JoeGoldfarb.com

Synopsis

I will explore why we are slaves to causality rather than free willed agents. Then I will posit the power of saying “no” is what breaks the metaphorical chains of causality we are enslaved with. It is this power of negation that is the truth which will set you and I free. The former and later positions and topics will be broken into separate segments.

The Magical Power of Free Will

The philosophical definition of free will is a human (agent) as self-causing. A person with free will does not react to, or has actions caused by external sources. Rather , this person is caused from their own internal will power. Furthermore, this will is a product or aspect of their own consciousness and is not a result or is caused from an external source. One who believes in free will logically disbelieves they are caused by God, fate, supernatural powers, and material or natural forces. Expounding upon this, free will is the single cause of their existence and reality. While the rest of the universe follows the natural laws of cause and effect, those believing in free will assert that human behavior, choice and consciousness is special and lies outside natural physical laws. The agent is the sole cause, not God or physical laws. On the other spectrum, those denying the existence of free will either espouse a material or immaterial (God) source for causality, and ultimately their existence. I believe the truth lies in a combination of both concepts, but with a twist. The first part of this essay will provide details why humans do not have free will and the second part will explain in what manor humans do have free will. In doing so I will recontextualize the notion of free will by using a term “free to negate” or “conditional free will.” The type of free will we employ is powerful, but the way it operates is counterintuitive to the traditional definition of free will. But I first must explore why we live in and are active parts of a universe of causality.

An Agent of the System

Agent Smith (talking to Neo): “As you well know, appearances can be deceiving, which brings me back to the reason why we’re here. We’re not here because we’re free, we’re here because we’re not free. There’s no escaping reason, no denying purpose - because as we both know, without purpose, we would not exist.”
” It is purpose that created us,”
” Purpose that connects us,”
” Purpose that pulls us,”
” That guides us,”
” That drives us,”
” It is purpose that defines,”
” Purpose that binds us.”

Agent Smith is a symbolic representation of an agent operating in complete and total causality, through in and throughout. He is unable to comprehend choice. This is clearly revealed in the final scene with Neo in the Matrix Revolutions. (This implies Neo has free will, but actually it is conditional free will or the ability to negate that he possesses.) The impact of this inhibits Agent Smith from willing himself out of the system, from making his own choices and living his own life. Even though he was freed from the system by an external factor - Neo, Smith still feels the overwhelming burden of purpose and causality. It is rather amusing tongue-in-cheek humor that his name is Smith - a rather common, everyday name. Living autonomously causality prohibits, but I digress. Let me build up the case why we cannot escape this natural “system” of cause and effect. It is a requirement to explain how our free will works. So I will speak from the viewpoint of an agent of the system.

There is no such thing as free will. Free will is an illusion created by our mind due to a lack of information and or mental computational ability. Or, free will is an illusion that emerges from a complex neural network, much in the same manor that democracy and stock markets emerge from complex social systems. They are illusions under the guise of reality, like time and temperature. They are manifestations of an intellect creating averages and approximations of systems due to the feeble mind being unable to count the trees in the forest. They are symbols and abstracts which we confused and mislabel as reality. They just aren’t real. Due to this, the concept of free will is has become misunderstood as an agent having total control without the influences of external, or even internal biological causes. This is not the case. Experiencing true freedom, or true free will as per the philosophical definition is an impossibility in a universe bound by cause and effect. Since everything, including you and I, are within and part of a universe governed by time, space and causality, experiencing freedom or liberation from that which this universe is bound too cannot naturally occur.

Moreover, one cannot be self-causing, and thus free willed in the strict sense of the term. Every action and every thought has a prior cause. And to be free willed, one would have to be separate from all causes which would include the brains own electrical and chemical reactions that initiate consciousness and thoughts in the first place. The notion of this is absurd. The outcome is obvious.

But it’s not all downhill from here. While a deterministic universe spells doom for the notion of free will, on the contrary, being a part of causality is an empowering feature of living. Building a personal history of life events gives us in theory a limited ability to envision and control the course of our future. Paradoxically, this suggests free will. If it exists in this fashion as an ability to avoid misfortune by choosing a new road, in which I believe it does, it exists in an extremely diluted form represented by a negation power. This will be discussed later.

Note: It’s entirely possible that because I want to feel I have control, however small, over causality, I will be inherently biased towards freedom creating arguments for it existence even though it may not exist at all.

Let me now focus on proof as to why free will does not exist in the magical power as it is commonly understood.

The Particle

All physical systems that have been studied are universally conceded to be either deterministic or random. On the quantum level, the smallest known scale of reality, particle systems are popularly known as mysterious, random and strange. However, there is a growing trend that believed Quantum Theory only appears to be mysterious, random and strange. The new ideas are implying these features are an illusion. There are several theories and ideas that explain away these illusionary characteristics, namely the nature of randomness that occurs at the universes fundamental level. The first of these propositions, one by Einstein himself, proposed that a new, unknown theory underlines Quantum Theory. All these ideas raise a red flag over whether free will exists. These ideas and theories point to determinism as the mechanism for a foundation and the subsequent nature of reality. And all are parallel with the current evidence in neurological science explaining free will as an artifact of consciousness.

The Brain

Free will is probably located in the pre-frontal cortex, and we may even be able to narrow it down to the ventromedial pre-frontal cortex. –Stephen Pinker, How the Mind Works

Determinism is a system governed by cause and effect who’s histories, past and future can be predicted with certainty. The opposite of this is randomness, or chaos. Look around you. There is no chaos. Everything, from the largest structures to the tiniest of organisms are ordered, driven and with purpose. All is predictable. Human beings and our brains, made of physical matter are also deterministic. Our consciousness is not somehow magically separated from this reality. Studies over and over show the same circuit of neurons firing before a subject makes a choice. Based on this proven fact, the latest study was able to predict the choice the subject would make before they made it (which was to lift or not lift a finger). Again, before the person made a choice, that choice was already determined and known by a computer that measured that subjects brain activity in a certain neural circuit before the subject was conscientiously aware of making a choice. Since free will is about consciously making choices, this study throws the existence free will into question since choices can be predetermined through the measuring of brain electrical activity.

The Probability Illusion

God does not play dice. — Albert Einstein

There is a warming trend that particle behavior at the most fundamental level of reality only appears random because of a lack of information. This lack of information creates probability and chance. The less information that is known about a system, the greater the probability of outcomes. Therefore if all information about a system is known, which includes information about the observer measuring the system, then all outcomes, going forward or backwards in time are also known. Let’s use a coin flip to demonstrate: if all information is known about a coin flip, which includes the coin, tosser and present environment (other systems that may have an impact on the system being measured), then the outcome of the coin toss can be determined with 100% accuracy. The same holds true with the universe, now matter the size of scale. Probability, chance and the belief in free will are artifacts created from a lack of information.

This is why it is of utmost importance to know thyself. Once we understand ourselves our purpose in this universe becomes clear - just like a coin flip. And we all want to know why we exist, don’t we? Just look backwards, all the way back to your birth and look at the pattern of causality that led you here to the present moment. There are clues left in the past that reveal your purpose. Since our parents are a cause of our existence, clues for our purpose can be found within their life as well.

Belief if free will springs from a belief in an ego. Both are false and the former is an artifact of the latter. Our ego wants to believe it is in control. We all understand causality: when we are hungry we eat food. But when causality in our personal existence becomes so vast and so minute, our brain cannot compute and generates the illusion of free will to exercise a false sense of control over this vast sea of causality. Or, viewed from the opposite way, as our brains become complex, free will, hand-in-hand with the ego emerges as a tool for protecting and conserving our individual existence. With a self-identity and belief in control over causality we become powerful acting agents in the flesh.

The power of negation

We grow, we move on, and we all want to make the “right” choice. Everything we think and due is a reaction to a prior circumstance. There is no escaping causality. It surrounds us, it envelopes us. But then how do we grow? How do we say “no”? All thoughts, whether to walk or talk are generated from the subconscious mind of causality. After thoughts are created, they are passed to our conscious mind. Here is our chance to say no and negate a thought. That is our only exercise of free will. However watered down it seems, it is an extremely powerful tool. With this negation power we can improve our lives. We can escape the cycle of bad relationships. We can say no to drugs. We can say stop working the job we hate, stand up and say “No, I quit!” The secret to improving out lives is to say “no” to a bad behavior, cycle or pattern. Make the choice to say no and move forward to a better life. Exercise your power of negation in this universe of causality.

I will continue with part two that covers our conditional free will as a power of negation — of saying no. I would like to use it as an opportunity to show it’s power for self empowerment and improvement, as a tool to expand conscious by becoming an autonomous, free thinking individual who is capable of living a responsible, moral lifestyle. Till then — accept or say no.