RE: Freedom is a Two Edged Sword: Chapter Three

[antisocialist]

We change the universe by perceiving it.
Symbiotic when we agree and the opposite when we don't.
Dysbiotic?

There isn't a good antonym to symbiotic.
What's up with that?

We exist to do what we do, only we can decide what that will be, imo.
We can abdicate the responsibility of making our own choice by letting others do it for us, but the consequences will still fall on us.

Comments

[valued-customer]

"There isn't a good antonym to symbiotic."

Try on antagonistic. There are a variety of words that convey meanings opposite to symbiotic, that may better fit your use case. Personally, I like agonistic, a term I learned researching vaccines for a vaccine component intended to rouse the immune system so that it can become competent to alert on the active component of a vaccine, that accompanies the agonist. Symbiotic refers to a specific biological relationship, not physics more generally, and synonyms for what you mean by symbiotic in terms of physics may more precisely specify such relationships and be more clearly specified by particular antonyms.

"We change the universe by perceiving it."

I don't see how. Our perceptions are part and parcel of the universe. All I can see that can change through our perception is our conception, but that is clearly also part of the universe and as predictable as any other phenomenon. This is why I wrassled with the characterization of events as variable depending on whether or not we perceived them until I felt I had properly understood such perception and refuted such characterization satisfactorily. A bunch of woo woo spewed from Quantum physicists that claimed observing photons shot through slits changed their behaviour, when in fact the act of observing them entailed affecting them physically, which is what actually changed their behaviour.

While I completely agree we have free will, that doesn't mean our actions can't be predictable by those possessing fuller understanding of us and our environment. All my free will actions can be completely ordained by some scheming supergenius that has prepared the milieu in which I make decisions without my knowledge without affecting my freedom to make such decisions. There are analogies in research into consciousness using slime molds, where researchers create environments with certain features, such as food being concentrated in regions with trails of glucose leading to the food, that reveal slime molds learn and make decisions. The fact that researchers repeating this experiment will expect slime molds to take certain actions doesn't change the experience of the slime molds making those decisions.

Edit:

"We can abdicate the responsibility of making our own choice by letting others do it for us..."

I recall Neil Peart of Rush making a definitive statement in the song 'Freewill' on this matter, writing the line 'We can choose not to decide, but we still have made the choice.'

[antisocialist]

I don't see how.

https://wikiless.org/wiki/Observer_effect

There are more than just that one example.
What point is there to having a god, if your behavior doesn't change from being aware of being observed?

[valued-customer]

From that link, and agreeing with my prior research, and what I stated above:

"In physics, the observer effect is the disturbance of an observed system by the act of observation.[1][2] This is often the result of utilizing instruments that, by necessity, alter the state of what they measure in some manner."

There's no woo woo, magical change we effect by perceiving. We use instruments, such as bouncing particles off of other particles, in the process of observation, and these, obviously, affect our targets of observation.

Edit: regarding God, I also stated this above:

"While I completely agree we have free will, that doesn't mean our actions can't be predictable by those possessing fuller understanding of us and our environment."

Nothing better understanding of the subject doesn't make entirely predictable is portended by these presents.