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kynmites-blog · 5 days

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Let's take a moment and reflect on the idea of free will.

Assume first that nothing but your mind is real. Physics, chemistry, the person next door, all of it made up by you.

Now that we are just minds, what does that mean for free will? Well, if I was to have a perfect copy of that mind, it would follow that it would make the same choices as the first. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a perfect copy.

Now take those two minds and displace them in time. Since they will come to the same choices, observing the future mind would allow you to know what the present mind will do.

So that's it then? Free will doesn't exist? Well, that kind doesn't, but I've never understood why people would think that it would.

Choices don't happen in a vacuum, and even if the first ones did, the ones that followed wouldn't by default. If every choice is truly random, they aren't choices as you didn't choose between A, not A, or random. You would have to be random, removing random as an option.

Not always being random means that some choices are made based on past events. As such, we should be able to know the odds of each decision.

If the choices are A, not A, or random, there is a 50/50 chance of A or not A if the cause is random or a 33/33/33 if you make a choice as you could choose to be random.

The probability of successfully predicting your action given this scenario is 5/12* with a total of 2/3 of the decisions resulting from a random choice, effectively meaning the choice is indistinguishable from being random.

That is assuming the odds of choices being truly random is 50:50.

If, as we are forced to do, we assume reality is real, these odds change. The odds a choice is truly random become the product of the odds of all chance events. With things like quantum effects changing the way you think, temporarily making your decision truly random, and thus not a free choice.

"So, without free will, what's left? Why make decisions if they aren't my choice and instead are just the result of causality?"

Well, there's the trick. They are your decisions. We need to stop thinking of ourselves as separate from reality, that our minds are somehow different from our brains.

You are a collection of conditions that result in decisions when exposed to events. How you will react is not the same as how someone else will react, and that is the "free" in free will. The "will" is the drive to act. That drive, too, is built in, but it's built into you, and it's different than mine.

We can change based on new information, even if that information is entirely internal and generated by reflection over time. Free will being causally based doesn't take from that either. They are still your changes.

What does this do for morality?

We will have to table that for next time on Dragon Ball, as this post is getting too long and is distracting me at work.

P(A or Not A or Random | success Scenario 2) = 1/3

---Maths---

P(A or Not A | success Scenario 1) = 1/2

P(Scenario 1 or Scenario 2) = 1/2

P(Success) = P(success∣Scenario 1) x P(Scenario 1) + P(success∣Scenario 2) x P(Scenario 2)

5/12 = (1/2 × 1/2) + (1/3 × 1/2)

2/3 = 1/2 + (1/3 × 1/2) possible results are from a random decision.

#free will #phylosophy #psychology #ramblings

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kynmites-blog · 18 days

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Looks like my first true post is going to be a frustration rant.

So I work in a very male industry, and I'm male passing despite my bookishness.

Ugh, there is a lot of baggage here, so let me start from basics.

As a white guy, racists see you as part of the ingroup. You must also be racist because all these minorities are suppressing the white folk, and as such, all white folk are too scared to reveal their racist attitudes.

What this means is that racists only openly reveal themselves, as opposed to badly hiding their bigotry, when the object of their frustration leaves the room.

Example. I was working in the fuselage, and there was a black man and a couple of white guys. The second the black man was out of earshot, the racist man in the group did the look.

Anyone who passes as part of the ingroup will know what I am talking about. Suddenly, there is a change in the atmosphere as the bigot thinks they are free of view by the outgroup.

Suddenly, it's testing jokes (insults) at the expense of the outgroup. Then, especially if no one laughs, straight up hateful bigotry. It will go on as long as the outgroup isn't present and the "traitors to the ingroup" don't reveal themselves.

Unfortunately, despite my very liberal state, blue collar work is filled with the uneducated and thus ignorant. There are plenty of people who might consider themselves allies in that they disagree with the bigots on a fundamental level, but they don't act because they'd never stop. At no point would they reach the end of reporting people.

You feel surrounded, drowned by it. A match against a hurricane only moments away from violence if you let your guard down.

You are in effect in the same position as the bigot. They fear the repercussions of their bigotry from "the new order" while you fear it from the old.

They find it "easy" to identify the ingroup because they assume everyone "like them" is the ingroup. Whereas potential allies are constantly giving the same looks at eachother as the bigots, trying to sus out who is in and who is out.

It's only when an overt confrontation happens that the allies appear, and mostly in secret afterwards.

I started openly shouting Bible verses back at Christian, who would not stop harassing me, that contradicted his world view. Things that would make it very clear to those who are, at the very least not cult like to a lie they've been sold about their religion, where I stood on his behavior. One person representing the allies approached me afterwards and said "we agree with you if it makes you feel better."

I don't know if it's a guy thing or a generational trauma thing, but the general attitude is "that's just Dave, he won't change so why bother."

All this to bring me to the point I wanted to talk about at the start.

I'm part of the outgroup. I'm "part of the alphabet club," aroace. As such I sympathize with the LGBT community and view slights on them as slights on me, because they are.

I've delt with the bigots before, and typically it's at a distance so I can just turn up my music. Lately though it's been right in my face, from literally every direction. My immediate coworkers, the folks in the areas next to me, the folks on my way to other places, people in the cafeteria at the same time as me, MY DIRECT SUPERVISOR.

These ass hats I work with directly have the gual to complain about other people fighting against bigotry and hate when I had to talk to the manager on their behalf because they felt belittled by being told "alright, back to work" after our first break meetings.

I want to dissolve into the furniture. To just escape the needless hatred of ignorant people who refuse to learn.

One of them told me he just "couldn't read books" as they were too taxing.

He is one of the most competent men I have ever worked with in 15 years in this industry. Yet, despite his own disability (tourette syndrome), and despite being made fun of for it behind his back, he is one of the most hateful people I have met.

You are the diversity hire dipshit.

Let me evaporate and dream no more. Let me escape the burden of other people's thoughts.

#bigotes #hatred #blue collar #vent #vent post #save my soul

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kynmites-blog · 28 days

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Since reddit killed my ability to interact with the world, I've devolved to talking with AI for want of distant interaction.

I have finally caved to create this tumblr since I've been lurking in r/curatedtumblr I might as well actually use the platform.

I've been mulling over creating a "formal" explanation of my observations on manic-depression, both internal and external, as well as my thoughts and understanding of the human mind and brain.

All this is unprofessional and only loosely based on things I half remember reading. As such, I am very probably wrong, woefully ignorant, and incredibly biased.

I'm sure I will figure this site out eventually, but for now, here is my boilerplate list of biases as I am aware of them now.

White, Cisgender, Aromantic Asexual, Highschool grad, Blue collar worker, lower middle class upbringing for the most part, millennial, agnostic atheist, political Satanist.

I hope to actually post here, but I'm very scatter brained, and my interests in this blog is tepid at best.

#new blog #reddit refugee #introduction #manic depressive #manic depression #psychology #phylosophy #ai #artificial intelligence

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