Transcript
WEBVTT
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Free will has to have limits and boundaries.
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I mean, what are we pushing against?
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We're pushing against circumstances that structure reality.
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If there are no reality, they we'd be floating in space.
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There would be nothing to push or change.
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All right.
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Welcome to the New Age Human podcast.
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I'm your host, Jon Anastasio.
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And today we're talking with David Lawrence was the author of, are we really biochemical robots?
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Right?
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Are we spiritual beings?
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Are we just flesh?
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That's programmed.
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Um, so we discuss misconceptions around consciousness and free will, and at the very end stick around because we now insert quantum physics and that whole freewill debate all makes sense.
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So that's gonna be really cool.
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if you have any questions, you can email me at jon@newagehuman.com.
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And then join the telegram channel, where we discuss topics mentioned in the show, and more importantly sharing what topics are of most interest to you.
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So with that said, let's get to the show.
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Thanks for listening.
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Let's go.
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welcome to the show, my friend.
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How's it going?
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Thank you.
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Thanks for inviting me.
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Yeah, we had a, a, a couple minutes before this and we were chatting and, um, if you see cats in the background, if you're watching this if you see cats in the background they look just like my one cat.
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So, be entertained if you wanna watch the video.
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So let's get it to it.
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So you have a book, biochemical robots and, um, the conscious conversation around free will.
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that's an interesting topic because some people feel like and treat us like robots and we can't think ahead versus, you know what, you have all the choices in the world.
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So, what.
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Prompted you to start this book.
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What happened to you man?
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I picked up a book one day and it was by Sam Harris and it was called Free Will.
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And I picked it up because I liked his stuff and I liked him and I read all his books and so forth.
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But this one was like, whoa, this one doesn't work.
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You know?
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And I, I, I intuitively didn't agree with the conclusions, didn't understand all the arguments, and that led to a sort of a journey to this cannot be, where's he coming from?
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And this is a guy I think is smart and I respect and seems very sincere.
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But that was the, uh, the curve ball.
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And it prompted me to, to do some research to write a short article.
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And that article was 20, 40 pages, but it became 60 to 80 pages.
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But it became,
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That's not a short article, man.
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well, no longer, it may be the longest short article that anyone's ever written.
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And that's what prompted it.
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And then I got involved in the, the topic.
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I didn't realize at the time how important.
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The question is, it's just sort of an abstract question, but it's really the basis of everything we do and who we think we are.
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And if we don't have it, then we're completely victimless, I would say, victims to the forces in the universe utterly powerless.
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That's not a pretty picture, and so I said about to say, well, are the arguments for determinism really good?
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Are they sound?
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Are they persuasive?
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And well, so it's interesting because, um, it's, it's interesting to me that, and I'm sure this happens to a lot of people where you pick up a book and you're like, this is an interesting title.
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Let me just read it.
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And then you're like, wait a minute.
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What are you doing?
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Like actually, you know, I don't think it happens that often cuz you read a book and you judge by the cover and you're like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna learn something from this.
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And you, you kind of weed it out in the library.
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Well, if you still go to the library, but you know, online or in Audible or whatever on Amazon.
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So it's interesting how you pick something up and you're like, let's see what's going on.
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And you're like, Nope, nope, that's it.
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I can't.
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I can't let this be, I have to write an article.
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Did you get any pushback?
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Like how, what was that like?
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I mean, did you, what was it like sharing that article?
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I'm, I'm curious.
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It never came out.
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It morphed into a
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Oh,
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I mean, it just, It was a cascade.
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Right.
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You know, straight journey right there.
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And, uh, with a lot of research to get there, with a lot of surprises and a lot of twists along the way.
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So tell us about a surprise.
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What was something that you did on your search?
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Because it's obvious that, like you said, you, you, you skewed more towards which side do you skew to towards free will or
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yes, towards free will, although I'm not, I think it's largely unresolved, but I'm certainly in that direction.
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Okay.
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So, and, and, and trying to analyze and argue free will.
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What was something surprising?
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Because for me, I, I've always been like, you know what?
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Free will all day.
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And randomly I would run into some people that are like, no your future is determined and you're just living that life.
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So, I mean, what, what, what surprised you?
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you, you know what you say to them.
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Here's what you say to them.
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I got an idea, suggestion.
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You say, well, okay, determinism maintains that all of everything that our thoughts, everything.
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We think, all of our actions, they're all determined.
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They're not within our control.
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They're caused by external forces.
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They're forced upon us, right?
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So I said that.
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So you're talking to that guy or gal and you say, So what you just said to me, then you were forced to say, and you were forced to believe not true by your own terms.
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You don't believe that determinism is true because you went out and investigated and determined it was true, no pun intended.
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You were forced to believe it was true.
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So there's no truth in there.
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So
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And then, then if the guy says, no, no, no, no.
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Was it a guy or, I can't remember what you said, but whoever it is, if they say, no, no, you don't understand, it is true.
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I can tell you why.
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A, B, C, D, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
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And then my suggestion is you say, well, okay.
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But then again, if determinism maintains that all of our thoughts are beyond our control and they're put in our head and forced upon us, and we have no choice and we can't think otherwise.
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Then you just gave me a whole bunch of thoughts that were put in your head that would bond or control and you believe them because you were caused to believe them, and you used all those thoughts to justify this other thought that was put in your head.
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That doesn't make any sense, but nothing among those were true because you were forced to to to believe them.
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So how am I supposed to believe anything you're saying at this point?
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Well, it, it, it when someone, in my opinion, when someone argues that there's no free will, then I immediately am thinking, well then, I see you as someone that allows themselves to be easily influenced.
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You don't question things and so therefore you go on with your day thinking that everything is laid out for you and you don't have that rebel personality.
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And that's probably why I rarely run into somebody that thinks that way.
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Do you, like, for example, like where do you find somebody that believes in well, that does not believe in free will?
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Like how, how do you see that life playing out?
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Generally most scientists come from a materialist background
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True.
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and you know, believe the fundamental basis of the universe's material, physical, and that they're trained, I mean, sciences.
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Putting causal chains or links together, let's say between events and, and using those to predict things,
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mm.
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links, similar links.
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So I think the scientific viewpoint is very amenable to that point of view, and a lot of it culturally comes from there.
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Do you feel like someone would have to be religious to believe in a free will?
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It's interesting.
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I, I don't, I don't, it's interesting cuz I don't, you can believe in free will regardless of religion.
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And vice versa in my circulating and talking to people, I have found generally, and this is not statistical enough to really be.
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Super meaningful, but I found that the, those who are religious, whether it's sort of a new age, spirituality or alternative non-denominational spirit or a traditional faith, are far more intuitively aligned with free will and than those not of faith.
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And in, in a sense that makes sense because you have science.
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Causation, lack of free will and religion, spirituality, consciousness, purpose, and so forth.
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Mm.
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And.
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went into it with a misapprehension about that.
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I thought it would be the reverse.
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Well, let's say I thought that, that, that it would be the reverse for whatever reasons having to do with, if there's an almighty power, then you're subject to that almighty power.
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And what I wasn't taking into consideration is under most religions that Almighty power gave us free will.
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For various reasons.
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So that's what I've found.
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No scientific poll.
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But I think I, I think that's in general, I don't know that that's a big picture pattern, it's just what I've found.
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Right, right.
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I will say that the only, the only I mean I say in the book, I mean, new media is just filled with people who are talking about determinism.
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People like Sam Harris, people like all of.
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Renowned physicists who give lectures and appear, the only one I know of, who, who, who has come out of that, of a caliber new media personal's come out for free will, has a spiritual religious bent.
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Again, not a scientific, statistical conclusion, but I do think there's some sort of a pattern that's appearing to me.
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Mm.
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So in
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But you don't have to.
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I mean, you don't have to be one way or the other.
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Yeah, of course.
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I mean, everybody has their free will to have their belief structure, ironically.
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That's the other thing you might say to your, your friend who comes up to you.
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You might say, why are you telling me?
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Are you trying to persuade me that that's true?
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The termin is mist true?
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Well, how can you persuade anybody, if anything, if everything is predetermined?
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hmm.
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And the point being that no, there is no determinant.
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Nobody is a determinist.
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There are people who have a mental scheme in their head about that's how reality works.
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As they then decide the next thing they're gonna do and the next thing they're gonna do, and the next thing they're gonna do, and they affirm the, the, their free will every time they try and persuade somebody and change the course of the universe, which is not possible.
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If, if they don't have, or if the world is determined.
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So I have a whole chapter on how determinants can't be determinists.
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They can't act like it, they can't go about their lives without every moment affirming that they have free will.
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That should be
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Uh, among, among some other, or, and I give some examples of, of things that determinants say, which you could only say if there were free will in the world.
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you give us an example?
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Oh.
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I could look one up.
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Sure there's a I don't need to look one up.
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A very famous evolutionary biologist has terrific lectures on genes and, you know, evolution and so forth says the following.
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It's one of the quotes in the book.
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Everything we think is determined by the neural cascades in our brain.
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And show me a neuron that can just fire on its own without something prior, some prior neural activity.
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And then we can talk about free will.
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Okay.
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Then, I don't know, a minute or two later, someone asks him a question and he says, oh, now that doesn't mean that we should be letting criminals run around on the streets.
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Do harm to people.
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We have to protect society from them.
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Think of it as a a, a broken car or dangerous car, broken on the road.
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You're gonna take it off the road before it hurts somebody, fix it, put it back on the road, or retire it to the garage.
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And so you can see the, the, the just blatant inconsistency.
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It's like, wait a second.
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Who is going to go put criminals off the street?
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If we don't control our actions?
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Who's gonna find them guilty?
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If we don't control our thoughts?
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Who exactly is gonna decide that that car should go into the garage to get fixed?
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And all this, everything.
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He, and, and, and by the way, there was sort of a moral imperative in theirs to do things that don't hurt people.
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You know, protect society from criminals and dangerous cars, uh, that are broken on the road.
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Okay.
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All of that presumes that you have free will, and it presumes there's a moral imperative to, to reduce harm.
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None of that has to do with determinism.
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It, it, it, it violates every determinist principle.
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Hmm.
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I mean, it was two minutes later, but that's why I say that, that, that there, that there is, there are no determinists.
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They can't even talk like determinists.
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Without presuming that they have free will, that you're listening, that you can make judgements and maybe I can persuade you about something and change the course of the universe.
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I'm, so, I'm on.
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The funny thing is I'm on the same side as you and I'm trying to figure out and maybe someone listening is trying to figure out who, who, yeah.
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Was that Zephyr?
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That's Zephyr
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Except fors loud,
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Zephyr from Turkey.
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international cat on, on air.
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Don't blame me for that interruption.
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It was determined I had
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right, right.
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It was all planned.
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It was gonna happen.
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It was gonna happen.
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I'm trying to remember what I was gonna say, but oh yeah.
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So the funny thing is, I, I'm, I am on the same side side as you and I.
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Maybe, maybe I don't get out as much, but I, I rarely run into somebody that is like a determinist.
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And maybe because I, my circles are, you know, the ones that I've built over time.
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But, um, what are some like misconceptions that people have about consciousness and free will that are skewing towards the, the, the determinist side?
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I'm, I'm curious
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How much time do we
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right.
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one of them is that free will, has to be absolute if you don't control everything, you control nothing.
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And Harris has a quote in his book that says, what would it take to have free will?
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I'm paraphrasing a bit.
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You would have to know about and control everything that determines us.
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Biology, physiology, genetics, parents, birth circumstances, everything.
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Mm.
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that's a, that, that's a pretty stupendous misconception, I think was the word you were asking for.
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I mean it, what it does is it confuses influence with control.
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Things can influence us without controlling us or determining us.
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You know, our body can be a, a biological platform for the operation of consciousness.
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Mm-hmm.
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I, if it isn't, you're presuming what you're trying to prove, which is that we're determined, but there's no logical reason why.
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Why genetics?
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Your body where you were born aren't conditions or circumstances in which your free will operates.
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And the misconception is that free will has to be absolute and it's just the opposite.
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Free will has to have limits and boundaries.
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I mean, what are we pushing against?
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We're pushing against circumstances that structure reality.
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If there are no reality, they we'd be floating in space.
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There would be nothing to push or change.
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So, there's this very odd misconception that, that, that everything that influences us, us controls us and no distinction is made.
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We have to control everything or control nothing really.
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So, I, I didn't choose my parents, but I can't talk back to them.
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I can't become an obstreperous child while my brother is the good boy, you know, who always gets the, the goodies, you know, I mean, It, it's just So that's one, that's
00:16:22.768 --> 00:16:23.638
Yeah, that's one.
00:16:24.072 --> 00:16:26.322
You want another, you want another 50?
00:16:27.493 --> 00:16:32.952
We could, let's, let's do one more and then I got a, I got a, a question that keeps popping up in my head.
00:16:32.952 --> 00:16:37.812
I, I want to give it, uh, it's it's, it's determined to ask you.
00:16:37.842 --> 00:16:42.263
So, go ahead, go on your go, go on The second misconception, I'm curious.
00:16:43.802 --> 00:16:46.263
Well, another biggie is that that science.
00:16:47.342 --> 00:16:50.403
Has confirmed that the world is determined.
00:16:51.092 --> 00:16:53.462
There's a physicist who did a a video.
00:16:53.852 --> 00:16:59.827
She's really terrific and does a lot of great videos, but on the one on free will, she says and I think I quoted this one too.
00:16:59.827 --> 00:17:00.307
It was a good one.
00:17:00.597 --> 00:17:05.907
If you deny that the world is determined, you are going against science.
00:17:06.762 --> 00:17:08.262
You are going against science.
00:17:08.292 --> 00:17:08.682
Wow.