Free will huh?
Friday, April 14, 2006
Ore : 6:00 PM
Ore : 6:00 PM
An epilogue of talk with Sean
We sometimes think that we have the Free Will. The freedom to choose.
But think deeper. Do we?
Speak of minor things like buying a product.
Our decision are largely influenced by advertisements: on TV, radio, paper, by your friends…
A frightening fact: experiments showed that images introduced can lead people into choosing the otherwise
Affected subconsciously
Let’s say you are deciding to buy a pizza.
Two days ago when you went to your friend’s house you saw your friend is eating brand A pizza. On your way to the supermarket, you caught sight of packaging of the very brand of pizza in the waste bins. When you are arrive at the frozen food department, you realize that brand A is almost sold out while other brands just piling up.
All these hints albeit subtle are always effective in affecting us.
Because we don’t always have a reason to support our choice, that makes us susceptible to influence.
Even if we do have a reason for choosing something, how sure can you be that reason is really YOURs and not ideas inculcated into you?
“malleable”
Talk about major decision in life?
Constrained by our culture, race, family, friends… which oftenly not up to our choice. We can't choose our parents, our language, some even religions. Unfortunately all these are the most deterministic factors in shaping who we are.
Skim through any sociology texts. they will tell you how factors A, B, C etc affect your health, social status, psychology.
Society the media the textbook shape our mind.
Think of your career.
You are not always given the full choices. Just like you are marrying. I hide all the pretty gals and leave you with 3 ugly girls. Only one of the three is so-so. I would not surprise if you end up marrying her. But it would be ludicrous if you claim that you make the choice of your life.
“Restricted choice”
You live in the society with limited options offered to you. If you come from a kampong, you will never have think of becoming a researcher.
If you come from Cambodia, being a neuroscientist would not be in your selection list.
Not knowing makes you unable to choose. Unfortunately the opposite is also true. Knowing too much makes you vulnerable to influence.
Independent thinking huh?
Too bad you can't seclude your mind from the rest of the world and every input to your brain can change your mind.
Let say too bad you are born in the deepest jungle of Amazon. Then I wouldn’t envisage you to become a doctor in anyway. Very unlikely.
If one day when you are 60 years old, you look back your life and think, do you actually chosen this life? How many things are your own free will?
Ok. Speak of unlikely you may think there is always still a chance. Yup. Sometimes miracle happens. Somehow somebody bring you out of the jungle.
What I would say it is unusual for people to break away from the norm. they lead a normal life, complacent with what they have, they achieve, they believe and they choose not to change. Maybe they are afraid to lose.
This is what I call inertia. Reluctance to change.
Remember the childhood dream that you had. When we grew up, we lost the courage to change. We afraid of losing the things we currently have. We contemplate and procrastinate. We wait, until one day we lose our lives.
“to be contented is to be slack”
Gosh. if one day you decide to break away from all the norms and stand out. You become a rock star as you always want to. You started from scratch and you succeeded. Now you think this is our own choice.
Fine. I can't really deny this. But think of the true man show.
How if the whole breakaway is also part of the plot?
Then who is script writer? Some people will point upwards. Ironically they are the people that also believe in free will.
What do I think? The world is playing.
Yes I am being pessimistic. This thoughts of mine are not actually mine as I was also influenced by the things that I read or know. Especially Wesley sci-fi “toys”. Everyone is just a toy. A toy played the media, the society, the politicians, the religion…
“Choice is an illusion. The keyword is ‘control’.” -“The Matrix”
You can choose not to believe in anything so that you are not influenced.
We are all in a game and the world is the playground. Good and bad things are always in dynamic equilibrium. You can affect the crowd and at the same time you are being affected by the crowd. The playground is governed by the laws of thermodynamics.
1. you cant win 2. you cant break even 3. you cant get out of the game (only if you really wanna kill yourself now)
“万法因缘而生”
Remember these rules will save you a lot of unnecessary worries and disturbances. Just live your life as “normal”, continue to make choices but please stop proclaiming that you have free will. (especially you believe in an omnipotent superior being) . Look out “game theory” in maths if you wanna be more in control of the game. The theory is now being exploited in politics, military and business world.
Why have to trouble your mind with all this rubbish? Thinking of this question doesn’t help reduce pollution, poverty or crime. Ermm.
That’s what I consider the meaning of life.
You are born knowing nothing. If you live life like this and until you die you know nothing of why what you have done. A muddled being.
People live passively. We react not act. We respond to environment.
“时势造英雄”
Don’t hope that something drastic will happen tomorrow. Bad things doesn’t go away in a blink of an eye.
Be positive? Then I would say “mind can’t be confined”. No matter how stringent is the mind control, there are always new thoughts that you can’t suppress. See The Island.
Creativity is the greatest gift human possess. We generate new thoughts from all the available information and become our own ideas.
Observe that birds never change the architecture of its nest for 100 years. But human do.
Most human behaviours are learned. We cant really distinguish what is the product of our thoughts and what is learned. No way you can tell. Unless you are constantly reflecting yourself, your mind and your actions. Be mindful of what you are doing and thinking. This is where meditation comes in. if you agree that this question is relevant to the meaning of life, you shall agree that the ability to reflect is crucial. (ad. for learning log)
“think before you leap”.
The end.
20060414 coming back from tesco.
posted by Sin Hong at 6:00 PM
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