Probability is Probably Real An Essay Michael Irving It has taken me years to wrap my head around the concept of freewill. What it is, isn’t, and its relationship with time, has been the subject of hours, days and weeks of my life. Questions about predestination and predesignation may seem easy enough to answer, but in reality they can be taxing on the mind. The purpose of this essay is to examine the nature of freewill, by analyzing the essential elements associated with time, mathematical probability, and the psychology of the individuals within this system. The classic model of time is linear in nature. You are born, stuff happens, you die. Remember the time line pictures from grade school? Anyone can look back on their lives and see a line; an event which followed another event, which followed more events. We must consider the moments between events, to truly understand the nature of time. It is here, where you build your ideology, your theoretical self. Those concepts that shape who you are, dictate the result of major life events. While we are capable of great compromise, typically, Republicans marry Republicans. What does this have to do with freewill? Freewill in the traditional sense, is an individuals ability to dictate the course of their lives. But no one chooses tragedy. This is where chaos comes into play. Chaos theory is the study of the improbability of completely probable things. Think about how seemingly small events have effected your entire life. How you met your friends, how you fell in love, how you live your day to day. In a completely hypothetical scenario, lets say Jack was late to work because he lost his keys. Jack never loses anything, hes a very organized guy. On his way, he ran into a woman who became his wife. The improbability of his lost keys, set in motion a new life path. The question is, does the new path predesignate Jacks future? Or was losing the keys apart of a larger plan? The human mind can rationalize anything. We determinists are a superstitious bunch. Looking for signs and analyzing everything, leads to sub-logical conclusions about anything relating to our lives. “Missing the last bus must mean something!”, we state with great ferocity. But does it really mean anything? I am reminded of the old saying, “A watched kettle will never boil.” To others, these minute events are unsubstantial. They believe that the universe is completely random. I am on the fence, for me the verdict is out. Entropy says that order arises from disorder. Along a long enough time line, patterns always emerge. In conclusion, I cant say that I believe in freewill, nor could I say I believe in predestination. Consider the fact that there are seven billion lives on this planet. We are subject to everyone around us. We are all connected and the fact that we have made it this far indicates (at least to me) that their must be something at work. Time is not a line, its a forest.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 01:29:56 +0000
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