Waking Up - A New Operating System for Your Mind
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Waking Up - A New Operating System for Your Mind
kev and added
Decisions, intentions, efforts, goals, willpower, etc., are causal states of the brain, leading to specific behaviors, and behaviors lead to outcomes in the world. Human choice, therefore, is as important as fanciers of free will believe. But the next choice you make will come out of the darkness of prior causes that you, the conscious witness of y
... See moreSam Harris • Free Will
Whether or not you have worked out your own understanding of free will, just thinking about your potential lack of agency can be an exercise in mindfulness. By observing the thoughts that run amuck your mind, and contemplating the subconscious factors that govern your waking consciousness, you allow awareness to take the wheel — rather than delusio... See more
Alex Olshonsky • Free will: who's in control?
kev and added
"You are free to do what you want, but where do your wants come from? ... Where is the freedom in doing what one wants when one's wants are the product of prior causes —which one cannot inspect, and therefore could not choose, and one had absolutely no hand in creating? ... We can't choose what we choose in life. When it seems that we choose what w... See more
Sloww Sunday: Babies, Metacognition, Developmental Deaths, & More
Cleon added
You are not in control of your mind—because you, as a conscious agent, are only part of your mind, living at the mercy of other parts.15 You can do what you decide to do—but you cannot decide what you will decide to do.
Sam Harris • Free Will
Some moments before you are aware of what you will do next—a time in which you subjectively appear to have complete freedom to behave however you please—your brain has already determined what you will do. You then become conscious of this “decision” and believe that you are in the process of making it.
Sam Harris • Free Will
At first, we realize that we do not control the world outside us. I don’t decide when it rains. Then we realize that we do not control what’s happening inside our own body. I don’t control my blood pressure. Next, we understand that we don’t even govern our brain. I don’t tell the neurons when to fire. That’s more difficult. Ultimately we should re
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