"This still raises an intriguing question, simply because either of the possible answers - 'yes we do have free will', or 'no we don't' - seem to lead to a contradiction. For example, suppose you answer with 'yes we have free will'. How would you demonstrate the validity of this statement? You would need to act in a way that would not be predetermined by anything. But how can this ever be, when whatever you do, can, in fact, be predetermined by something? To further qualify this argument, say you decide to act out of character, e.g. having an introverted personality you decide to start a conversation with a complete stranger on the street. But the very fact that you decided to act contrary to your usual predisposition, seems itself to be fully predetermined. It is simply so by the fact that you determined you would act out of character to prove free will. In this case perhaps in trying to prove free will, you are more likely to demonstrate that actually you have none. Your emotions could have been controlled by some outside factors which lead you to the conclusion that you mist act out of character. If they were, all you are really trying to do is determistically fight determinism, which is by definition a deterministic process!. "
-Chapter 10: Children of the aimless chance
Decoding Reality by Vladko Vedral
At some point during the gas leak I developed colour flashes in either side of my view, whether or not these are a synesthetic reaction is irrelevant to the point I'm about to make, but they do still occur in relation to the thought processes I undertake
The meanings can be contextual to situations but in general blue is on the left, and means 'this is a repeating pattern', 'turn left', 'that's wrong', 'you have seen this before'; the orange is on the right and means 'this person is lying' 'turn right', 'this is a danger', 'pay attention'
At one point I found myself outside a local bakery, in my country a bakery is a store where you can buy snack items like iced buns, tarts, hot chips, pies, drinks etc
I'm a regular at this store and have been for many years, they are reasonably priced and good quality for what you pay. Thanks to being more like my father I have the habit of building relationships with shopkeepers of places I frequent.
It was the end of the day and the lady had some things left before closing and because she knows I'm a regular grabbed a small box and piled in a bunch of freebies rather than let them go to waste
Before I had entered the store I had walked past a woman who was sitting outside a store asking for money for food. In this country we have a rather robust system where people can get help with this but its also a rather humiliating and time consuming process, but I did ignore her as I walked past as most people that ask for money in this country are using it for other things
As I left the bakery the blue and orange colours started to flicker at the same time, only this time they have quite full formed visuals, the blue had formed into a glowing mushroom not unlike the talking one from ATLA:LOK, and the orange was a fully formed ball flickering on and off like an indicator on a car
By this point I had grasped the concept that my subconscious would kick in at different points when I encountered things that were unfamiliar to me, I would suspect in this situation it was encountering the woman outside the store which is not at all commonplace here
As the lights were going off in my vision a question formed in my head, or rather an answer to a question my mind seemed to ask about the concept of free will, like my subconscious was testing its limits on control over my actions
The blue colour in this instance meant 'go back', the orange 'go forward'; my mind was contemplating the idea of sharing the excess food with the woman who had been asking for help
Ultimately I chose blue out of compassion, because I have gone hungry before and I know what that's like
So to Vlatkos query I would offer this perspective:
We are indeed given choices, and our emotions can affect the decision making, but they do not provide the reasoning behind it which comes from our own prior experiences
Had I not had that experience of going hungry before, I may have chosen differently because I would not have possesed the wisdom from my own life to be able to experience the compassion required to make the choice
I ask the question: Are our choices predetermined solely by the limits of the information and experiences we have previously encountered, rather than our emotions which form from them?
There's a piece of 'Priori law' for your contemplation my dear Vladko
May I be so bold as to propose that it is our ability to reason, empathise and therefore make our choices accordingly based on our own experiences and the information we have had access to that qualifies us as sentient beings?
