During a lunch discussion, some of my colleagues brought in the point of “In true sense there is no free will”. It started with finding a brinjal in my plate -> to justifying animal testing -> to free will.. sorry, to “no free will”. Don’t ask me the logic of the conversation. It is the “programming defect” of the spokesman. The end conclusion is they believed, oops, wrong usage,… inferred that human = complex machine + chemical reactions. That is, there is nothing more to a human than a hardware and a software. You are existing only due to the cause and effect principle and hence you are in constant bondage of the infinite factors that rule you. You - meaning the machine alias human.
Well, this inference sounded very similar to the kinder garden story of fate and destiny.
In both cases, you don’t have the power to change. Though the reasons quoted are vaguely different.
About fate and destiny, I always thought it is an excuse for a lazy person not to live life.
About “no free will”, I would like to say some more for more robots / humans to infer:
He said "Animal testing is fine because it is much more complex to derive results out of human when compared to a mice or whatever. Humans suffer from placebo effect that ones they suggest something is working or not working, then it can cure or sicken them accordingly". I dont deny that mind power and thoughts do have effect in a person's health. But dismissing every other possible medication (other than allopathy) as placebo looks equally blind to me. And the logic of - "It is ok to kill a mice for my testing, than to kill a volunteer human." sounds like Hitler's concentration camps. Well anyway Hitler didnt value Jews lives equal to his race. So he obviously didnt find it wrong. So obviously, this person is not finding it wrong, killing another life form for the testing of whatever for the betterment of his species. Does this world need more of Hitler's attitude?
When he was referring to action due to cause and effect, I remarked "Karma". Immediately he jumped and
shrugged away. "Definitely not that. Dont use that word". Well it is common knowledge Karma is a sanskrit word and is used to describe action due to cause and effect. What is there to jerk like this on the usage of a much commonly used "our language" word? Well, if it is some "rendezvous" or some word of a fancy language from the west, then people of this country use it with pride. But the same people feel shameful to acknowledge some word of a language of the same nation. Infact they are even sometimes ready to acknowledge Far Eastern language words which are borrowed knowledge from this land. But if it is from here, one is ashamed to acknowledge. Isnt this "wrong wiring"?
Ok, coming back to "no free will",
Am I compelled due to my infinite factors at every point of time in my life? Am I living a life only by chance? I tried applying this theory, oops sorry inference on the person who proposed it. Earlier in the conversation, I said “Well, if this theory or inference is correct, anyone can go kill / loot anyone and say it is out of compulsion. So why should he be punished?” He said “There is nothing such as crime. It is because he is lot dangerous and for the safety of the other humans, as a survival extinct, he is kept on guard”. Later he was driving the car and cursed how idiotic that policeman was, for putting the green signal just for 3 seconds. I remarked, “Hmm, there is anyway nothing called as crime according to you. maybe he was programmed that way and maybe you are programmed to react this way”.. He said “Come on yaar, they should have some responsibility”. I asked “Where is the question of responsibility when there is no choice?”
Because according to his inference, If you by chance imbibe responsibility or whatever other quality, it would be so only if the infinite factors influencing are aligned. Doesn’t it sound similar to stars alignment or in some other words fate? So this concludes, if you don’t have free will, you don’t have a choice. If you don’t have a choice, you obviously cannot choose the course of actions, which is for the greater good of the society. If all your actions are compulsive in nature, you cannot do anything other than what is destined by the chemicals within you.
So now doesn’t this inference sound similar to fate or destiny?
In order to prove how suffocating such a thought can be and drive you crazy, I kept on reiterating to him, for every action, "this is anyway compulsive." "What to do, anyway you don’t have free will." "You are anyway acting so because your chemicals are saying so." "Oh that’s just your hormones reacting." When he said something emotional, I said "oh your software is seeming to give a wrong output. Anyway I will choose to \ignore."
What else to do with someone who is in the illusion of MATRIX? Atleast in MATRIX, you could come out of it as it is after all the machines, which were controlling. Here he says there are infinite factors such as genes, environment, blah, blah that are controlling, which you obviously cannot get hold of as they are “infinite”. So what the hell to do, to break out of the MATRIX? The next step is to take him to a psychiatrist as in between he made a statement, “There is no mind. It is also a loaded word. I have only brains. Prove it to me how do I have a mind”. Well, this is as foolish as the cinematic question "prove your love to me". Intuitively you know certain things. If everything has to be logically derived, well, I can just say you are not using one part of your brains. Maybe again some "circuit defect"?
Is it so difficult to sense there is life throbbing within you and there is a possibility of free will? I don’t know. It looks like it is so difficult for a lot of people around me as they are blind-folded to the belief there is no free will. They are content with being a bunch of machine parts with some chemical reactions. I am not. So I am seeking. I am not making a statement here “There is free will and I am doing 100% as per my will”. But I would like to explore the possibilities of balancing the chemical reactions and creating thoughts that is conducive to life within and around me. Just because most of the fellow humans compulsively choose to be robots (act as programmed) and live a compulsive life naming it fate or “no free will”, I think influencing others on this regard is dangerous to the welfare of humans in general. If there is no free will, there is no choice to change you or the world to betterment. It may happen by chance. But do you want to live by chance or choice? That’s what decides whether you are a robot or life.
Well, this inference sounded very similar to the kinder garden story of fate and destiny.
In both cases, you don’t have the power to change. Though the reasons quoted are vaguely different.
About fate and destiny, I always thought it is an excuse for a lazy person not to live life.
About “no free will”, I would like to say some more for more robots / humans to infer:
He said "Animal testing is fine because it is much more complex to derive results out of human when compared to a mice or whatever. Humans suffer from placebo effect that ones they suggest something is working or not working, then it can cure or sicken them accordingly". I dont deny that mind power and thoughts do have effect in a person's health. But dismissing every other possible medication (other than allopathy) as placebo looks equally blind to me. And the logic of - "It is ok to kill a mice for my testing, than to kill a volunteer human." sounds like Hitler's concentration camps. Well anyway Hitler didnt value Jews lives equal to his race. So he obviously didnt find it wrong. So obviously, this person is not finding it wrong, killing another life form for the testing of whatever for the betterment of his species. Does this world need more of Hitler's attitude?
When he was referring to action due to cause and effect, I remarked "Karma". Immediately he jumped and
shrugged away. "Definitely not that. Dont use that word". Well it is common knowledge Karma is a sanskrit word and is used to describe action due to cause and effect. What is there to jerk like this on the usage of a much commonly used "our language" word? Well, if it is some "rendezvous" or some word of a fancy language from the west, then people of this country use it with pride. But the same people feel shameful to acknowledge some word of a language of the same nation. Infact they are even sometimes ready to acknowledge Far Eastern language words which are borrowed knowledge from this land. But if it is from here, one is ashamed to acknowledge. Isnt this "wrong wiring"?
Ok, coming back to "no free will",
Am I compelled due to my infinite factors at every point of time in my life? Am I living a life only by chance? I tried applying this theory, oops sorry inference on the person who proposed it. Earlier in the conversation, I said “Well, if this theory or inference is correct, anyone can go kill / loot anyone and say it is out of compulsion. So why should he be punished?” He said “There is nothing such as crime. It is because he is lot dangerous and for the safety of the other humans, as a survival extinct, he is kept on guard”. Later he was driving the car and cursed how idiotic that policeman was, for putting the green signal just for 3 seconds. I remarked, “Hmm, there is anyway nothing called as crime according to you. maybe he was programmed that way and maybe you are programmed to react this way”.. He said “Come on yaar, they should have some responsibility”. I asked “Where is the question of responsibility when there is no choice?”
Because according to his inference, If you by chance imbibe responsibility or whatever other quality, it would be so only if the infinite factors influencing are aligned. Doesn’t it sound similar to stars alignment or in some other words fate? So this concludes, if you don’t have free will, you don’t have a choice. If you don’t have a choice, you obviously cannot choose the course of actions, which is for the greater good of the society. If all your actions are compulsive in nature, you cannot do anything other than what is destined by the chemicals within you.
So now doesn’t this inference sound similar to fate or destiny?
In order to prove how suffocating such a thought can be and drive you crazy, I kept on reiterating to him, for every action, "this is anyway compulsive." "What to do, anyway you don’t have free will." "You are anyway acting so because your chemicals are saying so." "Oh that’s just your hormones reacting." When he said something emotional, I said "oh your software is seeming to give a wrong output. Anyway I will choose to \ignore."
What else to do with someone who is in the illusion of MATRIX? Atleast in MATRIX, you could come out of it as it is after all the machines, which were controlling. Here he says there are infinite factors such as genes, environment, blah, blah that are controlling, which you obviously cannot get hold of as they are “infinite”. So what the hell to do, to break out of the MATRIX? The next step is to take him to a psychiatrist as in between he made a statement, “There is no mind. It is also a loaded word. I have only brains. Prove it to me how do I have a mind”. Well, this is as foolish as the cinematic question "prove your love to me". Intuitively you know certain things. If everything has to be logically derived, well, I can just say you are not using one part of your brains. Maybe again some "circuit defect"?
Is it so difficult to sense there is life throbbing within you and there is a possibility of free will? I don’t know. It looks like it is so difficult for a lot of people around me as they are blind-folded to the belief there is no free will. They are content with being a bunch of machine parts with some chemical reactions. I am not. So I am seeking. I am not making a statement here “There is free will and I am doing 100% as per my will”. But I would like to explore the possibilities of balancing the chemical reactions and creating thoughts that is conducive to life within and around me. Just because most of the fellow humans compulsively choose to be robots (act as programmed) and live a compulsive life naming it fate or “no free will”, I think influencing others on this regard is dangerous to the welfare of humans in general. If there is no free will, there is no choice to change you or the world to betterment. It may happen by chance. But do you want to live by chance or choice? That’s what decides whether you are a robot or life.
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