Free Will
I used to not care that I offended people. But then I realized I gained less friends this way. Consequently I'm a nicer person these days.
I always wondered about religion. It always seemed to be a characteristic of specific cultures and not an absolute Truth of any sort. Some people did some shit, saw some shit, made up a story, mixed in a little history, and you've got your religion right there, God, shmod.
What is always more interesting to me than religion and culture itself, is why they even exist. Why are humans equipped with such an ability. Why don't dogs have religion? For that matter, what makes us better than other animals? Well that's easy, our more evolved brains right?
Now guess how excited I was to find out that there is actually a WHOLE FIELD called evolutionary psychology that breaks down what it really means to be human in a scientific way - none of the mushy stuff. I mean the mushy stuff is great too. Being able to realize when something in life is truly beautiful is a moving experience that I wouldn't want to lose. But I can't help but wonder what we are when we're just thought of as atoms, molecules, and their interactions.
http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/nikolas.lloyd/evolve/freewill.html
I always wondered about religion. It always seemed to be a characteristic of specific cultures and not an absolute Truth of any sort. Some people did some shit, saw some shit, made up a story, mixed in a little history, and you've got your religion right there, God, shmod.
What is always more interesting to me than religion and culture itself, is why they even exist. Why are humans equipped with such an ability. Why don't dogs have religion? For that matter, what makes us better than other animals? Well that's easy, our more evolved brains right?
Now guess how excited I was to find out that there is actually a WHOLE FIELD called evolutionary psychology that breaks down what it really means to be human in a scientific way - none of the mushy stuff. I mean the mushy stuff is great too. Being able to realize when something in life is truly beautiful is a moving experience that I wouldn't want to lose. But I can't help but wonder what we are when we're just thought of as atoms, molecules, and their interactions.
http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/nikolas.lloyd/evolve/freewill.html
posted by GyangBang | 1:02 AM
2 Comments:
My thought loop is as follows:
We aren’t anything. We are, as Shakespeare said, “The quintessence of dust.” We are the most splendid thing around, but is that really so splendid a thing? Really, the questions will eventually break down to why the laws of the universe can’t be anything at all. Why do we need to feel purpose? Because without that, thinking creatures wouldn’t survive. But then why not just *make* it so we can?
Why are there very concrete laws, but they’re laws that don’t seem to be better chosen than some other set of rules. I don’t know.
I really think that when we die, it’s over. No God. No nothing. Everything I am will be distributed throughout the world to allow life for other creatures. I have no evidence to the contrary.
And yet, Newton scared the hell out of everyone. It was a huge philosophical conundrum in the seventeenth century that his three laws held all the time, everywhere. If everything is so precisely predicted by F= ma, then we don’t have free will! Oh no!!! Two centuries later, along comes Heisenberg, one of those super-smart Germans who bore quantum physics. His work tells us that, at a very very very small level, *nothing* is guaranteed! What we perceive as “definite” outcomes are in fact just sums of probabilities, but there is room for error – really, it’s not impossible for your entire body to disappear and reappear across the room via quantum tunneling. It’s highly highly highly unlikely, but not impossible. Whew. We can still punish criminals. Thank goodness.
My point (yes Jon, get to the f_cking point!) is that we should never think we have all the answers. You can do all kinds of scientific analysis, but that’s not to say a better theory won’t come along and *improve* on the old one, thereby introducing us to new knowledge. I think we’re just dirt, but I’ve never even met God...
As for this essay, I think psychology and physics and other branches of science have been taking time to unify. I think the more physics (and my unnamed ex-roomie) tell us about our brains, the more psychologists and biologists will make sense of the deep deep mechanics of it all. But things are still in their infancy.
I was thinking about this quote from that really bad movie "The Relic" the other day:
[Biologist drives up in front of museum]
Kid: You’re in a hurry – what do you do here?
Biologist: I’m an evolutionary biologist.
Kid: A what?
Biologist: That’s someone who’s trying to figure out where our tails went.
Hahaha!
I'll end on a more somber note!
In Remembrance
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glint on snow,
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle morning rain.
And when you wake in the morning's hush,
I am the sweet uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night,
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die.
Anonymous
Wow, I just realized you made like three or four posts since you said you were going to drop off the face of the earth in the name of MCAT glory. They look like good ones too, but I haven't had a chance to read 'em. I can't keep up with you! :-)
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