I’ve been thinking a bit on some of the issues modern science raises in regards to free will. One issue, a big one, can be described as follows: Science, particularly neuroscience, has shown that all of our mental processes – thoughts, emotions, decisions, the willing of actions – have physical correlates in the brain. So, if I think about my dog, or my job, or my upcoming date with Scarlett Johansson, electricity shoots down nerve pathways in my brain and chemicals leap across brain synapses. Without these activities happening at a molecular level, I would have no mental life. Therefore, the mental is physical.
However, as Isaac Newton showed, the physical world operates according to set laws. Various forces in the physical world (gravity, magnetism etc.) act upon objects, be they mountains or atoms. There is no random chance in the physical world because it is subservient to these aforementioned, immutable laws. As a result, any activity in the universe is preordained, part of an infinitely complex game of billiards kicked off at the dawn of time.
However, if our mental lives are the result of physical activities then our mental lives – our thoughts and decisions – are also dictated by Newton’s observed laws. And if the activities of our brain are simply a part of the great billiard game in the universe then they are also preordained and as a result we have no free will.
Of course, Quantum Physics disputes the Newtonian Universe and does postulate the existence of randomness in the universe. Maybe that randomness allows for free will on the part of man? Maybe, but it seems more likely to me that seemingly random actions in the Quantum Physics realm are merely caused by non-random events we simply can’t see or understand with our meager science tools.
What then are the ramifications of an ordered universe with no free will? Let’s say you came home and found me boning your sister. You would become enraged and would attempt to assault me as I leapt, pants-less, across your living room. I would say, “Dude, I understand you’re pissed because I’m boning your sister but you have to understand that the decision was not mine to make. It was ordained eons ago when the universe was born and steaming hot projections of matter were sent shooting outward into a space that had not existed just moments before. As the second hand of the cosmic clock first ticked it was inevitable I would eventually bone your sister.”
You would doubtless become calm realizing the irrefutable logic of my argument.
I’ve commented in the past on the observation, made by many, that creative, artistic types seem to become less creative with time. In the realm of music, art, film etc., an artist past age 50 or so is over the hill and assumed to be no longer capable of exciting work. Their output may have a technical mastery, but no soul.
Today, a possible evolutionary reason for this struck me. Let’s presume that the main “purpose” of artistic talent (from an evolutionary perspective) is to attract a mate. Artists are fundamentally honing their skills to be seen as talented by attractive consorts. These consorts are presumably “thinking” (on a subconscious level), “This artist has skills. As such, our progeny would also have skills and be able to earn a mate and thus carry on my genes. It would be in the interests of my cellular lineage to mate with this artist.” However, it’s at around 50 or so that people become physically unattractive and their abilty to solicit sex dissolves. Our bodies know that at this age all the talent in the world won’t make up for our hideous appearences, our flabby wrinkled flesh, our inabilty to control our own flatuence, etc. As a result, there is no longer a reason to inspire any kind of creative drive, to perculate the creative juices, to stoke the artistic embers. Our brain essentially gives up and resolves itself to watching Cheers reruns with a martini in hand, immolating our once great frontal cortex in alcohol and mediocrity.
Teenagers… they can’t do anything right. For instance:
…an appeals court in Illinois recently ruled that a woman is allowed to sue a dead teen’s estate for injuries caused by his flying body parts. The 18-year-old boy was running across the Amtrak tracks to catch another train but didn’t make it — he was hit by an oncoming train going 70 mph and his body was torn apart by the force and flung onto a nearby passengers’ waiting platform. The woman, 58, was struck by a sizable chunk of the boy’s body and was knocked to the ground, breaking her leg and wrist.
Well, in munich now. This is one city that’s not blowing me away. Leavng for luxemborg tommorrow.
I was thinking of a good gag today. You go up to a sales or hotel clerk and ask, ” Do you speak english?” When they say yes, you say, “wergly scnerzle flug? Disbobble nerfle strighterf! Zard? Zard! Zard!”
I was walking around Prague castle a couple nights ago and was very impressed with the gargoyle statues. They kind of look like they’re throwing up on you. So I came up with this link to photographs of the boys in all their splendor.
I’m in Warsaw right now, having a martini that tastes like it was made out of vodka and man sweat. Nonetheless, this town has a lot more charm than I thought it would. Frankly, I didn’t put much thought into it, but it’s charming.
I also note that Wayno, the cartoonist who did the artwork for my book and CDs, has taken over the syndicated newspaper comic Bizarro for a week. You can view some of the installments here.
So far, the trip to Germany is going well. I was inside the famed Berlin Cathedral today, taking a picture of the nativity scene, when it struck me that I was taking a picture of the first Christmas day, on Christmas Day. As a result, I was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. This garnered me the ability to fly and shoot lasers out of my eyes.
Well, I’m setting out today to begin my trip through Eastern Europe. I will return on January 14. Its hard to say how much blogging I’ll do; maybe little, maybe a lot. Who knows? Part of enjoying life is embracing its mysteries.
