A few day's ago, I had an awesome argument about life, the universe and everything. I'm not quite sure how it got started, but the basic idea was that pre-destiny exists as a secular phenomenon. It was put forward that the course of all life is predestined, not by a sentient god, but by ourselves; The combined effect of our actions combine to force a future course of events upon us.
This idea is fairly appealing at first glance, it fits quite nicely with the Buddhist concept of Karma and Newton's first law (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction). With greater thought, however, I must reject it.
Firstly, there are very few situations that we can get ourselves into and not out of in some way or another (even if avoiding our self made "fate" would mean a quick getaway, plastic surgery and changing your name to Jõsé).
Second, and probably more compellingly, these consequences are the result of free action. Choices we have made ourselves. Any system of pre-destiny excludes free choice by definition; if something is destined to happen, then it will happen regardless of our choices or actions.
Still... it's an interesting little piece to think on ^^
In The News:
Power Failure Shuts Down US Nukes - ... and we thought we had problems with Eskom... wow.
Free e-books with a catch: Advertising - I'm all for free books... but I have seriously mixed feelings about this. My books are my last refuge against the massive marketing monster that stalks our lives... I don't know if I could handle Gandalft shouting "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!! ...oh, and go but a coke".
The Nature of Identity, with reference to androids - interesting piece... I'm very glad to see H+ back online.
Top 5 Reasons Transhumanism can eliminate suffering - sounds like a great idea, count me in...
Top 5 Transhumanist fantasies - ... but to be fair, they're not all gems.
Word of the Week:
Eloquent (adjective) -
1: having or exercising the power of fluent, forceful, and appropriate speech.
2: characterised by forceful and appropriate expression.
3: movingly expressive.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the post. Catch you next week.
-Odd
"I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be"
-Douglas Adams
Could you not also argue that getting yourself out of the situation is also predetermined.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend that does not believe in free will, and can argue about it for hours. He recons that with enough data you can predicted anything.
I don't know where I stand in this argument.
Thats the problem with pre-destiny arguments... you can always take them a step further, but in this case it would invalidate the previous "destiny from accumulated action".
ReplyDeleteThe problem with arguments for pre-destiny is you can always do that... take it a step further and say "thats what was destined"... but that gets a little absurd don't you think? If you can't lock it down, then does it really exist?
I'm also not 100% sure... I don't think you ever can be... but the basic answer is that we have to act as if there is no pre-destiny... or nothing would ever happen.
Off topic... I like the addition of a 'word of the week'. :)
ReplyDeleteYa! me too :) It came out of a conversation with J... speech is an incredibly flawed method of communication anyway... but we can make it better if we all know the best words to use.
ReplyDeleteWe can make it better with the correct words, but then the one with the better words will win.
ReplyDeleteIs that then not just Lesser Magic?
I don't think so... I think that if everyone could communicate their ideas fully and accurately, then the best idea would win.
ReplyDeleteToo many arguments gets bogged down in the minutiae of meaning... or else end when the participants discover they've been discussing totally separate concepts for the last hour.
On the other hand... wouldn't being a Lesser Magic practitioner be uber-cool?
but that's the whole point.
ReplyDeletepeople do Lesser Magic everyday without even knowing it...
We can walk down a road, and see a "symbol" (coca-cola logo) and we "magically" become thirsty and start giving all our money to companies who have brainwashed us into dependencies on products they control.
We are all Pavlov's Dogs.
We have also gone completely off topic.
True, but it's a really cool topic. I can't quite remember who said it, might have been Asimov or Clark... but there's a quote that is apt in this situation "Any significantly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".
ReplyDeletehmmm, I have only seen one movie based on each of any of their books, so I don't know.
ReplyDelete(I don't know how to word that properly).
I have seen one movie based on one of Clark's books.
I have seen one movie based on one of Asimov's books.
I have seen a number of movies based on Dick's books... now those are awesome.
ReplyDeleteWow...awesome blog dude! I can't believe I've only stumbled upon this now. I'm really enjoying the news links too. Great reading, keep it up man.
ReplyDeleteThanks Shaun, I appreciate the readership, and the comment!
ReplyDelete