Newfie wrote:Actually we are very little in control of ourselves. Most of our actions and “decisions” are preprogrammed into our genetic material, a substantial fraction of which originated with viruses.
Recently there has been a scientific line of inquiry as to just how much of little we are in control. The outcome was just about zero. We have almost no self control.
At least one serious scientist refers to humans as “meat robots.”
From Wiki
One significant finding of modern studies is that a person's brain seems to commit to certain decisions before the person becomes aware of having made them. Researchers have found delays of about half a second (discussed in sections below). With contemporary brain scanning technology, other scientists in 2008 were able to predict with 60% accuracy whether subjects would press a button with their left or right hand up to 10 seconds before the subject became aware of having made that choice.[5] These and other findings have led some scientists, like Patrick Haggard, to reject some forms of "free will".
Tolstoy in his novel War and Peace opines humans are not entirely free nor entirely bound to fate. He also believes it was not Napoleon's genius rather the "will" of the masses that led to the march on Russia. Of course Napy's "genius" failed him and his army was slaughtered leaving russia.
Dostoyevsky in his novel Crime and Punishment opines there are two classes of people - those who breed and those who destroy for the sake of progress. And that both classes have a right to exist. Contrary to Tolstoy - Dostoyevsky believes in genius as the primary factor influencing "will". I don't agree with him.
Douglas Adams in his novel Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy opines humans were not given enough spark to be wise yet just enough to be a rebellious slave.
Colin Wilson in his book The Outsider opines woman are more complete than men - this is why men are predators towards women. Men think that by "possessing" a woman - he will feel complete - he does until the sun rises the following morning - then the giant hole in his chest reopens.
Rudolph Steiner opines in his essay The Acanthus Leaf that "something needs to be removed" to make humans "right". to wit: the graver's chisel and the driving chisel.
Gnostic lore suggests humans are slaves. Cormac McCarthy subscribes to gnostic lore.
George Price proved mathematically that humans are most likely to do good things to those closely related by blood. "Loving" our children is easy. I think love is a trap.
I have a theory that most closely matches Adam's and Steiner's opinions coupled with gnostic lore and Kaballistic ideas of "gathering all the sparks". That progressively over time - humans are implanted (upon birth) with less spark, then the previous generation, in an effort to produce a compliant - yet still "feel free" slave. The other way to look at it - Adam and Eve had 50/50 of all spark ever available to the demiurge. You and i have been fractalized over the millenia.
Then there is the New Jerusalem or Ark of Upnepishtem, the preserver of life (or the cube). Here i think is where America plays its own role in this great tragedy of "free will" VS "fate".
Oh and Das Rhiengold - Wagner - Oden...ah it's all there folks...it's all hidden in plain site.
Related to AI. AI will never be able to interpret data as subtly as humans can. Even a trillion years of AI evolution into the future won't move the needle. AI cannot achieve Phi. Humans (and plants/animals) can.
"There must be a bogeyman; there always is, and it cannot be something as esoteric as "resource depletion." You can't go to war with that." Emersonbiggins