Free Will & Determinism: Trajectory & Inevitability - Part 1

Prologue:

“These forces are trajectories, not destinies. They offer no predictions of where we end up. They tell us simply that in the near future we are headed inevitably in these directions.” - Kevin Kelly: The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future “Becoming, Cognifying, Flowing, Screening, Accessing, Sharing, Filtering, Remixing, Interacting, Tracking, Questioning, and then Beginning.”

“Prince Richard: [the sons - in the dungeon - think they hear Henry II approach] He's here. He'll get no satisfaction out of me. He isn't going to see me beg.

Prince Geoffrey: My you chivalric fool... as if the way one fell down mattered.

Prince Richard: When the fall is all there is, it matters.

From "The Lion in Winter"  When Richard, Geoffrey and John were locked in the dungeon and Henry II was coming down to execute them.

Free Will – Determinism

I am part of a meetup group that discusses issues of science and philosophy. At a recement meeting, there was a presentation on: WHAT CHOICE DO YOU HAVE? — Free will, identity, & tele transportation

https://www.meetup.com/ProvocateursAndPeacemakers/events/239698059/

This talk highlighted different ways of understanding this topic based different world views: Determinism, Predeterminism / Theological Determinism, (Metaphysical) Libertarianism, Dualism, Compatibilism. 

Some of these are extreme views. I think the answer is more in the middle.

I am reminded of the word's of Forest Gump, “I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time.”

Albert Einstein said. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” But if you play poker and if you get the same hand over and over again, this is not insanity but cheating.

As one article put it, sometimes “Na?veté is doing the same thing over and over, and always expecting the same result.” https://www.quantamagazine.org/einsteins-parable-of-quantum-insanity-20150910/

My view point is that before you step off the cliff you have free will. After you step off, your fate is somewhat determined.  

Author’s note: This is a little bit like smoking. Those who never smoked have free will, for those who smoke - it is so hard for them to stop smoking. Kind of like me stopping eating chocolate cake. But I will not go out to eat chocolate cake when it's 20 below outside. Those who smoke go outside in bad weather just to satisfy their addiction. Shows the power of the addiction. Tobacco is the number 1 killer in the world. ~10% of all deaths are due to Tobacco. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/americas-new-tobacco-crisis-the-rich-stopped-smoking-the-poor-didnt/2017/06/13/a63b42ba-4c8c-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html?utm_term=.a9f1c8665f95

I wrote more on addition on this blog: The Emotions of Faith, Family, Pharmacy and Phones - Why We Text https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/emotions-faith-family-pharmacy-phones-why-we-text-doug-hohulin

Where I wrote: This got me thinking of the emotions of both legal and illegal drug and why our society is so drug focused. “According to a report in the International Business Times: An analysis of recent surveys and research studies places the size of the illegal U.S. drug market at $200 billion to $750 billion per year, with most estimates coming in between $400 billion and $500 billion.” https://247wallst.com/economy/2014/05/31/sex-drugs-could-add-800-billion-to-u-s-gdp/

When I was learning to scuba dive, my instructor told me that if you run out of air, you have about 2 minutes before you lose consciousness. You can panic for those 2 minutes or do something productive and try to fix the problem. So maybe “when the fall is all there is,” it DOES matter how you fall because sometimes the fall is NOT all there is.

In the discussion on free will and determinism, there were some in the group that stated they believe in complete determinism but I ask the question if they really believe everything is determined, why make any effort in anything. Whether you work hard or just sit around playing video games, your fate is sealed. All that is left is the fall. 

I like what Wikipedia had to say about this. “Lazy Reason is a pejorative name for a logical argument which holds that since all events are predestined, it is not necessary to carefully deliberate about one's actions.” 

As highlighted in this song:

"When I was just a child in school, I asked my teacher, what should I try?

Should I paint pictures? Should I sing songs? This was her wise reply:

Que sera sera-- Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see;

So, que sera sera-- What will be, will be."

But I am more in agreement with Abraham Lincoln — 'The best way to predict your future is to create it.'

Destiny and your environment

Does your environment, society, community, parents, genes, set your destiny? I would say they set the trajectories of your life but the optimistic in me says that there are things you can do to change “the fall.” The harder you work at it; the more there is a possibility of changing.

To quote Shakespeare, when we fail, "the fault … is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Or as Louis Pasteur stated: “Chance favors the prepared mind.” 

I do not think we should tell children they can do anything if they only try because “anything” is too broad and the word “try” implies only short term work is required.

It is better to say, you can be much more successful if you work hard. You may fail many times but even in failure there is sometimes success. You may need to work hard for many years before becoming successful. 

Byron Reese tells the following story in his book and is a great example of how we can make lives matter.

“In 1981, a businessman named Eugene Lang returned to the elementary school he had attended fifty years earlier in East Harlem. He was to give a talk to the graduating sixth-grade class. His prepared speech could be summed up as “Work hard and you will succeed.” But before he spoke, he chatted with the principal of the school who informed him that only a quarter of these students would finish high school.

This struck Lane so much that he changed his speech. He told the kids about seeing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’ s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 in Washington, DC. He told the kids they should dream their own dreams, and he would help them achieve them. Then he dropped his bombshell: He promised free college tuition to any of his audience that stayed in high school and graduated. He hired a full-time program coordinator to work with the kids and he then partnered with a local organization that provided support to the kids through high school graduation.

So what do you think happened to these kids? Kids who now had a real reason to hope and believe in their future? Well, of the sixty-one original ones, the organization has stayed in contact with fifty-four. Of those fifty-four, 90 percent graduated high school or got their GED (not the 25 percent the principle had predicted to Lang years earlier), and 60 percent went on to college. Almost all of the students hold fulfilling jobs and many of the ones that are now parents vow they will be sending their children to college.

The success of this program has caused it to spread around the country. There are now about two hundred “I Have a Dream” programs in twenty-seven states helping 15,000 “Dreamers.” This is the power of hope. Not hope as an empty wish, but hope as rational thing, a reasoned belief in a better tomorrow."

These 6 grade students were on a trajectory where only 25% would graduate but that was not destiny for these students. Eugene Lang stepped in to make a difference but it took work and energy from Mr. Lang, the students, their parents, teachers and people who worked with the students to make this difference. I do wonder if the government would have established the same program as Mr. Lang, if the students would have done as well. Sometimes we need to think we are getting something special to value it.

An object (or student) either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity (or trajectory), unless acted upon by an outside force.

May we all work hard to change our trajectory for the better so that the “fall” is not all that there is.

Epilogue – Free Will, The Soul & Conscious

“I will not give in, because I oppose it. Not my pride, not my spleen, nor any other of my appetites, but I do, I. Is there, in the midst of all this muscle, no sinew that serves no appetite... of Norfolk's, but is just Norfolk?” --- Sir Thomas More man-for-all-seasons 

A section from Robert Heinlein’s Moon is a harsh mistress gives insight to free will. Manuel who is the friend of Mike (the sentient computer) responded to Mike,

Manuel: “"No, no! Don't want it monitored, don't want it locked and traced. Can you call my home, connect me, and control circuit so that it can't be monitored, can't be locked, can't be traced--even if somebody has programmed just that? Can you do it so that they won't even know their program is bypassed?" 

“Mike hesitated. I suppose it was a question never asked and he had to trace a few thousand possibilities to see if his control of system permitted this novel program.

Mike: "Man, I can do that. I will." 

Authors note: Mike went against his programming because of his friendship with Manuel.

Manuel later said, “don’t ask me to de?ne “free will.” If comforts you to think of Mike [the sentient computer] as simply tossing random numbers in air and switching circuits to match, please do.””

I think sentient, conscious and "free will" have a lot in common. Maybe some animals have some free will. Your pet dog or cat probably does to some degree. Robots do not - currently. 

When we are asked to do something that helps others but could harm us and we say "I can do that and I will", we are exercising our free will. 

I believe that part of one’s soul is “in the midst of all this muscle, sinew and appetite...something that is just Norfolk.”

Free will is like a muscle, exercised it or atrophy / entropy / destiny will take over.  A great example of free will is when a person who is raised in a racist society becomes friend to people of all race. This person rises to greatness “even if somebody has programmed [trained the person to do] just” the opposite”. This type of friendship is the height of free will.

2nd Epilogue

In The Star Trek episode: the measure of a man, Starfleet must determine if Data is a sentient life form when transfer orders demand his reassignment for study and disassembly.

Captain Picard stated: "Commander Riker has dramatically demonstrated to this court that Lieutenant Commander Data is a machine. Do we deny that? No, because it is not relevant - we too are machines, just machines of a different type. Commander Riker has also reminded us that Lieutenant Commander Data was created by a man; do we deny that? No. Again it is not relevant. Children are created from the 'building blocks' of their parents' DNA. Are they property?“

"Your honor, the courtroom is a crucible; in it, we burn away irrelevancies until we are left with a purer product: the truth, for all time.”

3 criteria for a being to be sentient: intelligence, self awareness, and consciousness

[“Self-awareness is creating a model of the world and simulating the future in which you appear.” Michio Kaku]

The Judge states: "Is Data a machine? Yes. Is he the property of Starfleet? No. We've all been dancing around the basic issue: does Data have a soul?  [Does he Have Free Will] I don't know that he has. I don't know that I have! But I have got to give him the freedom to explore that question himself.

I am planning writing a multi part blog on Free Will & Determinism. Here is part 1. Other parts:

• Entropy & Complexity – Similarities between the Universe and Humanity and Thoughts on Free Will – Part 2 https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/entropy-complexity-similarities-between-universe-humanity-hohulin?published=t
• Predictive Analytics & Automation: are we giving out free will over to machines: Accessing, Sharing, Filtering, Searching – Part 3
• Quantum Computers & the Multiverse and Optimizing the future – Part 4
• What World Do You Want to Live In: Terminator World, Wall-E World or Baymax World – Part 5