No choice is fated or necessarily predictable (because of the infinite level of complexity involved in thought), but you can definitely say that everything is determined by what precedes it. — CasKev
The main knee jerk reaction to determinism is to somehow feel that because our choices are predetermined they are therefore less valuable or important to perform well. Eating a bar of chocolate is a pleasurable experience for me, even if it's just a determined chemical reaction in my brain, and so more chocolate bars is what I'll try to get. It might be pre-determined how successful I will be, but I do know that if I don't try success is impossible. — VagabondSpectre
My knee jerk reaction is that I was never religious (spiritual yes) and no reason to start now just because someone has come up with a new story of how our lives are fated. Suits lots of people though, but usually they want God and not Natural Laws. It's a question of taste. As for me, I continue to make choices in my life as I bring creativity into my experiences. — Rich
But don't you cling to the notion of hard free will like a religious person when presented with evidence that diminishes it? (hormones impacting decision making for instance). — VagabondSpectre
How come our computers work so reliably? Why don't quantum fluctuations cause them to exhibit free and random behavior? — VagabondSpectre
the universe has habits — Rich
It is not. I've read enough about it to understand there are lots of questions and issues to consider when using the apparatus and setting up the device depending upon what the experimenter is studying. But for some reason, you are using this as evidence of what??
In any case MZI is just an apparatus, not an experiment. — Rich
So the experiment is evidence that the relative quantum states described by the Schrodinger equation have physically real referents. — Andrew M
Unpredictable yes, because we are nowhere near being able to accurately model all of the variables that go into brain function. — CasKev
I have a creative mind that makes choices. Choices and learning from these choices (memory) is the process of creative evolution. — Rich
So you can admit that there is memory built from the experiential results of choices, on which future choices are based. Yet you seem to insist on there being this other source of creative intelligence that somehow influences decision-making and generates ideas out of nowhere. — CasKev
life is exactly what one experiences — Rich
Give yourself about one lifetime to ruminate over 'I am considering" and then get back to this thread. — Rich
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