Determinism

Today I stumbled upon the name of a concept I have had in my head for some time: Determinism. At the base level, we are products of physics. The manifestation of patterns in particle interaction. We respond to input, nothing more, much the same way a computer does. Now I finally have a name to put to this concept, it brings me great satisfaction.

Religious folk argue that this is not the case, that we have this thing called a “soul” that gives us free will. The most compelling evidence for free will is just that it seems so. It's obvious right? I have choice. I can choose to have red ice cream or blue ice cream. Well... not so much. We all have our proclivities, and that's due to the way our brain is wired. The decision making process concerning which ice cream to have is governed by electrical and chemical reactions. The only way to "choose" which ice cream to have is to defy physics -- "we" have to guide the reactions in such a way as to make our bodies comply with our will. The only way this is possible is if we have an organ which allows us to bend physics within our bodies -- or perhaps a "soul".

Remember back a post or two when I talked about how life is no different from a rock rolling down a hill? That was in essence my idea of Determinism, the idea that we have no free will, that this consciences is simply a product of chemical reactions we have no control over. A rock in motion is exactly the same as a biological life form, it has no true control over its actions, it’s simply doing what was predetermined at the moment of the Big Bang (or perhaps even before the Big Bang, though we can’t look that far back unfortunately).

I came to this realization when I was playing World of Warcraft. There was this teacher I would party with often, running through dungeons’ and such, and due to the classes we played we worked together very well. Unfortunately the class she played had many misconceptions held by the majority of the player base, and often time’s people did no accept her into their groups because they felt she would not be helpful, even though she was one of the best players I had had the opportunity to play with.

She would often get frustrated with peoples ignorance towards her chosen class and I tried my best to cheer her up, and also reminded her that, while it’s unfortunate that people are ignorant towards her class, it is not willing ignorance, and that their time spent playing the game has simply not offered them the opportunity to see what her class is capable of. I told her that she should simply get back on the horse and do the best she can to prove to them that she is capable of many things.

Than she complimented me by saying “you’re so wise”, which was weird for me, no one had ever told me that before, let alone an adult. It’s interesting to see what kind of friendships you can forge with people when you enter an environment like that, where age does not matter, only maturity.