Choice is

1. Choice is a necessary an Illusion By David Lewis

2. The Big Idea – The Universe is Reasonable • The primary assumption that a scientist must make is that everything happens due to causal factors or reasons. • In other words, whenever something happens there is a reason. • Human behavior, like everything else, is reasonable.

3. Reasonability • If human behavior is reasonable then we can assume a few things about humans. • Humans, like everything else, can only work with what they have around them. • There are no superheroes. • Humans interact with their environment in systematic and predictable ways. • This is no mystical power of human will. • But human brains are not nearly as advanced enough to be able to understand these things fully! Thus fallacy ensues.

4. The Big Human Fallacy Creation • Something can only come from something and nothing comes from nothing. • Randomness (Chaos theory) • We just have a hard time making predictions because there is a lot going on that we don’t know about. • Choice • If you pick something for a reason then you didn’t really make a decision. • Beginnings/Endings • Things aren’t “born” and don’t “die” they just change. • Religious, linguistic and cultural problems. • Are children taught choice? (Implicit learning) • Are we really free?

5. Just another belief? • Right now the idea that the universe, and everything in it, is reasonable is only a belief. But it will not always be this way. • In fact, as science has advanced we’ve gained the ability to explain many things, that were previously spiritual, magical or godlike. • Rain • Dragons (dinosaurs) • The Sun • Making decisions

6. But I make decisions! No you don’t… and Einstein agrees with me. “I do not believe in freedom of the will. Schopenhauer's words: ‘Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wills’ accompany me in all situations throughout my life and reconcile me with the actions of others even if they are rather painful to me. This awareness of the lack of freedom of will preserves me from taking too seriously myself and my fellow men as acting and deciding individuals and from losing my temper” Einstein. Let’s be reasonable about this…

7. Psychology – Whether you like it or not. • Psychologists study human behavior and cognitive thought processes. • Psychology is scientific. • Scientific method – • Observation. Something looks neat. • Description. So we figure out what it is in relation to other things. • Prediction. Then we anticipate its “decisions”. • Manipulation. Which allows us to make it do what we want it to.

8. A Manipulator - John B. Watson Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years. (1930)

9. The Illusion is Necessary • Most people think they make decisions and will fight for this belief. • This denial is significant and is reasonable in itself. In other words, it makes sense that people don’t want to believe this, and being reasonable creatures they won’t. • Evolution • Brain structure • What would the world be like if people knew they weren’t in control? • They would probably be fatalistic. • You might hear them say…

10. So why should I do anything if it’s going to happen anyway? • Because, though the future is set it isn’t as though things are happening without your involvement. • You are as much a part, and share the same importance as everything else in the universe. • There is no heavenly body deciding everything for you, and especially not a group of women. The Grecian Fates

11. Everything Happens for a Reason • Determinism is the philosophical theory that everything that happens, including behavior and thought, is caused by a never ending chain of previous cause-effect relationships. • There are no real miracles or random events. • For example, if you don’t believe me right now then there is no way you could have at this point because of a long history of cause-effect relationships.

12. Major Implications • A few things that we would have to accept if the previous reasoning is true. • No one is ever truly guilty so crime and punishment is a fallacy because there are no good or evil acts since people aren’t in control of their behavior. • The universe and everything in it has always been and always will be, in one form or another. • The universe is redundant. • If something is magical or mysterious then we just need to look at it closer; Magic is a synonym for ignorance.

13. Warm fuzzies • Your life and everything you are is of the utmost importance. • Though you may feel insignificant at times try to remember that you are a part of the universe and everything in the universe effects everything else. • Simply sitting in this room and listening to me talk is causing countless events to occur leading to currently unpredictable events in the future. • In short, you are connected to everything.

14. Questions? • If you don’t ask any then you weren’t going to so don’t feel bad about it if you don’t. • Similarly if you do ask a great question you have nothing to be proud of since there is nothing special about you that formed that question. • Unless of course you just want to feel happy about the fact that a great question was asked regardless of the cause. • Which is fine but you’re going to have to realize that your happiness was going to happen just like the question was going to happen. • The point is, try to understand why you do things instead of taking the easy route and simply saying, “I wanted to” or something equally uninformative.