Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Now for Something Completely Different

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame has an interesting argument about free will going on in his blog. He basically doesn't believe that free will exists. I have to admit that his argument seems sound considering that it's based on psychology which isn't the soundest scientific discipline in the world. In the Natural Sciences, you generally have binary outcomes - yes/no, true/false. In quantum mechanics, however, you can have intermediate/indeterminate outcomes based on how much you know - Schrodinger's cat. Putting aside counterintuitive outcomes at the microscopic level and focusing purely on the macroscopic level, do you think psychology is all it's cracked up to be? Or better yet, do you agree or disagree with Adams?

In a similar vein, drug companies are making up diseases to sell drugs.

Also, a neurologist is trying to explain near death experiences. Considering that medical science doesn't really know much about sleep or how it works, or what wakefulness is, he's probably going out on a limb, or he's a pioneer.
Comments:
Thanks John, it sounds like the world is further behind than I thought, but just as corrupt as I thought.

In my personal experience, psychology is one problem for humans, but psychiatry is worse.

That has to be qualified tho with the sometimes good that both seem to do?
 
A conditioned mind has no free will. And there is no such thing as uncondtioned mind.
What is free will. Free will is choice between several possibilities, which are already thought out by society. If you choose the wrong one, you will be punished. However, why did you choose the wrong response. Conditioning or ignorance. What is ignorance? Not knowing what to think or do. Well you can't expect to know everything.
 
sleep is like teeth in context, chewing up days, w/o sleep, hunger from not eating, or, belly ache from swallowing whole days. Sleep comes first, days' waking, comes second. Science sometimes sees backwards.

So if sleep is the teeth and day is the food, who is the 'head'?
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?