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behavior
December 2007 
Free Will
Posted on Dec 7th, 2007
by 
goodsoul
goodsoul
Free will is limited by our lack of understanding of what free will actually implies.
A computer program that relies upon any heuristic other than randomness is predictable, and therefore, not free to assert its own will, but forever relies upon the will of the program's designer.
Similarly, In our own lives, to rely on pure randomness is not to say that we live, as Charles Pierce might assert, in a Universe of Chance. Indeed, in all of nature, randomness is a function of scale: what appears, and serves functionally as random occurrence at one scale may prove quite orderly at a different scale. The theory of chaos is replete with such examples.
It is certain that our own behaviors are influenced by many things, and to assert that we behave without regard to those influences is to assume that objects which cause turbulence within a river do not over time affect its course, its boundaries and the speed at which it flows.
How much more freely might we act upon our will, if we become aware of our behaviors, study them intently, and trace our personal turbulence to its source?
But that is a challenge - akin to knowing both the velocity and the position of a photon in flight - our observation alone alters our behavior as surely as it alters the course of the photon.
If we can not predict our behavior, can we be said to assert any control over it? Is an act of free will an unconscious intention resuliting in action that we subsequently call taken by choice only by the light of reason found in hindsight?
If we care to invoke the Law of Attraction, understand human potential, envision our ideal lives and our ideal world and in a quest to have fun, focus on what makes us feel alive while supporting each other with our own individual visions, would it be helpful to understand how we might begin to observe our own behavior - to awaken as it were from the torpid illusion of our egos, and focus first on how we might discover our purpose in life, while we celebrate?
A computer program that relies upon any heuristic other than randomness is predictable, and therefore, not free to assert its own will, but forever relies upon the will of the program's designer.
Similarly, In our own lives, to rely on pure randomness is not to say that we live, as Charles Pierce might assert, in a Universe of Chance. Indeed, in all of nature, randomness is a function of scale: what appears, and serves functionally as random occurrence at one scale may prove quite orderly at a different scale. The theory of chaos is replete with such examples.
It is certain that our own behaviors are influenced by many things, and to assert that we behave without regard to those influences is to assume that objects which cause turbulence within a river do not over time affect its course, its boundaries and the speed at which it flows.
How much more freely might we act upon our will, if we become aware of our behaviors, study them intently, and trace our personal turbulence to its source?
But that is a challenge - akin to knowing both the velocity and the position of a photon in flight - our observation alone alters our behavior as surely as it alters the course of the photon.
If we can not predict our behavior, can we be said to assert any control over it? Is an act of free will an unconscious intention resuliting in action that we subsequently call taken by choice only by the light of reason found in hindsight?
If we care to invoke the Law of Attraction, understand human potential, envision our ideal lives and our ideal world and in a quest to have fun, focus on what makes us feel alive while supporting each other with our own individual visions, would it be helpful to understand how we might begin to observe our own behavior - to awaken as it were from the torpid illusion of our egos, and focus first on how we might discover our purpose in life, while we celebrate?
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