Why there is no free will - and why we have to pretend there is....

 Some things you shouldn´t know to early in your life. But if your curious. like me, you might end here, and that's all right.

Is the free will problem solved? Robert Sapolsky says yes. 

He is an  "American neuroendocrinology researcher and author. He is a professor of biology, neurology, neurological sciences, and neurosurgery at Stanford University. In addition, he is a research associate at the National Museums of Kenya." (Wikipedia)

The knowledge might cool you down, and say to your children, like Neil de Grasse Tyson´s father said when people had shouted the n-word to him: Stay cool, the don´t understand, they are raised like that.

He could have concluded; that's what dopamine do to us - and that are where the chemistry of the brain come in. Dopamine makes us friendly to our friends and family but hostile to strangers. 

Of course culture interact in the situation too, and that was what de Grasse Tyson´s father had understood.

And of course  things like your mother´s situation as pregnant interact with what you will become.

Sapolsky points out that a change from a stressful environment to calmer on will also calm your feelings (because of the plasticity of our brains).

I will add meditation and awareness to the list. 

It´s important to understand that meditation os not to stop the thoughts but to be aware of them and let them go. But without a calm environment it will be very hard. 

It´s also to be aware of old small or big traumas may have shaped our brains. If you suspect you have experienced traumas, maybe in childhood, it´s good to know that they can trigger feelings and thoughts. And it´s good to see that they may have influenced your life- that means try to stay out of situations that may trigger those feelings to arise. 

Even meditation may not be the beast solution if the feelings from the trauma reappear. But to hide it by being occupied with information all day long is also a bad decision. If you listen to the conversation below you in will understand in what way Sapolsky makes his "retreats" (after about 27 minutes). As both Buddha and Sapolsky says, we are just satisfied a little while after a desire is satisfied. Soon we desire another thing. But if there are no stores and no WIFI there, the small things as a cool wind may be enough. By the way, they also agree that everything changes, 

And as long as we don't stick too much to things, we can stay longer time with the breath. We may not reach nirvana, but we will be less unsatisfied with our life. 

 Sapolsky has a deterministic view, maybe Einstein's theory of the block universes is right too. But even if we could travel in time we might see that we right now live in a rather friendly epoch. It was worse before and it can be worse in the future. 

To strive for status and money is a very superficial way to live. Its very near the way the Baboons that Sapolsky study behave.  

But even in this interview Sapolsky talks about peoples decisions, as there were a free will. And he admits that he only som percent's of his life as we don´t have it. 

Maybe its impossible to fully  live al life in denial of free will. What about crime and punishment an so on. What about the risk for a nihilism? You can do whatever as you cannot help what you do. Well Sapolsky has answers for that too in the interview.







  I highly recommend that you listen at the end of the interview where they talk about the polycrisis  in the world right now and what we can do about it. (from about 1.45),


Take care out there....




 


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