Everything Is Predetermined : Albert Einstein and his friends and Ramana Maharshi

1. “Everything Is Predetermined”: Albert Einstein (and his friends) and Ramana Maharshi Gary Weber, Ph. D.

3. Can Physics Explain Consciousness? Eugene Wigner : “Physics can’t even prove physics” "It was not possible to formulate the laws (of quantum theory) in a fully consistent way without reference to consciousness." In The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences, “the mathematical formulation of the physicist’s often crude experience leads in an uncanny number of cases to an amazingly accurate description of a large class of phenomena." Biology and cognition could be the origin of physical concepts, as we humans perceive them…that mathematics and physics were so well matched, seemed…"unreasonable“…hard to explain otherwise What can be logically deduced about free will, choice, karma/sin, and knowing the outcomes and sources of our actions from our current scientific understanding?

4. Is Predetermination Scientifically Reasonable? Benjamin Libet – UCSF – 1983 Participants Watched a clock and noted precisely when they decided to flex their wrist Noted when the movement actually occurred The intention to move occurred 200 milliseconds before movement actually began. Electrodes placed over the motor control areas of the brain recorded when the brain had begun initiating the movement. Electrical activity of the muscles involved in the wrist movement determined precisely when muscle movement began. Brain activity to initiate movement started about 550 milliseconds before the action began. However, participants were only aware of the intention to move 200 milliseconds before it occurred. The brain had initiated the movement before the participant was even aware of it.

5. Movement Initiated < Awareness of the Movement

6. But What About Deciding Something In Those 200ms? Strawson (1994) At birth, one’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors are determined by genetics, prenatal learning and environment. Subsequent thoughts, feelings and behaviors are built on that foundation – decisions and choices are a result of accumulated experience, as modulated by genetic factors If one tries to change oneself, those goals and methods are determined by genes, etc. – what one can be is determined by what one already is “Time to veto” conveys no more free will than the time between putting eggs on waiting for them to fry provides the eggs with the opportunity not to cook

7. The Growing Case for Genetic Causation Francis Crick - “You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules” Functional DNA polymorphism in DRD4, MAO-A and 5HT genes linked to “pathological” gambling; FAAH gene w/385A allele damps fear circuitry and intensifies reaction to making money A DRD2 gene allele can intensify responses to gambles Harvard and UCSD studies found that genes may be 46% responsible for how popular and how “connected” we are MSU study showed that a mutation in serotonin receptor gene 5-HT2A is linked to a variation in popularity Two NEJM studies found binge eating strongly associated to melanocortin 4-receptor which makes appetite controlling protein. All people with broken gene were binge eaters.

8. Recent Work On Individual Neurons Hint At Biology of Thought

9. Contemporary Extensions of Libet’s Work Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, (Bhattachcarya and Sheth, 2009) More complex thought processes - looking at “aha/Eureka” insights, when they are known and where they come from Simple, practical problems, not well known w/o a linear, methodical solution EEG predicted who would have the insight by different brainwave activity in right frontal cortex up to 8 seconds before the insight was realized Conscious thought does not solve problems “Unconscious” processing delivers the solution when it has been worked out

10. Modern Complex Systems (Chaos) Theory An MIT meteorologist (Edward Lorenz) was conducting a computer modeling experiment. To save time he restarted his huge program in the middle of a run with his printout data which rounded variables to 3-digits, while his computer worked with 6-digit precision. Surprisingly, the result for the entire weather system changed dramatically. A new mathematical approach developed which focused on the impact of small, seemingly insignificant changes on the behavior of large complex dynamic systems Used in mathematics, topology, physics, population biology, biology, meteorology, astrophysics, information theory, cardiac cycles, war, etc. The metaphor is of a butterfly flapping its wings causing a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean.

11. Complex Systems Theory Applied to “Intelligent” Choice and “Free Will” Complex Systems Mathematics observes: Situations are less predictable further from the initial conditions. Complex interacting systems undergoing change (our lives) are unpredictable. All parts of the system affect, and are affected by, many other parts of the system in a complex web of cause and effect and feedback. Predictions based on linear logic (a > b > c) do not work. Completely unpredictable results can emerge even if the original conditions are known in great detail. With all the interactions and feedback, huge amounts of knowledge are required that cannot be collected and assembled in time for even one simple decision. The human mind is suited for simple situations using simple logic. Short-term memory holds about seven pieces of information at a time –inadequate for today’s complex, interconnected world. This inability of our minds to generate reliable decisions gives us great discomfort, uncertainty and fear.

12. You are NOT in control It is impossible to know the ultimate outcomes of any of “my” actions and who they will affect, or how the current situation came to be. What if a small change happened in your great-great-great-great grandmother’s life? Would “you” be here today in this room? Were you in control and knowledgeable of everything surrounding the most important decision in your life including all of its subsequent implications?

13. Even Simple Interactions Are Massively Complex

14. Games Demonstrate The Hopelessness of Our Situation In “chessworld” Only two families each with father, mother, three sets of older twins and eight younger children. Only limited and prescribed movement is possible. Each person can only be in one of about 60 adjacent houses. If someone moves into a house occupied by a member of the other family, the only possible outcome is that the current occupant dies. Everyone moves alternatively by family until one family is gone. Clearly a much, much simpler and less populous world than we occupy. Possible different sequences of interactions of those two families is 1 followed by 123 zeroes (Shannon number). An estimate of the number of particles in the known universe is 1 followed by 79 zeroes (+/- a few zeroes). Why do we believe that we can predict who and what will be affected by our actions in our vastly more complex world?

15. The Bhagavad Gita Strikes A Similar Tone And even if, clinging to the I-sense, you say that you will not fight, your intention will be in vain; Nature will compel you to act. Even the wise man acts in accordance with his inner nature. All beings follow their nature. What good can repression do? No one, not even for an instant, can exist without acting, all beings are compelled, however unwilling, by the three strands of Nature called gunas.

16. You Are Not In Control If everyone has “free will” and is “in control”, how does that work for 6,800,000,000 people? What if 100,000 people want the same item? What if ten people want different results from a situation and they are from four different religions? How does the “bookkeeping” work of all results of all behaviors of 6,800,000,000 people, 16 hrs/day for their lives on everyone else? Who keeps track of all of this karma and sin?

17. What Is This “I” That Makes These Choices and Has This Sin/Karma?

18. How Does An “I” Get Built?

19. How Does An “I” Get Built?

20. How Does An “I” Get Built?

21. How Does An “I” Get Built?

22. If Everything Is Predetermined Where Does That Leave “You”? Surprisingly, living in the moment, accepting whatever unfolds, just as it is, whatever it is Beyond the reaches of recursive, compulsive, confused thought Fully present and active “in the world”, without regret, second-judgments, or hidden agendas Functioning at a higher, more creative level without the interference of constant background/foreground thinking

24. An “Aha” Problem The Problem Three story house. Three light switches on the ground floor. Two switches do not work. One switch turns on a incandescent light bulb on the second floor. The light and all three switches are off. You may flip the light switches as much as you want, but you may only go up to the second floor once to check the light bulb. How do you determine which switch works? The Answer: Switch one light switch (a) on for several minutes. Then switch it off and switch another one (b) on. Then immediately go upstairs. If the light is on, switch (b) turned it on. If the light is not on, feel the bulb. If it is hot, then switch (a) turned it on. If it is cold, switch (c) would turn it on.