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Reply to Re: Re:NEWSFLASH: Finnish to English translator - Explodes, you just can't turn drivel into decent English.

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June 20th 2011, 06:45 AM
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Simeon
Peasant He/Him Netherlands
Any fool can use a computer. Many do. 
You seriously dont think it is that easy?

I didn't say it was easy. But people can and do move on after having committed horrible crimes.

Regarding the rape example: so in your view both the rapist and the victim have the choice of not letting it happen again. That sounds reasonable but I'm not yet convinced that this holds, see my explanation on free will below.

I really believe we can make changes to our lives, we dont have to accept the expectations put on us by friends and family/parents or generational habits and the like, simply by chosing to you CAN 'change direction' and keep practicing it until it becomes part of you.

Gotta love that free will


You can believe that if you want. I just don't think there's sufficient biological evidence for the idea that our will is (fully) free. It may seem that way to us because we don't know how our brains work.

However, here's the thing: if I knew everything about you: your past, your memories, the neural paths in your brain right now, I could predict with 100% accuracy what you're going to do. That is currently not possible but it will be, in a few decades from now.

Why do you think websites are trying to gather so much data about individuals? Because people are predictable as hell! They are not the beings with free will that people would like to believe in. The more companies know, the more they can sell you on products, ads and information.

In fact, the whole field of human science is built on the idea that people are predictable: if they weren't then psychological experiments wouldn't be repeatable across the globe. Human behavior is very well open to analysis and it leads to predictable outcomes. Same thing for medicines: our biochemistry functions the same in every individual (minus individual variations due to genetic differences).

You could respond and say: well, people have free will, it's just that they tend to make the same choices in the given circumstances. Yes, maybe, but perhaps in that case our will is not as free as it's claimed to be.