and so from a point of view of up high, perhaps there indeed is advantage in positing that there _is_ no way to transcend belief in self, belief in a story of the body—given an assumed model, even though it be incoherent, there might still be wisdom reapable from it. and so what would be … [Read more…]
You could perhaps get a little closer to the truth by ceasing a desire to control the world. Nonetheless, that automaticity is _always_ there; it is really more the _feeling_ of it that calls into question free will. Suspend (or, more boldly, delete) belief in free will, and the sensation of life becomes lighter; when … [Read more…]
i was thinking about dreams mental dreams, like imagined worlds because I awoke from one and I couldn’t remember, at first, if the ideas were solid in this physical world and i don’t know about you but in cases like that they tend to be negative dreams, and then I wake up and am like … [Read more…]
This comes from a group chat. well we’re all 13.8 billion just have illusions of being different ages like, think about it if the egyptians make a pyramid if they make a pyramid and you read about it in a textbook aren’t they still alive? aren’t they still affecting your life? they’re affecting how you … [Read more…]
This is a conversation between a friend and me on Facebook. “There is no ‘later’ that exists anywhere but in the human imagination.” — initial post (Josh, friend) This is so true. The subconsciousness only deals in present absolute terms and is irrational too. (Jesse) Not sure what you mean … [Read more…]
I believe in mathematical free will. I believe reality is a mathematical number that preexists and can never die. If we call a “will” the function of selecting among various options, and “free will” as free from both causality (where the next instant is dependent on the previous instant) and randomness (where the next instant … [Read more…]
The universe always works out the way it’s going to work out, even though that doesn’t necessarily mean it works out for you individually or even for the human species.
People, regardless of whether they assume free will or not, are willing to contain harmful behavior.
Though we do not regard a hurricane as “evil”, we still try to understand it, prepare for it, and repair after it. This hurricane, this force of nature, is in the same class as thieves and thugs.
Should criminals be detained by society? Probably. It’s a good first step. At the same time, society should exhibit compassion as far as possible. It is not through revenge that society betters itself, but by cooperation.
Belief in free will is not what causes us to love, or stops us from stealing TVs. It is actually precisely the opposite: Natural will presumes the reason for our love and curiosity and passion and order is because of the people we are and the situations we grew up in.
When you compare free will and automatic will side by side, it turns out free will is the real oppressor.
What is automatic will, precisely? It is choices that are made based on external influences. It is the counterpart to free will, the idea that we can make choices outside of external influences.
Are you freed by free will? No, you enslave yourself when you buy into it. You allow the possibility of fault, of wrongness, even though you operate as a physical process just as a molecule does.