Are we pre-determined?
Quite a while back, in one of my trips to India, my mother showed my horoscope to an astrologer and he gave some analysis and recommended a certain stone ring to wear. I tried to wing out of it but all logic ends in mother's eyes. So, a ring was made and I ended wearing it one week at most (only when I was in India). Now, the predicted time has passed ... phew!!
Recently, a friend of mine and I were discussing random stuffs and we started talking about astrology, past life, destiny ... (random). Is everything predetermined in our life? In our daily life, we run into situations where family / friends / astrologer ... tell us that it "per-determined" and/or was a "karma" (good or bad) from past life. How do these astrologer make predictions? There are enough fake astrologers... but there are some good ones too and some of us may have experiences where predictions have come true or close. Hard to believe?
As we may have observed in the past, some experiences which we have gone through made sense, some experiences was weird and some did not made sense and can not be explained ... You are left with more unknown than known - but it is the unknown which makes our life interesting - keeps us thinking. Now these are BIG questions and people have been thinking /searching answers for thousand of years. Each one of us have certain views based on our experience (personal, social) and "inner faith". To me randomness is fundamental in life and not everything is "predetermined" our past or by an unknown force... life was created in a random way.
Science is slowly giving some clues; Genes and Quantum mechanics - odd couple. We are learning how genetic encoding and gene folding works and it is passed from generation to generation. There are some nice PBS programs such as Journey of Man: A genetic Odyssey. Recently, I started watching a new series, Genius By Stephan Hawking. Everyone should watch it! They use very simple experiments to answer big questions (Although Hawking says that everyone can be like a Genius and answer big questions ... but I do not agree ... it is the geniuses who explain complex things in a simple way for all of us to understand).
We all think that we are free agent of our own actions. We also know that we do not have power to change the laws of nature or change the past. So, in what sense can we attribute freedom of choice to ourselves?
Episode 3: Why are we here? asks the same fundamental question - "Do I have free will or everything is predetermined?"
Laws of nature is deterministic and humans are part of the nature. The last experiment "Doppelganger Challenge of Exploring Human Choices" was the most interesting and leaves you with more questions. Whether you believe in multi-universe or not, each of us make choices (quantum states) and these choices reflect who we are. There is enough randomness and so it is hard to believe that everything is "predetermined". However, certain life experiences tell us that there is some order. It is possible that randomness is a micro level phenomenon but at macro level, some may look predetermined.
David Hume said that "determinism is a necessary condition for freedom."
If we look at the nature as a system then we find that, it is:
Episode 1 talks about time travel and in there they prove that going back in time is impossible. If we assume all fundamental theories to be deterministic, can time is symmetric also which implies not only past can influence future, future should be able to influence past (This is causing headache now ...)
I honestly do not have strong belief in astrology ... at least the way it is talked/preached. Astrology shows how planets and stars impact our future (which does not include Earth). I would like to stick the planet where I stand (Earth) determine the future. Let the mountains, ocean, air and sun determine my future. Isn't that how life got started ...
The Episode 3 of Genius was quite interesting to me - it does not answer the questions rather provide another angle to this discussion ... the search and debate will last for a long time to come ....
Best Wishes to you for your search to these answers...
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6.26.16
Recently, a friend of mine and I were discussing random stuffs and we started talking about astrology, past life, destiny ... (random). Is everything predetermined in our life? In our daily life, we run into situations where family / friends / astrologer ... tell us that it "per-determined" and/or was a "karma" (good or bad) from past life. How do these astrologer make predictions? There are enough fake astrologers... but there are some good ones too and some of us may have experiences where predictions have come true or close. Hard to believe?
As we may have observed in the past, some experiences which we have gone through made sense, some experiences was weird and some did not made sense and can not be explained ... You are left with more unknown than known - but it is the unknown which makes our life interesting - keeps us thinking. Now these are BIG questions and people have been thinking /searching answers for thousand of years. Each one of us have certain views based on our experience (personal, social) and "inner faith". To me randomness is fundamental in life and not everything is "predetermined" our past or by an unknown force... life was created in a random way.
Science is slowly giving some clues; Genes and Quantum mechanics - odd couple. We are learning how genetic encoding and gene folding works and it is passed from generation to generation. There are some nice PBS programs such as Journey of Man: A genetic Odyssey. Recently, I started watching a new series, Genius By Stephan Hawking. Everyone should watch it! They use very simple experiments to answer big questions (Although Hawking says that everyone can be like a Genius and answer big questions ... but I do not agree ... it is the geniuses who explain complex things in a simple way for all of us to understand).
We all think that we are free agent of our own actions. We also know that we do not have power to change the laws of nature or change the past. So, in what sense can we attribute freedom of choice to ourselves?
Laws of nature is deterministic and humans are part of the nature. The last experiment "Doppelganger Challenge of Exploring Human Choices" was the most interesting and leaves you with more questions. Whether you believe in multi-universe or not, each of us make choices (quantum states) and these choices reflect who we are. There is enough randomness and so it is hard to believe that everything is "predetermined". However, certain life experiences tell us that there is some order. It is possible that randomness is a micro level phenomenon but at macro level, some may look predetermined.
David Hume said that "determinism is a necessary condition for freedom."
If we look at the nature as a system then we find that, it is:
- governed by genuinely stochastic, indeterministic laws (or by no laws at all)
- governed by underlying deterministic laws, but is chaotic
- over a long period of time, the system mimics random process and lacks predictability
- two systems with nearly identical initial states will have radically divergent future developments, within a finite timespan
Episode 1 talks about time travel and in there they prove that going back in time is impossible. If we assume all fundamental theories to be deterministic, can time is symmetric also which implies not only past can influence future, future should be able to influence past (This is causing headache now ...)
I honestly do not have strong belief in astrology ... at least the way it is talked/preached. Astrology shows how planets and stars impact our future (which does not include Earth). I would like to stick the planet where I stand (Earth) determine the future. Let the mountains, ocean, air and sun determine my future. Isn't that how life got started ...
The Episode 3 of Genius was quite interesting to me - it does not answer the questions rather provide another angle to this discussion ... the search and debate will last for a long time to come ....
Best Wishes to you for your search to these answers...
----------
6.26.16
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