Vinceland

Been reading a lot about (and not really comprehending) the (non)existence of free will and determinism. Before I begin, feel free to read this: Dilbert Blog.

In it, Scott Adams quotes from a Time magazine article about Albert Einstein’s views on Faith. I had read this a few weeks ago, when it was first published. The quote Scott uses is by Schopenhauer: “A man can do as he wills, but not will as he wills.”

This means that although you can control what you DO, you have no control over what you WANT to do. For most of us, that may still feel like free will, or we can fool ourselves into believing we have total control over our actions.

The reason we have no control over what we want to do is because of the vast amount of outside influence the past and future has over us. For example, there are many reasons I turned out the way I did: standard hair cut, beard, standard wardrobe, average grades. And I made many of the decisions that led me here. But I didn’t make all of them, nor did I have exclusive influence over every decision and every action and every outcome of my life. It would be impossible, there are too many outside influencers over which we have no control. Weather is a biggie. Time being the best one. And, well, the Laws of Nature get in the way too.

Imagine driving down the highway, in light traffic. There are a few cars on the right, and a few on the left as you travel down the middle lane. Some cars are moving faster than you, and some slower. Somehow, you’ve landed in the middle lane, you’re not sure why, but you find yourself there. You’d like to believe you put yourself there on your own, right? That you guided your vehicle down the path to righteousness? You’d like to think you can switch lanes whenever you want, weave in and out of traffic, move at your own pace. Feels good to be in control, eh?

Well, you’re still out of control, because you can’t drive freely, there are painted lines designed to keep you moving in a certain direction. And you can’t travel at the speed of light, because your vehicle is not capable. And you gotta check the mirrors before you change lanes or there’s a good chance you’ll die. You don’t live in a vacuum. You live in a world that is designed to control you. You have no choice, you stay in the lane and you drive somewhere between 56-78 mph.

Such is life. You’re managing a life the same way we manage web projects. Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

• Planning = Various degrees of schooling. K-12 perhaps.
• Design = College, Grad, MD.
• Production = Your new Job and Taxes.
• Testing and Launch = Marriage and a Family.
• Maintenance Plan = 401k.
• Time for a Redesign = Retirement.

You’re on a road that’s been mapped out for years ahead of time. You’re not original at all, there are thousands just like you.

Now, here’s the jacked part: If we have no control over what we want, then how can we prosecute criminals? Their guilt is based on the ability to willingly choose to do wrong. The only way they can get off is by proving mental defect… unless we have no free will.

If we have no free will, and cannot control the reasons behind our actions, then everyone is innocent of everything. This is called Determinism, and it kinda rules! Kinda…

Determinism points to the place you are today, and says: “You are here because of every single thing that’s happened up to now, not because you chose to be here.” Other events, in an unbroken chain since the beginning of time, led to you arriving here, now, today. So feel free to believe you put yourself here, but there are thousands of years, lives, sunsets and thunderstorms that say otherwise. Have a happy.

It’s kinda odd to feel out of control, to realize we’re all living in each other’s vacuums, instead of within our own. But if this idea sunk in a bit, and people became used to the fact that we’re all connected by a common history of everyday events since the beginning, we might stop bombing, shooting, yelling and hitting so much. It’s too simple a concept, almost, to fully comprehend. Which is why it may never work.