[habitmelon]

Lee Smolin wrote a good book defending the idea that time is not emergent: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Reborn-Crisis-Physics-Universe/d...

He came up with a framework where time is real (assumed), and then the laws of physics evolve with time, and then goes on to develop an evolutionary theory of universes, where universes reproduce by producing black holes, which spawn baby universes, with slightly different laws of physics. He then predicts that it should tend to produce universes that are optimized to produce black holes.

[euroderf]

Smolin also has interesting things to say about free will.

[steego]

Can you be more specific?

He starts with a premise that if time is a real and fundamental feature, then he concludes the future isn’t predetermined.

So far, it’s not very interesting.

[euroderf]

The point I heard him speak to is that when you dismiss free will, people start accepting as inevitable the kinds of global, systematic problems that face us, of which climate change is only one. It's an element of human nature.

[steego]

That is an interesting point when you start taking it to different conclusions.

For example, It’s funny how often that people who claim to believe in free will often adopt the language of determinism when they say things like:

“It was meant to be”

Or, “Everything happens for a reason”

Personally, I think the general population is just confused and not particularly inquisitive when it comes to asking whether they have free will or whether their actions and language reflect their belief or lack of.

I suspect a feeling of determinism probably takes over when one feels like they’re on autopilot and lack a locus of control.

Does it correlate with being susceptible to cults, group think and parroting other people’s ideas like a consumer rather than synthesizing your own?

[euroderf]

> Does it correlate with being susceptible to cults, group think and parroting other people’s ideas like a consumer rather than synthesizing your own?

It's known that being deluged with information tends to suspend one's own critical faculties in attempting to cope with the flow. Perhaps internet life, by tending to crowd out one's own thoughts, contributes to a sense of loss of will.

People who emerge from an "internet cleanse" seem to be refreshed in a way that might be interpreted as the regaining of will, of freedom to formulate.

Or I might be full of balonie.