Limitations of Freedom

This writing does not attempt to defend anarchism, libertarianism, or authoritarianism. Freedom is independent of, or may be spoken of independently in all three environments, if the authoritarianism is of the mild form found here in the California portion of these United States, then it is plainly true. We still have freedom of speech, for the most part (not completely, though We still have the FCC, and people can get into trouble for screaming things that are essentially negligent and put fellow human being’s lives in immediate danger. Causing unnecessary panic, is something that most humans understand and know how to avoid). People can of course take care of such outrageous outbursts by fining the person responsible. The theater owner, for example, has an implicit contract that you agree to whenever you enter his theater. By now, there should be no need to write it down. The “guest” or customer must agree to their side of the two-way agreement. All they need do is pay the agreed price, and behave themselves during the show or performance.

I am not going to even attempt to prove the existence of natural rights. I can tell you that I have a strong desire to live my life as my own. My brain wants to be the brain that tells the rest of my body what to do. I recognize that there are other similar entities called “my fellow human beings”, who roam around on the surface of this same, little rock, orbiting the sun. It certainly feels natural to me that at least some percentage of these other humans are truly sentient, freedom-loving individuals.

However, other individuals remind me that we are the 5th ape. They are the authoritarians, of which there are two basic types.

One: people who don’t know better, and can barely survive on the slice of pizza they just stole from a street vendor. I am speaking here, not of bully teenagers, but of some poor guy down on his luck, through a series of circumstances. Perhaps he was a farmer’s son, and they had no crops, because of 5 years of drought. You would want to offer him some water, if you saw him. Surely, charity can handle these extreme cases.

Two: People who should know better, but apparently need to be told anyway. They include common criminals, of the violent kind; and people who support authoritarian laws that violate other people’s individual liberty.

Limitations: My liberty to move around on this planet, make my arms, mouth, lungs, stomach, penis, legs, and other parts do, is limited by other person’s liberty to do the same. If somebody tells you to not touch them, in fact, the default is, don’t touch them.

Real estate property rights are not absolute. Property rights end at the point where a human’s life is in danger, and that human can increase her chance of survival with minor inconvenience to your real estate property. Suppose you have a water well, and someone really needs a drink. If all they do is get a drink, and they do not willfully contaminate your water, you have no right to stop them. All real estate was obtained initially through rather dubious means. Ownership of it is slightly random. You have a right to own it and use it, up to a limit of where your use of it interferes with the survival of another, within reasonable boundries, as agreed upon, by the immediate community within. The community may do nothing that infringes upon the individual who remains on public or unclaimed real estate. The killing of an individual, merely for the theft of a few personal items or electronic gadgets is an example of a violation of individual liberty. You have a right to capture them, hit them, or do whatever is necessary to get your property back – short of killing them or using excessive force.

All trades have come with an implicit contract. What I tell you this object is, or what it does, it is. Obviously, it is a good idea to put your statement in writing, post it, or hand it out to everyone. If it is a common, standard item, such as a currency, then the contract is already stated on the note or implied in such a way that is well understood by all who participate. “Food that looks good, and the seller accepts your currency, then you will not get food poisoning resulting directly from the consumption of the food, if properly prepared, in a manner that is acceptable by the community.”- could be a local standard, to avoid putting everything in writing. You can eat a raw egg, if you like, but don’t complain, if you get sick. Your coverage would then become between your and your insurance company. Your freedom to consume whatever food or herb you like would not be diminished.

There is no place for a DEA agent in a free society.

There is no place for laws against prostitution, drugs, or gambling, in a free society.

In a free society, people may behave as free traders without fear of arrest or outside interference. It is already implied that no fraud is to be tolerated. No additional regulations are needed when two adults are doing the trading. We no longer have a need for big brother to google that for us. I can read about the products that I am considering to purchase on my own. Plenty of Consumer Reports-like web sites are available for me to choose from. If I so desire, I can pay for others to do the research. That is what Consumer Reports is for.

In a free society, banks and other failed businesses don’t get bailed out. Other businesses buy up the remains, and life goes on. It’s all pretty seamless for the consumer, except a few will luck out and won’t have to make any additional mortgage payments.

In a free society, individuals ultimately decide what to do with their own lives, their own liberty, and their own pursuit of happiness.

There can never be a military draft, in a free society. This amounts to involuntary servitude (or slavery), only it is much worse than slavery. The individual is forced to kill or be killed, in the service of a mob of people, calling themselves either a Republic or a democratic society.

The stated purpose of the establishment of the US federal government was to defend individual liberty, not to destroy it. Yet, time-after-time, the authoritarians raise up their evil, collective head, while wrapped in a bloody flag, and carrying a bloody cross. They symbolically eat flesh and drink blood. They are dangerous. They teach that rational thought is a sin, as their favorite forms of cult activities and faith-based thinking directly and quite deliberately interferes with rational, scientific thinking.

A free society cannot have a basis in a primitive belief structure that was invented before modern concepts of liberty, science, art, music, architecture, beauty, civilization, or morality.

We are limited by our nature and the laws of physics only. Artificial limits that go beyond absolute necessity are not needed. Laws that infringe on our liberty violate our nature. Sometimes the alpha makes, in a group of apes (and we are the 5th ape) has an authoritarian nature. Human beings should be able to rise above their flawed nature, in this one case. Natural leaders will be followed in natural, voluntary ways. If I am sick, I know enough to see a doctor. If I fail in my life, I know enough to ask for help. If I become wealthy, I know enough to share with my family, friends, and those in need. I am free enough and lucky enough to have been able to learn these things.

Many people need help with many different things, from research, to helping the poor, and so forth. It is up to everybody to give what they can and help out in the best way that they know how. It is not up to a mob of people to misuse the government, designed to defend individual liberty, to force others to give to others in ways that THEY feel is best. One can convince others that it is their duty to help, and these people are well within their rights to refuse service to purely selfish people, if they want. Would it not be better to simply take N% of your earnings, and apply those funds to your favorite charities instead? That way, hundreds or thousands will donate to your cause, much like a government tax would do for followers of the late Ted Kennedy, or the Tea party.

Your favorite charity does not have to occupy other countries as a side-effect. It probably could not if it’s members wanted to. Your charity might turn out to misuse funds, but they are not likely a terrorist organization, unless you are.

iPhone app, from Starbucks on Hawthorne and PCH.

 

Hybrids of All Sorts

Some day I will take my hybrid car on a 20-mile drive, get out and take my hybrid bike, unfold it, put in my hybrid skate board with Segway-like software into the basket along with the back pack.  Each item is made out of carbon nanotube composites, so they are strong and light.  The deluxe model skateboard would be pricey, but the wheels slide inside, so that it becomes a skid board.  I take my hybrid bike down the bike trail on the beach and ride down to a coffee shop.  I slide my super-thin wireless device out of my wide shirt pocket and read for a while.  It is coated with solar paint to absorb and convert light of any sort into electricity.

The bike can fold up and go into the back pack, which is very light due to the ultra strong carbon composit material developed from super strong carbon nanotubes.  Jump on the skate board.  Each push recharges some of the battery which is super dense with electrons, due to the nanotube layers sandwiched into the lithium battery. The nanotubes increase the surface area and permit huge numbers of electrons to packed into fairly small battery pack.

Now there is a robot “dog” being developed that can carry over 350 lbs. There are several women in Boston with bladders grown from their own stem cells.

 

Brainstorming for A Better Planet

The following is a long list of brainstorming ideas.

Idea number “0” is of fundamental importance and serves as a basis for the remaining concepts, although they are mostly not directly dependent on it.  My belief is that without at least acknowledging the individual, there is little point in carrying on.

Post Update Note: If a concept interferes with basic individual liberties, these concepts need to be re-examined. Perhaps the spirit of an idea did not translate well into words at the time of the writing, or the contradiction was simply not apparent, due to the nature of  ” brainstorming” as applied on this blog.  Concepts may only sound good in a superficial way, or perhaps they stray from original intentions.

Needs more editing, but there is no time.

0. Part A.  Individual Liberty and Misplacing Blame

Do not blame “the free market” for the problems of this world.  A true free market does not exist.  A free market is what results when people are free. It means that people voluntarily exchange goods, services, and ideas. It means that the people involved are not committing fraud, stealing, or utilizing coercion in any way, shape or form.

A moral society demands that all individuals have a right to their own lives, their own liberty, and their own pursuit of happiness.  It took each of us 13.7 billion years to arrive, and we are here for a short time.  No individual, or group of individuals should be so arrogant that they feel that they can morally impose their will on anyone else: Not Ted Kennedy, not George Bush, not Jesus, not Jacobal Lectomen,  nor even Upgrade01A .  Nobody and no machine, no matter how sophisticated,  is qualified to know what is best for you or any individual; only the individual can decide.  The individual is ultimately responsible for her actions.  Not even the “majority” of people have a right to tell you what to do, because that is just mob rule.

To prevent people from stealing from other people (by taking their wealth or by interfering with their individual rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness), I propose that we set up an institution that is designed to prevent that sort of thing from happening.  This institution will replace or serve as a modification to existing governments.  This time around, let’s place limits on their power (those in charge of running the institution) in very explicit terms, since the institution has a unique monopoly on power in that they have the authority of the use of force in order to pursue and capture criminals.  Such an institution, with those awesome powers ought not be involved in other activities, less they use these powers on corruptible ways.  So far as I know, this concept has only been tried one time in the history of civilization, but the mistake was that too much power was granted to it, and too many loopholes were written into it’s contract (it’s constitution).

The truth is, regardless of what type of society we have, we need some way to manage criminal activities, thus the same issues and problems and imperfections will apply, so that should be kept in mind when criticizing any plan.  All systems have the core issue:  “better that N guilty people go free than  to have M innocent people unjustly punished” There is no way around it.  The ideal that has so far not been achieved is to set both M and N to zero.  That is the ideal goal, but is not realistic.  Realistically, for M to be zero, N will be 100% (no institution) and the reverse is true (totalitarian) with M at 100% and all of the guilty holding the keys, guns and whips.

If we cannot protect the minority of the individual, then we have no hope of protecting any minorities, not the least of which are the poor, neglected people in the third world.  A large group of individuals.

Part B.  Consumption Costs and Taking Responsibility for One’s Actions

Something like 80% of the cost of virtually all products consists of the cost of energy.  Since all individuals have equal rights, then each individual is responsible for paying for the cost of any energy she requires in order to produce any goods, services or information.  Once she has paid for everything associated with it’s production and gas done so without violating the rights of anyone else, she has the right to do whatever she likes with what she has produced, including trading it voluntarily with someone else.  If anyone interferes with that process, they are immoral and arrogant.  It is at that moment, when the institution we have set up may act.

Now, suppose an individual decides he no longer finds any value with an item, and he decides he would like to dispose of it.  Of course, he is responsible for paying the cost of disposal.  He may find that there is a disposal service that will dispose the item.  The disposal service must do that without interfering with the rights of others.

There is no requirement for any individual to consume more than they freely choose.  They may choose to consume only small amounts of food and large amounts of information.  Only the individual has the right to decide for herself.

Individuals are free to negotiate the price of any goods, services, or information, including giving away the items for free, if they so choose. I do that, for some things, as do most.

1. Encourage telecommuting  (I am working from home at the moment, and my company encourages it).  You save lots of energy and resources that way.
2. Reduce interventionism, starting be pulling out of Iraq.  Gradually phase out intervention in the 130 or so countries we live in now.
3. Create charities that help people live in their own countries.  The Bill Gates Foundation is a wonderful example of this, where the foundation is working on wiping out malaria.  Warren Buffet, Obama’s chief economic adviser is the largest contributor (other than the Gates family).  Most of these countries need plenty of pure drinking water, which I get to later down my list.
4. Legalize Hemp.  Legalize medical marijuana.
5. Teach children around the world how to use the internet to do research.  Follow the model of MIT and create free, online, open source schools with language translation software, high-speed connections.  Encourage “out-of-the-box” brainstorming and thinking.  Encourage ideas like the ones here, some are good, some not so good. Some will stimulate other ideas that will work better.  We should no longer be restricted to working in one narrow field.  All of us have ideas.  Some will spark others.  Let the memes replicate!!!!  Let them mutate!  Write open source storie!  Write open source poems that include links to other ideas including music, science and poetry! Write open source philosophy!  Make your own movies and tv shows! Think of new ways of storing and manipulating data.
6. Come up with ways to create products directly in the home or at something like a Kinko’s.  Print your products and contribute to the design.  Print your own chairs.
7. this is an idea I have been thinking about by integrating various known technologies:  Instead of pumping carbon into the air, when burning coal to generate electricity, for example,
(a) pump the pre-scrubbed gas directly into a large cavern under the ground.  The cavern will be quite large and deep.  The cavern may contain an algae pond at the bottom
(b) punch thousands of tiny holes at the top of the cavern over a few acres of land so that the gas may escape over several locations spread out evenly.  There may be
air pressures involved, causing gradients that may be exploited for additional energy recapture.
(c) Populate the ground above the ground with carbon-loving bacteria and thousands of soil eating earthworms closer to the surface.
(d) cover the ground with a ground plant that loves carbon
(e) cover the ground with trees.  research the best trees
(f) cover the roof of the coal plant with solar panels, if they are efficient in the area where the coal plant is, which should be built very close to the actual coal deposits.  Use the
solar panels to generate the power consumed by the plant itself
(g) float helium-filled generators over the roof, at least 300 feet above, to the height where the wind is always blowing to generate additional power.
(h) supplement the trees with air-carbon extraction units.
8. Another idea I have thought about: Build a fish-recognition “net”.  Just as Las Vegas Casinos, have very sophisticated face-recognition technology, we could develop fish-recognition software to do this.   High-protein, common fish would be directed down one path.  Fish of interest to scientists would be sent down
another path (very wide tube).  This path can be activated and deactivated so that it captures only a certain number of fish of any kind desired.  Endangered fish and dolphins could be directed into another direction.
9. Stop corn subsidies since it is a waste and based on the same logic as a perpetual motion machine, stop tobacco subsidies, stop water subsidies to alfalfa growers in California.  Not only does the alfalfa suck up a lot of water, since the farmers can get their water on 10 cents on the dollar, it makes red meat much cheaper which is bad for health in large quantities.  Animal-based food is less efficient than directly eating plants.  Cutting off subsidies will automatically be reflected in price differences.  Meat will be more expensive
10. Utilize ocean water for the toilet facilities that are near the ocean.
11. Recycle water like the Toyota Financial Services facility in Torrance does.  They filter the water and reuse it to wather their landscape and to use in their fountains and toilets.
12.  As we pull out of oil producing counties and as we use up more oil, the prices will naturally rise.  Once it hits $200 per barrel, then solar power technology as of the year 2000 becomes economical.   Surely the progress in this field is improving so that the newer technologies will become cheaper and cheaper.  There is much work in this area, where the entire spectrum of the sunlight can be used.
13.  There are new and improved technologies that are much more economical to desalinate ocean water and others that can use any water (see the guy who invented the Segway’s invention).  Utilize these technologies as a carrot to countries in Africa and Asia to help find terrorists like Bin Laden.  The point is to encourage the capturing of criminals and discouraging the bad war paradigm that does not work.
14. Since Global Warming will cause the ocean levels to rise, we should be using technologies to help us remove this excess water and make use of it.  One is converting the ocean water into drinking water, another is capturing the minerals such as salts and gold using nanotechnology.  A giant space station will need billions of gallons of water to protect life from gamma ray and other cosmic ray bursts.  We can build electro-magnetic rails inside near-vacuum tubes that will have very low friction to create extremely high-speed rails to slowly increase the speed of a rocket full of supplies, such as water, into space. The external engines could be attached to the end of the rail launcher and attached to the rocket at the last moment.  The launching tube could be several miles long, on the equator to exploit the high speed of that location due to the rotation of the earth.
15. Private space exploration can retrieve Helium-3  from the moon and economically harnessed to generate non-radioactive fusion power (when combined with with deuterium – FROM THE OCEAN mostly)
16. Build a city on the ocean to integrate many of these ideas.  Oceanographer would work side-by-side with other scientists to study the earth’s ocean, extract deuterium, generate wind power, develop new battery technology, capture protein from fish, purify drinking water, extract hydrogen.  The city would be a series of specially design craft able to link together and separate, so that many parts of it could move to different areas.  It would be situated outside of major storm areas.  Microorganisms could be filtered, captured and converted into nanomachines of various types.  The city could be covered with solar nanopaint.  Windmills could be covered with solar panels and used as another type of hybrid energy generator.  They could be attached to new battery technology or air pressure chambers – both can store energy for later use.
17. Exploit resources on asteroids.  Start by going after the ones that are close to Earth and may someday threaten the Earth.
18. Exploit resources on Mars, on comets, on Jupiter’s moons.
19 Utilize already existing technology to project holograms of people so that they need not travel to give presentations.
20. Synchronize traffic lights and include integrated technology inside cars. Have the cars slow down, but avoid stopping as much as possible. Synchronize the cars so that they do not need to stop most of the time.  Volvo already has breaking technology that could be adapted for this.  They use AI neural nets modeled after dragon fly brains that are used to avoid collisions by automatically applying the breaks.
21. Put motion detectors on street lights, so that they need not stay on all night.  One motion could trigger a chain of lights in front of the driver who may be the only one on the road at 3 AM.
22. Utilize technology to eliminate the need for assembly line technology.  Use little robots to move the inventory around.  This is already being done in some situations
23.  Develop a robot that can put a pillow case on a pillow.  Develop a robot that can change the oil on your car and do simple repairs on its own.  These are two hard problems, much harder than playing chess or even walking.
24. Have electric charging “slots” at traffic lights.  A little latch (like a those on a slot car) can lower itself down and recharge the car while it is waiting.  Wireless recharging could be utilized even cheaper.  This is new technology that is almost ready for prime time.

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Blue Dog

6. Blue Dog

By David Saxton Ullery

Performed By: David Saxton Ullery on Roland JV-30 Synthesizer

for: Upgrade 01A, Child’s Toy

↑ 02:39 ↓

<◊→Blue Dog←◊><<click>

Blue Dog TRK 7 → ↑All Tracks↑

I was walking down the street,

Just me an my blue dog

bada chaa!!!

I was thinking about my life,

Thinking about my wife,

bada cha, bada chaa!!!

I was thinking about getting a cup of java,

And Reading a book later,

Maybe I will do just that,

bada cha bada chaa!!!

Wish there was more live stuff goin’ on right now,

Wanna here some jazzzzzz.

Wanna here a beatnik poet speak his mind,

but say something that sounds so hip, Yeah!

He should say something with Universal appeal,

so we can all agree, and just relax man

Wanna hear something cool from a tall stand-up bass,

Want the guy to be wearing shades and a cool hipster hat,

His chick with the long, blond straight hair,

Just sitting at the nearby table, snappin’ her fingers to the beat,

Yeah! Bada chaaaaa!

Wanna have a cup of coffee.

Just relax and read my book,

Forget about the beatnik,

‘Cause he just ain’t there.

No big deal,

’cause I am still here.

bada cha, bada chaaaaaaaa!!!

The Blue Dog Cafe,

Went there just the other night,

It was in the back of my mind,

—

It was out of your site,

First there was the blues bass player,

Followed by the electric jazz guitar…

…with an electric key board following note by note

The cool sax man came in…

…with the soft brush man and his sticks…

—

I swear I could smell the hint…

…of a cool jazz cigarette,

wafting its way through the cafe,

Whilst I sipped on my quad capachino

—

Right at the last note …

…I woke up!

Better believe it daddio!

Yeah!

Bada chaaaaa!

© All rights reserved, with the exceptions given on the home page. In short, feel free to use this material in any public URL with “.com”, or “.edu” domains for non-profit purposes. Please link back to whatever you reference.

 

Patterns, Design, and Physical Laws

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Try parallel processing…

Please enjoy some musical patterns inspired by the DNA Pattern

and Flow of Consciousness here, while reading the article

…it will open in a separate window or tab depending on your browser:

>>> D ‘n A Mutations I <<<

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A computer program will behave in exactly the same way at any time on any computer, given the same initial state. A software program is an example of a “pattern”. The program may be copied. Two copies of the program will behave exactly the same way on two different computers even though the two computers, on which the program copies run, are made up of completely different atoms from one another.

Because the computer program is a pattern, it could be translated into an entirely different programming language and run on an entirely new type of computer. The computers are patterns as well. The pattern called “computer” and the pattern called “program” have a degree of independence from the stuff of which they are made. At the physical level, the atoms, and electrons, and the energy states are absolutely 100% different on both machines and both “copies” of the “same” program, yet the programs behave in exactly the same way on the “design” level!

Ultimately, the computer and the program that runs on it are subject to the pre-determined laws at the physical level, but the patterns at the design level are subject to a much stronger force – that imposed by the pattern itself. Even though the atoms, the initial state and everything about the two computers and the two programs can be absolutely 100% different in space, time, behavior, initial state, molecular structure, elements, and on and on…, the pattern manages to “overrule” the pre-determined physical state that the computer and the program will be in at the start and the end of the running at end of the program. We are not even concerned over the “physical” state of the pattern, only the “design” state of the pattern.

Patterns are at least somewhat independent of the stuff of which they are made. A boat is a pattern. If it has several parts replaced on it, as the parts wear out, it is still recognized as the same boat. A person is a pattern with atoms and cells that are constantly changing.

Similar to the program pattern, identical twins are born with identical copies of a DNA pattern, but each copy is obviously made up of separate molecules. The twins rapidly form separate identities because their initial conditions and environments are different at both the physical and the pattern level.

Unlike boats; DNA, people, computers, and Turing machines all are patterns that contain a type of memory and take input from the outside environment in the world in which they exist. DNA and people are different from computers and Turing machines, somewhat due to their relative complexity, but largely because their overall behavior are subject to both physical changes and pattern states. Physical objects, independent of the person or the DNA may change their respective pattern behavior in unpredictable ways, but they can adapt to the changes within limits. Unless pre-programmed in advance, to accept inputs, for example, an ordinary software program will ignore external events. A computer will simply stop functioning if its parts wear out.

Although, ultimately “it is all physical”, the white blood cell reacts to the germ that it “detects” in the blood stream, because it is “programmed” by the DNA to seek and destroy germs, not merely clumps of amino acids, but the special pattern we may call a “germ”.

DNA mutates in a random way due to being struck by various particles. These mutations are the physical mechanisms by which Evolution occurs. Mother Nature would not get very far by merely following low-level physical laws. Random change must be augmented by a Design mechanism – the Pattern of Natural Selection which is used to select the most “useful” designs for replication, and to eliminate the “bad” designs. Natural Selection is a very slow process, because it is so closely linked to the natural physical level. That is why relatively simplistic life forms do not have many degrees of freedom. However, as the patterns (life forms), become more and more complex, with patterns layering upon other layers of patterns, they gain more and more freedom from their physical makeup. Each pattern layer is subject to the new laws of the pattern “designs” of the layers “below” allowing a slightly higher degree of freedom from the underlying physical layer.

The computer program “if” statement “reacts” to the value (pattern, design) of “true” or “false”, and does not give one hoot about the makeup of the computer or how the “true” or “false” is ultimately represented at the physical level. An “if” statement embedded inside a computer program follows rules that are designed into the programming language. The computer program may be of the sort, such as the Java programming language, that is interpreted by a virtual machine – yet another program. The virtual machine is said to run “on top of” the computer operating system. Eventually, these multiple layers of programs (patterns) get converted into the machine language that the Central Processing Unit (CPU) “understands”. The CPU, in turn, is made up of patterns of circuits. The circuits are made up of a complex pattern of logical “AND”, “NOR” and “NOT” gates, and are manufactured out of silicon and various other elements, consisting of atoms, and powered by electricity.

Each layer outlined above, from the bottom physical layers, to the top software layers, have room for multiple design or pattern variations in their makeup. As long as each pattern layer is designed in such a way as to produce the same outputs and accept the same inputs that are “expected” by the layers immediately above and below it, the design variations will not affect the state of the program of interest at the top layer. In general, the higher the level in the pattern layers, the higher the degrees of freedom one has in the design of that level. The original program could be written in several different ways, and still express identical results to the original.

A child playing catch with a friend (obviously consisting of many more complex layers than a computer program) may decide to move out of the way of the ball rapidly flying towards his face, because the ball is going to smack him in the face and it will hurt. The physical state of the ball is of no immediate interest. It could be any baseball at any time in any space – it is the “ball” and “face” and “pain” patterns that are the important pieces of information stored somewhere in the child’s brain. It could be any child playing with any friend. It is not inevitable that the child will be hit by the ball or that child will avoid the ball.

The child’s conscious level is built upon countless pattern-based “design” layers which allows for a degree of freedom allowing for the avoidance of the “inevitability” of being struck by the ball. The child’s conscious mind is much more influenced both by the patterns it is processing, and the patterns doing the processing, than by the physical stuff that the child’s brain is made of.

Ultimately, the physical structures of the atoms involved do matter. The physical laws do determine the direction, speed, and force of impact of the ball. The brain is physically made out of atoms, but the baseball player does not care or think about those things. The player is considering the patterns (and avoiding pain).

As Daniel Dennet aptly pointed out (Freedom Evolves – Viking Penguin, 2003), Free Will and Determinism are not necessarily mutually exclusive concepts. Indeed, an agent “pattern”, with a memory and feedback from the external world can make predictions better in a fully deterministic universe than it could in a non-deterministic universe. Calculation can be made by that agent, to avoid dangers, seek energy sources, improve its local environment, self-replicate, communicate (via yet another set of patterns following rules) with other similarly-patterned agents, and so on.

Above, I mentioned that “patterns at the design level are subject to a much stronger force – that imposed by the pattern itself”. “A much stronger influence” is a more accurate phrase. Weaker forces seem to have stronger influences at macroscopic levels than do the strong forces.

At the sub-atomic level, we see that there seems to be a non-deterministic quantum state “ruling” this “lowest level of all worlds” world – the center of the onion. However, it is masked by a more deterministic, atomic-level “pattern” one, or just a few levels above it.

The Neutrons and Protons consist of sets of 3 quarks each, held by the strong nuclear force. A residual force holds the nucleus together. The weak nuclear force works at a larger distance but is obviously weaker. The Electro-magnetic force controls electrons, with the residual binging atoms to create molecules.

Already, at these lower pattern levels, determinism seems to overcome the quantum effect. The larger the pattern, the more reliable and useful they become. For example, on my way to work, I do not have to hunt for the local Starbucks, where I get my coffee for my long trek to work in the morning. It is a sure bet that I will drive past two or three withing the first 20 minutes of my commute.

Gravity is a force that is so weak, that scientist are just now getting the point where it can be measured at distances down to the millimeter. I have heard that gravity is 5-10 orders of magnitude weaker than the electro-magnetic force, yet it has a dominant influence over ordinary matter! As I sit here at my computer desk, I can very much feel gravity holding me down on my chair. The patterns of solar systems and galaxies are not “interested” in the stronger forces. Still larger patterns are dominated by Dark Energy (from the vacuum of space?) Is this because the entire Universe is the largest and greatest pattern?

=========== New Stuff to Consider ===========

Enjoy more discussions on Free Will at the following forum:

Free Will II

Another post on Free will:

The Free Will Machine

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References: Freedom Evolves (Viking Penguin, 2003), Daniel C. Dennet

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