Disclaimer: If you are easily depressed or easily triggered. I'd advise you to not read this.
Many theories have touch upon (i.e., gone massively in depth for thousands of books worth of detail) about the nature of our existence and the concept of free will versus a more deterministic view. Here is my opinion of our ‘free will’.
All things that obey the laws of physics are bound by one basic law; Cause and effect. This is that "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". Its pretty simple really. For example, if you push a ball, it rolls.
Because the forces that act upon us are constant, e.g. gravity, we are able to predict the outcome of actions. For example, if you push a ball with x amount of force in a fluid of y density and a surface friction of z then it will travel m distance.
Complete free will is the concept that we have full control over our actions. For example, you have free will over whether you read this text, or not. Soft determinism is the concept that our beliefs and behaviours have been shaped by the environment around us or our genetic makeup. So for example, you have free will over reading this or not, however, because of your interactions in the past and the genes that make you who you are, your decision and behaviour at this moment is predetermined. However, soft determinism gives you some room for change and ‘free will’ because you can be aware of your interactions and change the people you talk to and who you are influenced by, E.g. get new cooler friends and you will become cooler (or so I’m told… I’m not very cool).
Hard determinism is the concept that we have no control over our behaviours, beliefs and ultimately our actions. This is what I strongly believe and I will explain why in a bit. An example of hard determinism is, you are reading this and have been predetermined to read this from birth/from the big bang (which I also strongly believe in).
My argument for why hard determinism is the only logical explanation is as follows and starts with some assumptions.
First, we must assume that all forces act under rules consistently throughout the universe. Now we may not know what all these rules are, and their exact implications and quirks, but we can assume that there are general laws of physics that act on everything. Secondly, we must assume that the universe started with a big bang, or some other event that set everything in motion (but that is an argument for another day)
The main argument is based off an analogy which is as follows. If you flip a coin it has an equal chance of landing on heads or tails, right? Wrong… It may seem like there is an equal chance, however, this is a deception of free will. If you were to know the exact forces that are being applied to the coin such as the weight of the coin, the gravitational pull, the speed of rotation and movement, the height from the ground, the density of the surface it lands on etc… and then applied all of these numbers into an equation, it would be possible to predict whether the coin lands on head or tails every time as soon as the coin leaves the finger.
On a bigger scale, I believe that if scientists could work out an equation that predicts how every individual atom, electron, quart, every THING in the universe react and interacts with the other ‘things’ around them, then we would be able to predict where every object, atom, electron, THING will move or be in the future. Equally we would be able to know where it has come from. Obviously, we will never (or at least it will be a verrrry long time) be able to do these calculations. It would take an almost infinitely large amount of computing power and mathematical ‘skills’ to do this. However, it demonstrates my belief that ultimately every single movement of things in the universe could be predicted from the initial moment of the big bang.
But what about all the decisions you make every day? These are merely the interactions of thousands of neurones firing in your brain as a result of an input through your senses. For example, you see a car moving towards you and you step out of the way. This is a fairly instinctual decision and it is more obvious in this case that the decision is made because of some basic stimuli. Another example could be seeing a picture on Instagram and deciding whether to like or leave a comment. Your neurones in your brain will receive input from you eyes about who posted the picture, what the picture is, as well as many other variables that could affect you ‘decision’, such as mood and time of day. Just like the example with the coin, if scientists could know the exact movement and forces acting upon the neurones and neurotransmitters in your brain, then they could predict how you are going to act, because all these ‘things’ obey general laws of physics.
Another way to explain this is; If you drop a ball from, let’s say, 10 metres it will bounce, let’s say, 5 metres. Now, if you go down and pick the ball up and drop it from the exact same position, under the exact same conditions, it will bounce the exact same height. So, if we went back to the big bang, or the moment when God finished his work and went to rest (if you believe in this) and if we recreated the universe from the very start under the exact same conditions. Why would history not play out in the exact same way? Why would there be any differences between the recreation universe and the original universe if the forces and conditions (the input, or the cause if you like) were exactly the same? In both universes that we have made for this analogy you would be sitting in the exact same position that you are now, feeling, doing, thinking the exact same things, because all the forces acting on every molecule and every electron and every THING has been the same in both universes because they both had the same input. Once an input has been made and once the initial forces and laws of physics have been applied, in the very moment that the universe started, our fate and our lives and all the lives and events that are to follow us were decided and we have no control over them. This is hard determinism.
Please keep any discussion civil and thoughtful.
Many theories have touch upon (i.e., gone massively in depth for thousands of books worth of detail) about the nature of our existence and the concept of free will versus a more deterministic view. Here is my opinion of our ‘free will’.
All things that obey the laws of physics are bound by one basic law; Cause and effect. This is that "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". Its pretty simple really. For example, if you push a ball, it rolls.
Because the forces that act upon us are constant, e.g. gravity, we are able to predict the outcome of actions. For example, if you push a ball with x amount of force in a fluid of y density and a surface friction of z then it will travel m distance.
Complete free will is the concept that we have full control over our actions. For example, you have free will over whether you read this text, or not. Soft determinism is the concept that our beliefs and behaviours have been shaped by the environment around us or our genetic makeup. So for example, you have free will over reading this or not, however, because of your interactions in the past and the genes that make you who you are, your decision and behaviour at this moment is predetermined. However, soft determinism gives you some room for change and ‘free will’ because you can be aware of your interactions and change the people you talk to and who you are influenced by, E.g. get new cooler friends and you will become cooler (or so I’m told… I’m not very cool).
Hard determinism is the concept that we have no control over our behaviours, beliefs and ultimately our actions. This is what I strongly believe and I will explain why in a bit. An example of hard determinism is, you are reading this and have been predetermined to read this from birth/from the big bang (which I also strongly believe in).
My argument for why hard determinism is the only logical explanation is as follows and starts with some assumptions.
First, we must assume that all forces act under rules consistently throughout the universe. Now we may not know what all these rules are, and their exact implications and quirks, but we can assume that there are general laws of physics that act on everything. Secondly, we must assume that the universe started with a big bang, or some other event that set everything in motion (but that is an argument for another day)
The main argument is based off an analogy which is as follows. If you flip a coin it has an equal chance of landing on heads or tails, right? Wrong… It may seem like there is an equal chance, however, this is a deception of free will. If you were to know the exact forces that are being applied to the coin such as the weight of the coin, the gravitational pull, the speed of rotation and movement, the height from the ground, the density of the surface it lands on etc… and then applied all of these numbers into an equation, it would be possible to predict whether the coin lands on head or tails every time as soon as the coin leaves the finger.
On a bigger scale, I believe that if scientists could work out an equation that predicts how every individual atom, electron, quart, every THING in the universe react and interacts with the other ‘things’ around them, then we would be able to predict where every object, atom, electron, THING will move or be in the future. Equally we would be able to know where it has come from. Obviously, we will never (or at least it will be a verrrry long time) be able to do these calculations. It would take an almost infinitely large amount of computing power and mathematical ‘skills’ to do this. However, it demonstrates my belief that ultimately every single movement of things in the universe could be predicted from the initial moment of the big bang.
But what about all the decisions you make every day? These are merely the interactions of thousands of neurones firing in your brain as a result of an input through your senses. For example, you see a car moving towards you and you step out of the way. This is a fairly instinctual decision and it is more obvious in this case that the decision is made because of some basic stimuli. Another example could be seeing a picture on Instagram and deciding whether to like or leave a comment. Your neurones in your brain will receive input from you eyes about who posted the picture, what the picture is, as well as many other variables that could affect you ‘decision’, such as mood and time of day. Just like the example with the coin, if scientists could know the exact movement and forces acting upon the neurones and neurotransmitters in your brain, then they could predict how you are going to act, because all these ‘things’ obey general laws of physics.
Another way to explain this is; If you drop a ball from, let’s say, 10 metres it will bounce, let’s say, 5 metres. Now, if you go down and pick the ball up and drop it from the exact same position, under the exact same conditions, it will bounce the exact same height. So, if we went back to the big bang, or the moment when God finished his work and went to rest (if you believe in this) and if we recreated the universe from the very start under the exact same conditions. Why would history not play out in the exact same way? Why would there be any differences between the recreation universe and the original universe if the forces and conditions (the input, or the cause if you like) were exactly the same? In both universes that we have made for this analogy you would be sitting in the exact same position that you are now, feeling, doing, thinking the exact same things, because all the forces acting on every molecule and every electron and every THING has been the same in both universes because they both had the same input. Once an input has been made and once the initial forces and laws of physics have been applied, in the very moment that the universe started, our fate and our lives and all the lives and events that are to follow us were decided and we have no control over them. This is hard determinism.
Please keep any discussion civil and thoughtful.
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Banned forever. Reason: Scamming (https://builtbybit.com/threads/jmbuilds-scam-report.598161/)
