'Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end,
by forces over which we have no control. It is determined
for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune,
intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.'
Albert Einstein.
Is everything determined by some unseen force?
Well, let us consider for a moment free-will and choice. Is there such a thing as free-will or random choice? We would think so wouldn't we? I mean, whenever i decide to make a cup of coffee or spark a cigarette, are they not my own choices? If they aren't, it certainly doesn't feel like i am 'dancing to some pipers tune', as Einstein once put it. No, it feels like i am dancing to my own...
Whenever i wake up... is that not random? Whenever i feel or act on the spur of the moment... is that not certainly random? Whenever a single drop of rain falls on my head, out of the countless droplets from the sky... again, is that not random? If we closed our eyes and manically punched buttons on the phone... is that not random?
All these things, these seemingly sudden acts seem quite random; but that may not be all there inexorably is to it. We are taught that anything observable everyday, that is macroevents, like the cat walking by my window, is made up of tiny particles and we never really think twice about it. Somehow, the Macroevent is a single statistic, made up of many other statistics - but these countless Microsystems are normally never taken into account. Thus, if i see that cat walking by, i would normally think that it was in control of what it was doing; i wouldn't think that every movement is determined for it some how by the coherence of its molecular structure.
But, and here is the rub, what controls the atoms and molecules? Who assigns these probabilities so that the cat can have mobility? Likewise, who assigns the probability to any make-up of life and reality, the mobile and immobile? Do atoms randomly join because a suitable partner comes along, or is there importance about the particles and their positions and their locations, even though out of it can only arise uncertainty for ourselves?
Perhaps. We plod through life, and we are aware of some extraordinary things. There are certain laws that function matter at the macro-level and that do not hold when down at the micro-level. These laws have about them the categoristic natures of being, determinable. Some, fair enough, determinable at the expense of another - but, determinable nonetheless. And it is out of this determinism - this, apparent function that has written all over it the universal law that interests me. After all, if a piece of matter, for instance curves space, then there is a rule there, written, determined that allows it to do so, isn't there?
However, the antipathy of all of this is that we are not sure whether or not that reality is determined by some higher field of force that whenever anything is done, is completely known by some God or simply written into space and time like a genetic code. Yet - here is the very argument. What is this force that permeates existence, allowing the rain to fall, the bees to hum, and the inevitable drive within all of life? Again, why do we even choose to do the things that we ever will do in one life time?
If existence is all determined somehow, where is this knowledge coming from? A rather interesting theory has come from astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. He believes that it might be possible that in something like 100 tosses of a coin, there might be a hidden message encoded within the results. This information, according to Hoyle, is in fact coming from the future. Now, if this is true, is that how anything comes about with its seemingly ordered existences in the present? Hoyle believes so. He attributes this flow of knowledge from superintelligence in the future. We are, i admit supposed to take this seriously by physics - but it is not easy for the non-scientist sometimes. If information is coming from the future, seems to indicate that a future exists now, but to explain to people that the future exists right now is very hard for anyone to grasp.
Indeed, if everything is written out before us, then it is possible that we can understand a grand unification of physics… Of course, this depends on whether the universe will allow us to unify it so simply next to its intense complexity.
If everything is determined - with every outcome written somewhere before it transpires, then we should realize that all biological life, including ourselves are born with a certain amount of heartbeats, therefore, we should all try and make the most out of life...
What do you think? Do you think we have free will, or do you think that free will aint so free?
Reiku :m:
by forces over which we have no control. It is determined
for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune,
intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.'
Albert Einstein.
Is everything determined by some unseen force?
Well, let us consider for a moment free-will and choice. Is there such a thing as free-will or random choice? We would think so wouldn't we? I mean, whenever i decide to make a cup of coffee or spark a cigarette, are they not my own choices? If they aren't, it certainly doesn't feel like i am 'dancing to some pipers tune', as Einstein once put it. No, it feels like i am dancing to my own...
Whenever i wake up... is that not random? Whenever i feel or act on the spur of the moment... is that not certainly random? Whenever a single drop of rain falls on my head, out of the countless droplets from the sky... again, is that not random? If we closed our eyes and manically punched buttons on the phone... is that not random?
All these things, these seemingly sudden acts seem quite random; but that may not be all there inexorably is to it. We are taught that anything observable everyday, that is macroevents, like the cat walking by my window, is made up of tiny particles and we never really think twice about it. Somehow, the Macroevent is a single statistic, made up of many other statistics - but these countless Microsystems are normally never taken into account. Thus, if i see that cat walking by, i would normally think that it was in control of what it was doing; i wouldn't think that every movement is determined for it some how by the coherence of its molecular structure.
But, and here is the rub, what controls the atoms and molecules? Who assigns these probabilities so that the cat can have mobility? Likewise, who assigns the probability to any make-up of life and reality, the mobile and immobile? Do atoms randomly join because a suitable partner comes along, or is there importance about the particles and their positions and their locations, even though out of it can only arise uncertainty for ourselves?
Perhaps. We plod through life, and we are aware of some extraordinary things. There are certain laws that function matter at the macro-level and that do not hold when down at the micro-level. These laws have about them the categoristic natures of being, determinable. Some, fair enough, determinable at the expense of another - but, determinable nonetheless. And it is out of this determinism - this, apparent function that has written all over it the universal law that interests me. After all, if a piece of matter, for instance curves space, then there is a rule there, written, determined that allows it to do so, isn't there?
However, the antipathy of all of this is that we are not sure whether or not that reality is determined by some higher field of force that whenever anything is done, is completely known by some God or simply written into space and time like a genetic code. Yet - here is the very argument. What is this force that permeates existence, allowing the rain to fall, the bees to hum, and the inevitable drive within all of life? Again, why do we even choose to do the things that we ever will do in one life time?
If existence is all determined somehow, where is this knowledge coming from? A rather interesting theory has come from astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. He believes that it might be possible that in something like 100 tosses of a coin, there might be a hidden message encoded within the results. This information, according to Hoyle, is in fact coming from the future. Now, if this is true, is that how anything comes about with its seemingly ordered existences in the present? Hoyle believes so. He attributes this flow of knowledge from superintelligence in the future. We are, i admit supposed to take this seriously by physics - but it is not easy for the non-scientist sometimes. If information is coming from the future, seems to indicate that a future exists now, but to explain to people that the future exists right now is very hard for anyone to grasp.
Indeed, if everything is written out before us, then it is possible that we can understand a grand unification of physics… Of course, this depends on whether the universe will allow us to unify it so simply next to its intense complexity.
If everything is determined - with every outcome written somewhere before it transpires, then we should realize that all biological life, including ourselves are born with a certain amount of heartbeats, therefore, we should all try and make the most out of life...
What do you think? Do you think we have free will, or do you think that free will aint so free?
Reiku :m:
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