relocate from NC to TN
  8. My choice to get a divorce
  9. My choice to get remarried
  10. My choice to pay off debts and save money
  11. My choice to work as a consultant on the side
  12. My choice to retire
My life simplified into 12 choices...

As a result of these choices,
  • I live in a modest home
  • I have a modest retirement income
  • I drive an inexpensive car
  • I only fly economy class
  • I have inexpensive vacations
  • I wear inexpensive clothes
  • I have very few friends
BUT...  these are MY CHOICES and I accept the RESPONSIBILITY for my choices and while I may dream/wish for more, I accept that this will never happen because of all the choices I have made.  People that are my friends either accept me for the choices I made or they do not, and if they do not then they are no longer my friends...

When I die, I will leave very little financial wealth behind me...  however, there will be sufficient funds to pay all the experiences for my wife until the age of 97 where when she dies she will leave very little financial wealth behind her...

Perhaps, she could have done better...  but, she also made the choice to accept only that which she had with me...  she then, is responsible for the choices she made...  right or wrong...  good or bad.

While this may seem like a foolish idea about which to write and share, it is a FACT OF LIFE that one day, you will be faced with the fact that you will have to accept the choices that you have made...  

ALL OF US WILL ONE DAY BE CONFRONTED WITH THIS REALITY...