Free Will

[catalog]

Yeah but it's also very specific and low probability, is what I mean. You might as well worry about getting knocked over when you cross the street.

 

[pattycakes_]

Or one of those little fish swimming up the hole in your dick

Guess that's localized to a certain part of the world

Still, with climate change.. never know

 

[version]

I did say it worries me "from time to time", not that it's something I regularly worry about.

 

[Clinamenic]

I tend to think our conscious, decision-making process, is an embodiment of stochastic evolution, ever higher-order executions of endocrinological cascades and motor movements that somewhat blindly end up proving to entail longevity, as far as the perseverance of nucleic acids is concerned.

That is, I think our will is a stochastically evolved function of negentropy, but whether or both not it should be described as free, probabilistic, or deterministic is largely a matter of semantics, and beyond that a matter of knowing some greater portion of the veritably infinite unknown. Even so, probabilisticism and determinism may not even be incompossible, to my knowledge.

 

[Clinamenic]

I suspect any mechanistic understanding of consciousness will frame the phenomenon as a palimpsest of sensory phenomena and “lessons” abstracted therefrom, IE connectomic circuits, informed by sensory input, that entail the execution of certain biochemical functions, which then exert influence, statistically, on the likelihood of reproduction.

Beyond reproduction, I think other human motivations are, as far as negentropy is concerned, spandrels. That said, as far as we are concerned, our interests needn’t be reduced down to ensuring reproduction, as there are ostensibly much more oblique and nebulous motivations at play - motivations which perhaps quintessentially defy analytic reduction.

 

[Clinamenic]

But to answer the question in it’s common sense: no, I don’t believe the decisions we make are causally independent from the prior physical states of universe.

 

[Clinamenic]

Here and then a blistering moment of cognizance may be apprehended, as if strapped into an ancient, predetermined orchestration of fiery phenomena, iterating across a vast breadth of spatial and temporal scales.

 

[version]

One thing which worries me from time to time is the prospect of sustaining a head injury or developing a tumor which drastically changes your behaviour or personality.

That Sapolsky bloke Stan likes mentions a case like that in one of his lectures, some guy murdering someone or having an affair or something and turning out to have had a tumor putting pressure on his brain and causing behavioural changes.

 

[WashYourHands]

dna lives through us, we’re just the sex organs

dna is Control, not ego

 

[sus]

Free will versus determinism is a mirage, a linguistic confusion and not a philosophical problem proper

As soon as you drill down into what you mean, nobody disagrees about the relevant facts. The problem is that, at higher levels of conceptual abstraction, no one agrees about the verbiage.

It's a very tedious issue and, tbh, a sure sign of pseuds in the area.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

Free will versus determinism is a mirage, a linguistic confusion and not a philosophical problem proper

As soon as you drill down into what you mean, nobody disagrees about the relevant facts. The problem is that, at higher levels of conceptual abstraction, no one agrees about the verbiage.

It's a very tedious issue and, tbh, a sure sign of pseuds in the area.

Complete agreement over terms is not a pre-requisite for progress. Why not define some terms yourself and make an argument.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

Free will versus determinism is a mirage, a linguistic confusion and not a philosophical problem proper

As soon as you drill down into what you mean, nobody disagrees about the relevant facts. The problem is that, at higher levels of conceptual abstraction, no one agrees about the verbiage.

It's a very tedious issue and, tbh, a sure sign of pseuds in the area.

As for the question being an airy fairy inconsequential matter, we've literally just had Corpsey changing his perspective on major life events on account of his changing philosophical position.

 

[IdleRich]

One thing which worries me from time to time is the prospect of sustaining a head injury or developing a tumor which drastically changes your behaviour or personality.

That Sapolsky bloke Stan likes mentions a case like that in one of his lectures, some guy murdering someone or having an affair or something and turning out to have had a tumor putting pressure on his brain and causing behavioural changes.

Is it that rooftop shooter that inspired the film Targets?

Anyway I wouldn't worry about it happening to you, you're much more likely to get cancer or heart disease etc

 

[pattycakes_]

Nice to see you back, Rich

 

[other_life]

 

[Corpsey]

I don't believe in it but I do believe in the need to believe in it.

 

[Corpsey]

You know what I've just realised

IS FREE WILLY (THE WHALE FILM) ENTITLED THAT BECAUSE ITS A PUN ON FREE WILL?

 

[Corpsey]

AND BY EXTENSION IS THE WHALE NAMED WILLY SO THEY CAN MAKE THAT PUN IN. THE TITLE?

 

[WashYourHands]

I DONT KNOW EITHER MAAAAN

 

[mixed_biscuits]

I don't believe in it but I do believe in the need to believe in it.

Do you decide to believe in it or does it just happen?

I don't know why I'm calling you you. I don't call billiard balls you when I talk to them, which is never.