SIMULACRA-So what exactly made you read this? Your brain unquestionably made a calculation as to whether or not you should click on the link or simply do something else with your time. At this moment, while you're reading this sentence, your brain is ardently at work registering the variables and alternative courses of action that it may wish to take instead of continuing on with this post. The answer to "why" (or more befittingly stated as "how") you chose to read is within a practical reach, but of course, without looking any further, many of you will credit your action to nothing other than your very own "free will." However, I would like to entertain the idea that perhaps there is a better, more accurate elucidation out there for as to why/how you are reading this, and just perhaps, you aren't really "free" in this sense at all.
Firstly, every action you take, every thought you have is fundamentally rooted in a desire to achieve your WANTS. You cannot control what you want. If it is not possible, as I believe, to change or even remotely manipulate our "want-system" (due to our inherited genetic makeup combined with our individual life experiences), then we are constricted by this "hunger" for our entire lives, and we will continue, as we always have, to fulfill our WANTS above all else in life. For instance, if you chart out, on a piece of paper, a question such as, "Should I go to work today or not," then you will find that there is a matrix that flows toward the answer as to why you will or will not go to work that is much more deeply embedded in this system of wants than you might presuppose. You may be saying, "Well, I still have a 'choice' as to whether I go to work today or not." You may be very surprised that you actually do not. You see, the want-system was built long ago as a by-product of evolution by natural selection, and it determines every desire that you were born with. (The hard-determinism/causality view.) This mechanism seeks incentives to fulfill your wants to in-turn successfully propagate your genes onto the next generation. This system has been constructed over millions of years and involved the success/life/failure/death/well-being of billions and billions of living organisms, and it has shaped our genetic makeup to simply WANT certain things that are merely repercussions of the circumstances that have built our brains. If you admittedly ponder with the utmost intellectual honesty whether or not you actually had a choice to attend work, then you will discover that the only reason you seemingly possessed this "phantom" choice is because the want-system gave rise to your desire for money to feed yourself (that is, of course, if you needed the money for food. There could be innumerable reasons.)
Every single action you take can be linked to some sort of want that you have. Different wants may exist between individuals because genetic makeup combined with previous life experience varies to produce virtually an endless number of results. Everything from smiling at your children, to giving money to a local church can be explained by this system, and I challenge anyone to give me an example of an action that you could ever take that violates the want-system. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that you will ever do in your life that will contradict your want-system. Even if you think you are doing something that you do not want to do such as working 40 hours every week at a laborious job, you are misled because you are behaving to satisfy this mechanism.
Our want-system includes the things we need such as food and water, but also, it is imperative to understand that it includes the pleasurable things we do in life that we classify as hobbies/reward seeking behavior. Of course, by incorporating new information into our brain, inputs such as reading a book, or even reading this post could dictate a change in our want-system that could very well transform our views/beliefs/actions and lead us down a different path. But one thing is for certain, you CANNOT CHOOSE TO CHANGE WHAT YOU WANT. It is our genetic code that includes everything that is US. Therefore in effect, there is no room for such an idea as "free will" because we are bound by genetics and life experiences that we have inherited in this world.
In the opening, I asked about the reasons for you choosing to read this. Perhaps you were completely on the fence about clicking the link. This would be a case in which you say that you cannot make up your mind, and it appears to be a 50/50 balance as to whether you will click the link or not. Therefore, this would be a perfect case in which "free will" would exercise its' authority and prove itself. But actually, it only proves that you do NOT have a choice because you would simply be waiting for a thought to spontaneously arise without having the conscious ability to choose this thought in order to shift the balance in one direction or the other, and in actuality, this thought would come from neurological processes within your brain that YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OVER. Much like the processes that guide thousands of vital biological systems within the body, why would the brain be any different?
I assure you that one thing is for certain.....if you're reading this right now, then you WANTED to read this, and there was never a choice to be made at all.
"We do not cause our causes." - Sam Harris (The Moral Landscape)
3 comments:
If what you say about the non-existence of free will is true (thought it seems really odd to include it on a blog named "Free Your Mind"), then why encourage people to study evolution? They will only (as you say) fulfill their wants system by it. If they reject evolution, it will be because evolution programmed them to. Same for those who accept it (which creates a rather self-defeating circle if your aim is to argue for the truth of it). Free will is an integral part of rationality. Rational judgments require that a person be able to think independently of physiological necessity. If “I” am only carrying out my genetic programming, then it becomes impossible to say with any certainty what is objectively real and what is true. Your hyper-materialistic account of human nature undermines any objective epistemology, and science along with it.
So can a person ever intentionally change what they "want?" I say no. I believe that our "want-system" may change based on information received, but I don't believe you can consciously beat or "outsmart" the system to change your own wants. For instance, my own personal "want-system" drives me to search for new knowledge. It happened to drive me to study evolutionary biology in hopes of finding answers about life on Earth. I, in no way, wanted to change my belief that evolution was false, but as new information was presented that passed into my sensory-inputs and was interpreted by my brain, my belief changed. I "believe" that beliefs are merely a neurological interpretation of the information that we have acquired up to this particular point in time, a formulation of the brain's actual belief-system about our reality/state. However, if a person's "want-system" does not drive them to acquire new knowledge on the subject of say, belief in God, then no, they will most certainly not change their beliefs about it.
Lastly, could you ever say that if you were me, you would have different beliefs/truths/opinions about the world? Can you tell me that if you were physically the same person as me and had experienced the same situations as I've had in my life, that you would possibly be any different than I am right now? Maybe you believe in a fundamental concept such as a "soul" that presents humanity with an even playing field such as "free-will." I don't. Never said that I couldn't be wrong though. :)
One other thing I forgot to mention. Only outside forces can change a person's "want-system." Therefore, by me presenting a friend with new information such as, "Hey, you should really check out evolution. It's very interesting, and it explains biological life on Earth much better than the Biblical account," my "want-system" is actually acting on their "want-system." This could potentially ignite their "want-system" to act on this new information. Hence, the spread of new ideas and information. So in conclusion, they may act on this new information received or they may not. It just depends on if they want to. Sam Harris says, "we do not cause our causes." I also believe that only outside forces cause our causes.
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