I found the response to my article Does Free Will Exist very interesting. It was fascinating to see how even ardent thinkers battled with the idea that our brains are us and we are our brains – and that we have no control over what our brains make us do.
They mentioned issues of initiative and freedom and the ability to make decisions, but every time it came back to the fact that the brain – and it’s wired processes – make those decisions on our behalf. The best way we can change how our minds work is to get special training or pour alcohol down our throats to make our brains work differently. And even those actions are actually decisions made by the brain – not ‘us’.
We simply cannot escape from the fact that our brains generate our thoughts, fears, emotions and decisions. And we? Well, we cart it around doing what it wants us to do to survive and stay comfortable…get food, oxygen and adequate entertainment.
Then it struck me the other day – it is actually worse!
Our brains comprise many neurons that are connected and consist of molecules. The molecules in turn comprise of atoms (and all the sub-atomic particles that make up the atoms).
These teeny weeny little particles follow the laws of physics slavishly, mindlessly. They do not have brains and they do not have personalities – they are bits of ‘non-nothingness’ that are swirled around by the laws that govern the universe.
But these dumb little minions – by virtue of being shunted around by the laws of physics – make the atoms ‘atom’, make the neurons ‘neuron’ and make the brain ‘brain’.
Our deepest hopes, fears, joyous experiences and moments of deep insight – well, actually we have nothing to do with them. They come about by the dumb stuff being swirled around obeying one thing and one thing only – the laws of nature.
I find this a little depressing.
I want to scream out: ‘No! I am not like that! I am a thinker, I am special! I am unique!’
But then I realise, it is just my brain making me say that…
Dust clouds around stars that will over time form planets. If ever life evolves in this part of the universe, the creatures roaming these planets will be made up of the basic building blocks that once were these dust clouds – their cells, their limbs and their brains. And their brains will generate their thoughts and emotions.
These are enhanced telescope images showing the dust clouds around a distant star that will form planets over time.
