Cause and effect is a funny thing. In its simplest form it is pretty straightforward. I punch you in the arm playfully and you say “Ouch, stop that!”.

Then there are the more far reaching consequences; a rough and tough childhood and the way that plays out in relationships and how life unfolds in a larger sense.

A car hits the brakes too late and runs in to the back of another car. Again, having effects that ripple outwards; we are all in the same pond after all, from the people involved, to the witnesses.

These every day, and not so every day, physical occurrences are things we accept without thinking about. They are almost a priori in acceptance.

There is a more unsettling side though and one that is kind of unavoidable. And it really comes down to physics at the smallest scale and works it’s way up from there and to the examples above.

Common sense dictates that through experience we understand if a pool ball hits another on a pool table, relating to angle, velocity and the other variables, the hit ball will move off in a direction at a speed directly relational to the impact.

These examples can also be applied to the brain and its physical nature. But what does that mean.

The simplest connotation is that all systems are cause and effect, including the human mind.

All systems are interconnected. From a family unit, to an ecosystem, to a solar system, to a galaxy, and finally to the universe.

With everything being connected in a Spinozian as well as a physical sense and everything we think and experience being part of these systems, in theory if you simulated the universe as software in a computer (this is done on small scales relatively simply); you could replay and reset and restart that system universe.

Without interaction or interference to the initial conditions, through simple cause and effect, the closed system would and will play out in exactly the same way.

The universe is a closed system by definition.

If the above is the case, and the onus is on someone to disprove, then all our actions and history is determined and our future actions and the events yet to come are all predetermined.

What we have is an illusion of free will spun up by our consciousness and I will argue that that doesn’t matter in a, very real sense, to how we live our lives, (unless you are someone whose actions you believe are partly dictated by the fact there is an all seeing supernatural being watching us and taking notes to decide who gets to walk into a utopia at death.  A pretty sad state of affairs to need to be watched to act morally. That and/or along with being a Descartian dualist, however that is a different post entirely and would only bog this surface level one down).

What does this all boil down to?

In a nutshell everything we do, have done and will, is and has been decided through this very complex system we are a part of.

Why does this not matter?

We are animals whose senses and brains lie to us all the time. It is the nature of being a creature formed through evolution. As such we spin up narratives to suit our emotional states all the time. One such of those is the fact that we are in control of our actions and thoughts and destiny.

Even if we aren’t, our brains have evolved to give us the illusion of said control, and we can’t get outside of that box, our mind and body.

So this illusion of freedom and free will is so real that none of us tend to question it in every day life. Like walking and breathing, thinking we are making choices through our own volition is just how we think as insignificant mammals.

The beauty is, we also have a kind of mind that can understand the above. Higher level consciousness so to speak. It is disconcerting without doubt, however it does not matter in a real sense.

You can know that everything is determined and your illusion of free will is just that, and still get on fine.

The minute you stop thinking about it you go back to the default mammalian behaviours of making breakfast and worrying about your relationship and the state of the world.

And that is fine. The hard part is accepting determinism because we all love our agency a little bit too much (I am looking at you instagram et al :P)

Acceptance is not a prerequisite reality however, and the little lies we all tell ourselves to get through the day due to being mammals evolved on an oxygen rich planet fit nicely with the one you can take away from this post.

Now what do I want for breakfast…?

Let me think…

Let me choose…

 

*This is condensed thought.  If you are interested in further reading regarding thinking systems, quantum mechanics and it’s relations to the topic, determinism, evolutionary biology and psychology, dualism and the mind-body problem, or other topics touched on in this post just send me a message.