10 Comments

What free will is and whether or not it exists puts my brain in a knot, but "problems I've chosen in an arena I've built" to paraphrase from your words, resonates as the the kind of life that's worth living for sure.

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I found this perspective on free will from a physics perspective quite interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY7hjt5Gi-E

Paraphrasing, even in quantum theory, our brains may be harnessing the random fluctuations that make us either collapse the uncertainty baked in the fabric of reality (Copenhagen interpretation) or choose which path of the multiverse we go along.

So there is no predictable determinism, and to me, this is enough to associate this randomness harnessed by our brains with free will.

After all, we are already doing it in some fields: the inspiration muses of the artists and the seemingly random Eureka moments of the scientist making a discovery.

Each of us has a randomness engine for our thoughts and feelings, and we own them as our own since it is extremely unlikely that this unique sequence we experience over a certain amount of time could have been produced exactly in the same way by any of the other 8 bn random engines on this planet :)

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Love this. Fascinating. Thanks for sharing!

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This makes me think of the word "dunce" and a story I heard about where it comes from. Apparently the philosopher priest John Duns Scotis stood by the idea that we are at once our own being AND made purely of divinity. This was cool for the middle ages but it did not swing with the Renaissance. They saw this as impossible: how could you be made of All That Is and be a separate agent at the same time? So they thought he was a fool, and thus—Duns became "dunce". And for the record, I am squarely with team Duns.

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Ha ha the irony of meaning here is one of those little nuggets that make me wonder if coincidences are really just chaotic events or some signs that the universe likes playing :)

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Its possible that play is the actual substance of the universe. Different densities of play. As a storyteller this makes more sense to me than particles. Also its fun.

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Gosh I love this thought David.

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Love this. Also team Duns.

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I like to think we are a combo of our choices and accepting what comes our way. Free Will + Amor Fati = Satisfaction.

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Yep, I think this is spot on.

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