Why Your Decisions Are Meaningless And Choice Is An Illusion - Today's Topic

do human beings have free will can you change the laws of physics no can you alter the past not no no no no one has free will I don't think I follow okay I'll explain this to you but only because I didn't get to be there to see the look on your face when you found out there's no Santa Oh too soon it really shouldn't be but anyway it's kind of like interstellar right okay something can only exist if it exists in a dimension that we can perceive you got the first three plus time or duration of which interstellar had a little too much huh what depth no duration obviously it wasn't that man cuz it's a movie the screams like this fake okay so you remember the tesseract thing yes I do that was the fifth dimension meaning that while you're there time looks like length or width does to us here in the fourth dimension McConaughey can look at any point in time just by turning his head like you can look at any point on a globe by turning it exactly he's like a Time Turner but not the one we're thinking of so time is like a flat circle not at all the point being that if you believe that it's even possible to predict the future in that concrete way to like look ahead then there can't be free will cuz if you had freewill you could do things that would change it so predicting the future precludes freewill and vice versa unless every choice you make splits you off into another timeline or changes your memory like a globe that you're looking at that changes based on stuff or no no like Marty Martina photographing back to the future that's better forget the globe thing right but that still doesn't give you free will from your point of view all you have is the steady march of time and events happening around you but I help pick what series of events happen or what timelines I end up creating the laws of physics aren't by definition and all there is to cause and effect I control things to check this out huh there's no way the universe wants this to be happening right now uh-huh so sure someone could shock my brain make me dance but that doesn't mean that I can't also choose to dance so maybe there's physics and freewill working together but if you can't change the laws of physics and you can't alter the past what is the present if not the result of those laws acting on the past so what are you left with not freewill it's the reason dr. Manhattan says I was surprised because I had foreseen that I would be surprised in Watchmen everything is preordained even my responses or arguably even a more relevant cultural touchstone it's kind of God's whole deal right either you believe that God is omniscient and can see everything that you're gonna do for the rest of your life in which case you have no free will or you do and you can do whatever you want in which case God can't foresee that so do you know what I'm gonna do before I do it yes what if I do something different then I don't know that you can't have both sure I can't oh I don't know give me a second I'll figure it out even if quantum physics implies that the universe is inherently built on a randomness that just means you can't predict outcomes it still doesn't mean that you effect them boom kick in watertown I said hold on can't just shoot down an argument I have it made yet Michael sure I can it is my destiny look we're not saying that I take it entirely on faith but you can't instantly deny the things that you perceive directly isn't that like the whole thing with science I feel myself making choices constantly I regret my mistakes and I see other people exercising their free will no man you're not looking your liver I look at it it's magic you know it's it's a regenerating automatic organic filtration system that you could not possibly build yourself right but that's just evolution or God what you're saying precludes free will so let's just go with the evolutions so if you buy evolution then it shouldn't be that hard to understand how something as miraculous as the feeling that we call freewill could have developed out of basically nothing sure it's a complex system but so is your liver and that came into being just because the chemistry kit that is earth plus millions of years equals magic the rise of the liver as an organ is entirely reactionary and more importantly predictable like you right but you're saying that my whole identity rose out of that everyone's the evolution of physical forms it's the same with consciousness right at first they were just amoebas with basic instincts then there were small animals and then finally humans this new thing that could imagine future hypothetical situations and remember the past and think sunsets are pretty and it plates with celebrity faces on them are worth more than those without we have this brain is constantly weighing a thousand variables and recalling your belief system your relationships your philosophy and then sending out signals and telling your muscles what to do next but that's so blah it's just a big complicated prioritizing machine yeah and we're just along for the ride going whoo look what I did I meant to do that I'm so godlike neuroscience backs me up on that by the way I mean cause and effect has existed a lot longer than life has in the universe why do we think there's some mystical variable that came around right when we did it's an unnecessary piece everything in the universe works fine without free will so it's really on you to prove me wrong you're the one saying that there's this extra thing called free will that we have to account for even though we can explain pretty much everything pretty well without it it's like we're working on a piece of Ikea furniture together and we're already done and you just keep shoveling dowels any ha that's it that's the face and you really made me work for it what crawled up your button died today I'm gonna be honest they moved the recycling bins all the way down the hall and my trash cans right here so lately I'm feeling like what's the point you know oh I see what this is I see what's happening you're just pushing predetermine ISM because you don't want to take responsibility for your actions surely you concede that if I am NOT a responsible steward of the earth it is only because I was born to destroy it this right here is the problem with the whole universe is a bunch of rocks theory we agree that it is impossible to prove one way or the other yet I choose to believe that I have control over my life responsibility for my actions good or bad and you know what that's gonna be good for me because it's gonna make me a better person it's gonna make me a better member of society so you can sit there and you can argue that free will doesn't exist all you want but if that's true then how come I am choosing to believe in it because you're predetermined to it's like this whole argument then why are we even Oh fine fine fine you know what I'll compromise all right there's probably no such thing as free will and even if there is it's just sharing space with laws of physics in regards to cause and effect but if in any alternate timeline it would be helpful to act as if we had it then sure I guess it's good to choose to have free will or believe that you were predetermined to believe that you have free will respectively feel I think good great philosophy Donna oh is that what this was oh yeah I know I get it all yeah that's mostly nonsense hey thanks for watching guys you got a lot of choices on the internet and I'm so glad you chose us take it out with some breakdancing whoo if you have any thoughts leave them in the comment section

Channel: Cracked

Views: 940,812

Rating: 4.7617393 out of 5

Keywords: Interstellar, tesseract, God, free will, Choice Is An Illusion, True Detective, Flat circle, Watchmen (Film), Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan, Cracked, sketch, comedy, funny, spoof, Back to the Future, Marty McFly, Parody, Spoof, humor, satire, cracked.com, today's topic, Futurama, Sketch Comedy (TV Genre), Hilarious, God (Deity)

Id: aMVE0fN_Y4s

Length: 8min 22sec (502 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 26 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/knuteknuteson]

The Calvinists were right.

[u/fraterNeetwiz]

Why My Decisions are Meaningless and I Don't Think I Have a Choice

FTFY

[u/[deleted]]

I want to have her babies.