Think of a city, any city. Once you come to your decision, read on.
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Did you think of Cairo? I hope not as that would make the rest pretty useless. If you did not think of Cairo, why not? If you are like me (Philadelphia), Cairo never came into my head. I could not rationally reject Cairo as I never considered Cairo. I thought of about 4 cities, was about to say London when something came into my mind that London was too obvious and Philadelphia quickly entered. No debate, no careful weighing of pros and cons, Philadelphia because it was less obvious than London.
Here is a YouTube video of Sam Harris discussing free will. He uses the above question in the video to suggest we do not have free will. Free will assumes we have all the information before us and make careful consideration based on that information. Rather, something deep in our subconscious controls our thoughts and our higher faculties respond just to them. My subconscious never allowed my conscious to consider Cairo, therefore I had no free will to choose Cairo.
He also mentions a test they run in the lab. With the subject attached to brain monitors, they tell the subject they will get to choose between pressing a button on the left and a button on the right. There is a giant clock between the two. All they have to do is decide and not the exact time their mind made that decision. What they discover in the lab is the area of the brain fires at least several tenths of a second, if not several seconds, before the person believes they made their decision. A few tenths might be a timing error, but several seconds? If your brain has decided seconds before your conscious has decided what does that mean? Is it free will, or is your conscious just mirroring the subconscious but believes it has control?
Elsewhere on this page is a debate on sexual preference. I hesitate to add this as I don’t want to focus solely on that aspect. But it does tie in. I never remember a time in my youth, or now, that I looked at a guy and thought “wow, fill in your favorite innuendo here”. I never remember my subconscious passing that thought up to my conscious. I do know there have been plenty of times I’ve looked at women and had that reaction. I don’t recall ever taking a double-take on a man, I have often on women. IF this is a choice, should not I look at a handsome man just to have my conscious say “hey, we made a choice to be straight, look away”?
One of the items Sam Harris brings up is Charles Whitman. If you don’t recall, he climbed the tower in Texas and started shooting people. Whitman left a note asking for his brain to be looked at. He knew there was something wrong, he shouldn’t have the thoughts he had. But he had them. Sure enough, they found a tumor in an area that may cause violent tendencies. There is an open debate if the tumor caused Whitman to climb that tower. But the fact it was there and in an area one would expect it given the symptoms seems fairly coincidental.
Harris points out that Whitman is easy, there is a strange mass. But that all of our brains have items. Some synopsis may just be wired in my brain to fire a certain way, some paths may be easier in my brain than yours. And of course, easier in your brain than mine. I have no musical talent. I don’t recall ever rejecting music. I just remember that I’ve never been able to keep a beat (even today after thousands of times I have to watch people clapping to the IU fight song to clap along or I will get way off beat).
If that can happen with music, can that happen with food (obesity)? Can it happen with crime, work, bigotry, etc? Can some people just be wired that differently? If the subconscious never passes Cairo up to the conscious, how can the conscious accept or reject it? If the idea of not doing drugs never comes up from the subconscious, can the conscious seriously consider that as an alternative?
It is often mentioned how lucky some on welfare have it. The government pays them and they don’t have to work. They can sit at home, eat bon-bons and watch Jerry Springer on my nickel. My question is, if that is such a wonderful life, why don’t we choose it? My subconscious never passes that to my conscious as a serious choice. I am guessing those that are more conservative who make that observation also don’t seriously consider this option. But why not? If it is such a great life, wouldn’t we be idiots to not consider the option? The answer may be that we aren’t wired that way.
Harris points out that we can’t even control our next thoughts. How often does an idea just pop into your head? Have you ever been in a meeting and had a thought about some external event (basketball, politics, what to eat for dinner) just pop into your mind? Did you consciously choose at that moment to think about clam chowder? Or did some more base instinct bring it up? If it is the latter, is that a sign of free will or something more controlling your thoughts than your conscious self?
Now the video is long, and even I haven’t finished it. A friend described it to me in much detail. I’m not sure I completely by the thought that we have no free will, but it does cause me to question how much free will we have. If there is perfect free will, would I not have a recollection of wanting to look at both Stephanie and Steve and deciding Stephanie was the way to go? Would I not be capable of completely reevaluating everything about my life and making changes quite often based on this conscious evaluation? I don’t recall ever deciding that living in Section 8 on welfare was something I did not want to do, why not?
I fear the truth is that we have some control over our thoughts, but that it isn’t nearly the amount of control we would like to believe. Evolutionary, the conscious mind is fairly new and is laid on top of the more base operating system. Our conscious mind wants to believe it is the alpha in the system, but it seems the conscious mind can only respond to what that base system allows it to. If the base system never allows the conscious mind to consider Cairo, how much free will does the conscious mind have to choose Cairo?
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
Did you think of Cairo? I hope not as that would make the rest pretty useless. If you did not think of Cairo, why not? If you are like me (Philadelphia), Cairo never came into my head. I could not rationally reject Cairo as I never considered Cairo. I thought of about 4 cities, was about to say London when something came into my mind that London was too obvious and Philadelphia quickly entered. No debate, no careful weighing of pros and cons, Philadelphia because it was less obvious than London.
Here is a YouTube video of Sam Harris discussing free will. He uses the above question in the video to suggest we do not have free will. Free will assumes we have all the information before us and make careful consideration based on that information. Rather, something deep in our subconscious controls our thoughts and our higher faculties respond just to them. My subconscious never allowed my conscious to consider Cairo, therefore I had no free will to choose Cairo.
He also mentions a test they run in the lab. With the subject attached to brain monitors, they tell the subject they will get to choose between pressing a button on the left and a button on the right. There is a giant clock between the two. All they have to do is decide and not the exact time their mind made that decision. What they discover in the lab is the area of the brain fires at least several tenths of a second, if not several seconds, before the person believes they made their decision. A few tenths might be a timing error, but several seconds? If your brain has decided seconds before your conscious has decided what does that mean? Is it free will, or is your conscious just mirroring the subconscious but believes it has control?
Elsewhere on this page is a debate on sexual preference. I hesitate to add this as I don’t want to focus solely on that aspect. But it does tie in. I never remember a time in my youth, or now, that I looked at a guy and thought “wow, fill in your favorite innuendo here”. I never remember my subconscious passing that thought up to my conscious. I do know there have been plenty of times I’ve looked at women and had that reaction. I don’t recall ever taking a double-take on a man, I have often on women. IF this is a choice, should not I look at a handsome man just to have my conscious say “hey, we made a choice to be straight, look away”?
One of the items Sam Harris brings up is Charles Whitman. If you don’t recall, he climbed the tower in Texas and started shooting people. Whitman left a note asking for his brain to be looked at. He knew there was something wrong, he shouldn’t have the thoughts he had. But he had them. Sure enough, they found a tumor in an area that may cause violent tendencies. There is an open debate if the tumor caused Whitman to climb that tower. But the fact it was there and in an area one would expect it given the symptoms seems fairly coincidental.
Harris points out that Whitman is easy, there is a strange mass. But that all of our brains have items. Some synopsis may just be wired in my brain to fire a certain way, some paths may be easier in my brain than yours. And of course, easier in your brain than mine. I have no musical talent. I don’t recall ever rejecting music. I just remember that I’ve never been able to keep a beat (even today after thousands of times I have to watch people clapping to the IU fight song to clap along or I will get way off beat).
If that can happen with music, can that happen with food (obesity)? Can it happen with crime, work, bigotry, etc? Can some people just be wired that differently? If the subconscious never passes Cairo up to the conscious, how can the conscious accept or reject it? If the idea of not doing drugs never comes up from the subconscious, can the conscious seriously consider that as an alternative?
It is often mentioned how lucky some on welfare have it. The government pays them and they don’t have to work. They can sit at home, eat bon-bons and watch Jerry Springer on my nickel. My question is, if that is such a wonderful life, why don’t we choose it? My subconscious never passes that to my conscious as a serious choice. I am guessing those that are more conservative who make that observation also don’t seriously consider this option. But why not? If it is such a great life, wouldn’t we be idiots to not consider the option? The answer may be that we aren’t wired that way.
Harris points out that we can’t even control our next thoughts. How often does an idea just pop into your head? Have you ever been in a meeting and had a thought about some external event (basketball, politics, what to eat for dinner) just pop into your mind? Did you consciously choose at that moment to think about clam chowder? Or did some more base instinct bring it up? If it is the latter, is that a sign of free will or something more controlling your thoughts than your conscious self?
Now the video is long, and even I haven’t finished it. A friend described it to me in much detail. I’m not sure I completely by the thought that we have no free will, but it does cause me to question how much free will we have. If there is perfect free will, would I not have a recollection of wanting to look at both Stephanie and Steve and deciding Stephanie was the way to go? Would I not be capable of completely reevaluating everything about my life and making changes quite often based on this conscious evaluation? I don’t recall ever deciding that living in Section 8 on welfare was something I did not want to do, why not?
I fear the truth is that we have some control over our thoughts, but that it isn’t nearly the amount of control we would like to believe. Evolutionary, the conscious mind is fairly new and is laid on top of the more base operating system. Our conscious mind wants to believe it is the alpha in the system, but it seems the conscious mind can only respond to what that base system allows it to. If the base system never allows the conscious mind to consider Cairo, how much free will does the conscious mind have to choose Cairo?