Richard Dawkins made a reference to the intriguing concept of determinism during his lecture at George Washington University in May. Let me explain determinism using a layman example. Take a ping pong ball that is hit by a paddle and makes its bouncy trajectory across the ping pong table. Given the dynamics (see footnote 1) of this phenomenon, there is one and only one path that the ball can take. There is no "decision point" for the ball; the stimuli for this "system" unambiguously determine the outcome. Now, extrapolate this seemingly simple ping pong ball situation to everyday life - where every cell, neuron, chemical reaction, electrical impulse is, fundamentally, no different from the ping pong ball. Thus, the state of the universe at any point in time, and the laws of "physics" that its elements seem to follow, determine the state of the universe at the next point in time, and so on, without room for variation, decisions, and ..... free will!
Compare this concept with fatalism, which spares its subscribers the "physics" argument, and provides a bypass with the concept of the super-natural power, to say that everything is pre-ordained ("it is written," as some say, without specificity of what, where and by whom) and happens per a master plan of a supernatural power. "Whatever is to happen, happens (and, only that happens)" is a common tautology that one hears from the subscribers, sometimes with a comforting spin, "Whatever happens, happens for the good," with no clear definition of the "good." This is a convenient school of thought to abdicate personal responsibility to "fate" and transfer blame to the fuzzy thing out there.
Both the above concepts have their severe ethical shortcomings. As to determinism, phenomena are not known to the degree of precision and system behaviors are not known to the degree of mathematical abstraction to infer the next state from the current state. This lack of complete knowledge gives room for the uncertainty and offers an opportunity for free will to be exercised, so humans can add an additional stimulus to the situation and see the impact of it. In the simplest of cases, there can be multiple routes to get from one place to another - and the availing of the excitement and empowerment of deciding which one based on an intuitive evaluation of the conditions at that time. With the conditions not fully known, the outcomes are not a priori known. Each outcome contributes to the learning, and learning contributes to better decisions and increased knowledge of the situation, which in turn contributes to more predictable outcomes. Perhaps, a micro-step towards determinism, but safely and sufficiently far from total determinism.
Fatalism is a totally debilitating corruption of the human psyche. Living in surrender may have benefits in ego management and some therapeutic value for the weak minded who need to pass on the accountability of bad situations to the punching bag of fate; it completely takes away creativity, the passion to excel, the craving to extend the frontier of knowledge and experience the excitement of the unknown. It is no surprise that the advancement of critical thinking, science, technology, medicine, ..., has happened in less fatalistic societies, while fatalistic societies have complacently reveled in mythical glories of the past.
I rest my case with an invitation into the exciting realm of science and inquiry, before someone says that this invitation and the blog post were pre-ordained ;-)
Footnote 1. The dynamics of the ping pong situation includes full knowledge of the behavior of the paddle, the bounciness of the ball, the resistance and eddies in the air, the texture of the table, and many other factors.
Footnote 2. The path implies the locus through space as well as the velocity, acceleration, ... and the changes in these characteristics during the period of observation.
Compare this concept with fatalism, which spares its subscribers the "physics" argument, and provides a bypass with the concept of the super-natural power, to say that everything is pre-ordained ("it is written," as some say, without specificity of what, where and by whom) and happens per a master plan of a supernatural power. "Whatever is to happen, happens (and, only that happens)" is a common tautology that one hears from the subscribers, sometimes with a comforting spin, "Whatever happens, happens for the good," with no clear definition of the "good." This is a convenient school of thought to abdicate personal responsibility to "fate" and transfer blame to the fuzzy thing out there.
Both the above concepts have their severe ethical shortcomings. As to determinism, phenomena are not known to the degree of precision and system behaviors are not known to the degree of mathematical abstraction to infer the next state from the current state. This lack of complete knowledge gives room for the uncertainty and offers an opportunity for free will to be exercised, so humans can add an additional stimulus to the situation and see the impact of it. In the simplest of cases, there can be multiple routes to get from one place to another - and the availing of the excitement and empowerment of deciding which one based on an intuitive evaluation of the conditions at that time. With the conditions not fully known, the outcomes are not a priori known. Each outcome contributes to the learning, and learning contributes to better decisions and increased knowledge of the situation, which in turn contributes to more predictable outcomes. Perhaps, a micro-step towards determinism, but safely and sufficiently far from total determinism.
Fatalism is a totally debilitating corruption of the human psyche. Living in surrender may have benefits in ego management and some therapeutic value for the weak minded who need to pass on the accountability of bad situations to the punching bag of fate; it completely takes away creativity, the passion to excel, the craving to extend the frontier of knowledge and experience the excitement of the unknown. It is no surprise that the advancement of critical thinking, science, technology, medicine, ..., has happened in less fatalistic societies, while fatalistic societies have complacently reveled in mythical glories of the past.
I rest my case with an invitation into the exciting realm of science and inquiry, before someone says that this invitation and the blog post were pre-ordained ;-)
Footnote 1. The dynamics of the ping pong situation includes full knowledge of the behavior of the paddle, the bounciness of the ball, the resistance and eddies in the air, the texture of the table, and many other factors.
Footnote 2. The path implies the locus through space as well as the velocity, acceleration, ... and the changes in these characteristics during the period of observation.
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