:29:00
Your neurons fire. They send
a signal down into your nervous system.
:29:03
It passes along down
into your muscle fibers.
:29:06
They twitch. You might, say,
reach out your arm.
:29:09
Looks like it's
a free action on your part,
:29:11
but every one of those--
every part of that process...
:29:14
is actually governed by
physical law:
:29:17
chemical laws,
electrical laws and so on.
:29:19
So now it just looks like the Big Bang
set up the initial conditions,
:29:22
and the whole rest
of our history,
:29:24
the whole rest of human history
and even before,
:29:26
is really just sort of the playing out
of subatomic particles...
:29:29
according to these basic
fundamental physical laws.
:29:31
We think were special. We think we
have some kind of special dignity,
:29:34
but that now
comes under threat.
:29:36
I mean, that's really
challenged by this picture.
:29:39
So you might be saying, "Well, wait a
minute. What about quantum mechanics?
:29:41
"I know enough contemporary
physical theory to know
it's not really like that.
:29:44
"It's really
a probabilistic theory.
:29:46
There's room. It's loose.
It's not deterministic."
:29:49
And that's gonna enable us
to understand free will.
:29:51
But if you look at the details,
it's not really gonna help...
:29:54
because what happens is you have
some very small quantum particles,
:29:57
and their behavior is
apparently a bit random.
:29:59
They swerve. Their behavior is absurd
in the sense that it's unpredictable...
:30:04
and we can't understand it
based on anything that came before.
:30:07
It just does something out of the blue,
according to a probabilistic framework.
:30:11
But is that gonna help
with freedom?
:30:13
Should our freedom just be
a matter of probabilities,
:30:15
just some random swerving
in a chaotic system?
:30:17
That just seems like it's worse.
I'd rather be a gear...
:30:19
in a big deterministic,
physical machine...
:30:22
than just some
random swerving.
:30:24
So we can't just ignore
the problem.
:30:26
We have to find room in our
contemporary world view for persons,
:30:29
with all that that it entails;
not just bodies, but persons.
:30:31
And that means trying
to solve the problem of freedom,
:30:34
finding room for choice
and responsibility...
:30:36
and trying to understand
individuality.
:30:40
You can't fight city hall,
death and taxes.
:30:44
Don't talk about politics
or religion.
:30:46
This is all the equivalent
of enemy propaganda
rolling across the picket line.
:30:51
" Lay down, G.I.
Lay down, G.I."
:30:53
We saw it all through
the 20th Century.
:30:55
And now in the 21st Century,
it's time to stand up and realize...
:30:58
that we should not allow ourselves
to be crammed into this rat maze.