--From: Michael Lorrey
>The idea that quantum indeterminism is the source of free will has been
>disproved for over 30 years. Feynman's book _QED_ should have put this all
to
>rest, but apparently nobody got the implications of the Transactional
>Interpretation till John Cramer's work in 1986 which demonstrated that
given the
>apparent proof of the accuracy of Feynman's QED interpretation, then
parallel
>universe theory is bunk. Given also that the only apparent method of time
travel
>into the past involves closed time-like curves, then true communication
with the
>past is impossible. As long as people can make their decisions free from
>information from the future, then there is free will. Information from the
past
>only influences one's willfullness to exert free will. It does not rule it
out
>entirely.
To discover the mechanism of free will appeals to my extropian nature. To accept the reality of existential despair awakens my buddha nature. These two converge in a celebration of hyperawareness where free will does not intentionally oppose pancritical rationalism. In their quest for knowledge, extropians note this, and travel on.
>Anyone who is an amnesiac has absolute free will with no constraints. Each
of us
>has free will. Our willfullness to use it is tempered by our past.
Amnesiacs have absolute free will with one irritating constraint: They can't remember, no matter how much they will it. Each of us dreams of free will, and each of us does so freely and willfully, regardless of the infinite silence outside our dreams.
>On the contrary. One can be free in body but enslaved in the mind, or free
in
>mind but enslaved in body. The abolition movement of the 19th century only
>worked to end the second sort of slavery. Unfortuanately, most of the
>descendants of those slaves tend to still be enslaved in the mind.
Dualism? Again? As long as you believe in "the mind" you remain enslaved by this meme.
>This is the classic eastern justification for not respecting individual
rights.
>Try telling that story to someone like Jody Williams, who lives across the
river
>a bit from me. She was a virtual cyclone in organizing and leading the
Coalition
>to Ban Landmines, for which she received the Nobel Peace Prize this past
year.
>Beyond that, she has been a virtual nobody. She had no title, no family
name or
>money. She held no elected office, yet she accomplished this much.
"classic eastern justification"? As opposed to the classic western technique of planting land mines? I don't think geography has anything to do with it. Quantum effects work as well in Calcutta as in California. "respecting individual rights" comes from the West? Sure, along with colonialism, genicide, and weapons of mass destruction. Sorry, but hyper-cognitive enlightenment seems more extropic to me than leading a coalition.
>On the contrary. When I set myself against the rest of the universe I know
I am
>alive, that I am a free man, for I am resisting everything placed against
me.
>Those that identify with the whole are bricks in the wall, cogs in the
machine.
>Mere automatons, slaves in the mind.
I've heard of someone you'd like. He calls himself J. R. ("Bob") Dobbs. He started The Church of The Sub-Genius with exactly the attitude you express.
>Use of the metaphor of the cosmic unconcious is merely a means to enslave
the
>mind of the individual to the will of the whole. Useful, but not true.
"will of the whole" ...Hmmm... Sounds true. It implies that existence has consciousness. Perhaps true, but not very useful. -zen