No Freewill, No Purpose, No God? - How Society Makes Us Feel Lost In Life | Robert Sapolsky
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- Опубликовано: 24 май 2024
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I had a super compelling conversation with the legendary biologist Robert Sapolsky to challenge the concept of free will and pull together what can be done with these ideas when you feel lazy and lack purpose or direction.
We dive into the unsettling reality that everything we perceive may just be a simulation, and how evolution has optimized us for survival, not accuracy. But don't despair! Even without god or free will, we discuss how you can still massively improve your life.
We explore the societal implications of free will being an illusion and why acting as if it exists could be beneficial for your mental health. Don't miss this riveting conversation that will challenge your perspective and empower you to leverage your biology for self-improvement.
Renowned biologist Robert Sapolsky, presents a compelling argument that free will is an illusion that is deeply rooted in our biology. His ground-breaking insights, as detailed in his book "Determined," challenge conventional wisdom and reshape our understanding of human behavior, asserting that we are in fact products of our biology, not the autonomous agents of free will you believe yourself to be.
If you’re on the edge of your seat wanting more, check out Robert Sapolsky’s latest book, Determined, A Life Without Free Will: www.amazon.com/Determined-Sci...
Chapter Markers:
[00:00] Introductions to No Free Will
[00:30] Misconception of Change
[17:47] Know Your Machine-ness
[26:42] Leveraging Biology & Self-Esteem
[40:17] Don’t Get Trapped By Illusion
[52:00] Unprovoked Violence
[1:02:50] The Biology of Monogamy
[1:11:57] Trapped By Your Biology
[1:32:33] Too Many Dopamine Highs
[1:46:00] Societal Isolation
Thought-Provoking Insights From Robert Sapolsky:
“Where people get into trouble is where change has occurred they conclude thus, I chose to change.”
“Look at a disease of people who are not able to do self-deception and who are not able to rationalize away reality, and what that is, is clinical depression. These are people who are pathologically prone to seeing the world the way it is.”
“People will work harder if they have good self-esteem. People will be able to put their shortcomings into proper perspective and realize that something bad is bad, but it’s not their entire world.”
“The issue isn’t that testosterone makes aggression more likely and that that’s the problem. The problem is that we hand out status for aggression so readily.”
“If you’ve got a system that resets that easily, by definition, whatever was an amazing wonderful surprise yesterday is going to feel like something you’re entitled to today, and it's going to feel insufficient tomorrow, and that’s the price of perpetual hunger…”
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Website: www.robertsapolskyrocks.com/
Instagram: / robert.sapolsky
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Website: impacttheoryuniversity.com/
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I especially like this interview, because it wasn't just asking him about why he thinks there's no free will and so on, but the interviewer has already accepted his tesis and tried to think about it's consequences in real life.
would definitelly appreciate some entry explanation, but nontheless hopped the train and was rewarded, especially at 40:37 where saposki talks about saving our "hard-to keep" awarness of our machinness (and associated misconception of entitlement/belitteling) for really censequential moments
I very very strongly appreciate that Sapolsky recognizes depression for an inability to see the world through a delusional hopeful positivity.
Obviously, depressed people do sometimes get emotionally invested into believing false things like that literally nothing can improve. But the core idea that the world is a disappointing place with a lot of inevitable bad that might not be worth it, is painfully true.
I've always been more realistic depressed. Give me illusion any day.
That may be true for him for many people who have depression there is no hope or positivity and they may not be under a false belief . this once again proves that people can be fooled as long as an ''expert'' says it is so.
true
But "bad" is just the catalyst for "good". Duality is integral to multiplicity.
I like this, who said this?@@dieselphiend
I've watched maybe 15 of these recent Sapolsky interviews on free will, and he is amazingly more articulate and profound in this one than any of the others I've seen. Mind blowingly good stuff here
He is brilliant but I think his statements that seem on its face to follow destiny, then when you dig a bit or even hear his first explanation you realize it’s exactly the opposite of destiny in terms of those Destin to be great and those Destin to be evil in current concepts held by religion. Funny enough I am in a very difficult moment of my life and I find his lectures comforting at the same time I see I am entitled and should not be where I am in life, but then he says it’s not my fault … I feel taking responsibility has put me in a very difficult self examination but also I feel I know I can or might change because I have the tools, the ability have access technogy that if I can figure my own ability to change. I’m extremely lucky that people feel bad for me and give me so much because I once worked hard and I have a face and body I try to be astheyivallu pleasing and was born into a body ppl often admired my so called beauty.. so now.. I’m in depression and people are giving me the benefit of the doubt and money and things I feel guilty to accept especially when I see refugees and immigrants not even be given a chance to speak. I’m riddled with guilt and then I start thinking how I did things terrible and I find myself diving deeper into my inability to function and contribute like I once did and I’m so deeply involved in my own failures and that I’m not worth anything, then people give me things saying I’m worthy of things and help.. but why am I more “worthy” or deserving of help than an immigrant on the side of the road begging for help. I feel like I’m in a cycle of self pity self blame. I try to volunteer as I did before .. but I also fall so deeply sick I’m not to be counted on, so I need to help myself they say before others but I’m not helping anyone…
Average person in us legal terms is reasonable person. We rate against reasonableness but there is no actual reasonable person to compare to , it’s a concept
I feel as though Salposky is much less black and white than this interviewer who obviously is searching to be a better person .. heaven
I so love and appreciate Robert Sapolsky. In a world that can be obsessed with mastery, self control, manifestation, control, personal power, accomplishment and choice, hard work etc., he's a humbling breath of fresh air.
I've thought this way from a very young age but then got sucked into the misconceptions of "normal" society which resulted in years of depression and anxiety. I love listening to him and am grateful I found him.
I find Sapolsky's arguments on the non-existence of free will compelling, especially with the support of the referenced studies. Dealing personally with conditions like ADHD, Autism, depression, and anxiety has made me acutely aware of the challenges our bodies and brains can endure. My own journey has led me to recognize the significant impact medications can have. Surprisingly, I had accepted my condition well before delving into Sapolsky's ideas.
I embraced self-acceptance and ceased self-blame because, as Sapolsky contends, I realized that life experiences-from my time in the womb to my upbringing, shaped by parents, culture, and attachment style-unfolded beyond my control. His perspective illuminated the intricate web of factors influencing our lives, reinforcing my understanding that much of our experiences lie beyond our conscious influence.
Moreover, the more one adopts the understanding that free will does not exist, the less judgmental one becomes. This realization fosters empathy and compassion as we recognize the complex interplay of external forces shaping individuals' choices and actions.
My brother would say, "Excuses, excuses excuses. That's all I ever hear from you. You don't even try to be successful".
I haven't spoken with my brother in 8 years. ....and that's fine with me.
He's using his free will to argue that free will does not exist.
@@NeuroPulseyou still don’t get it …It was not HIS „free will“ but the neural network in his materialistic brain that couldn’t help to respond in exactly this way. The respond would already be different if he ate a raw egg instead of a boiled one in the morning.
Get off the goddamn psych drugs, it's better to do coke than that shit. Then go and take up MMA or something.
Following your logic, all prisoners must be released, as their crimes were the consequences of a serious of the unfortunate circumstances))
My grandfather had a rare cancer that attached itself to the inside of his skull. When his brain would swell he became a totally different person. When the swelling stopped he would come back with no knowledge of the time before. You would be sitting at his bedside for hours and interacting, then there would be a change with the brain. He then would say hello and ask when you got there. It was so very hard to deal with.Two different people lived in the same body for a time.
you probably don't want sympathy but you have mine anyway.
Maybe grandpa was a Gemini .
😂@@carolalison
Thank You@@carterscousins4992
Aquarius@@carolalison
I don’t remember when or where I heard this however it’s about a village or tribe of people somewhere that had an extremely minimal crime rate because whenever someone did do something wrong such as steal something from another villager or hit someone, it was usually someone fairly young but not so young they didn’t know that they’d broken a common rule or custom when they committed the offense.
Instead of punishing the person they would make them stand in a spot and everyone from the village would form a circle around them and then one by one each person would say how much they cared and loved the offender and tell them all the good things they knew about them, how helpful or kind or caring they were and recount all the good things they could remember the person had done. They felt that it’d someone had committed an offense it was because they had forgotten how much everyone cared for and loved them so they would correct that by recounting all they could and showing the person how much they loved them. The result was that the offender would usually be so embarrassed and would be in tears and would apologize to the person(s) they had committed the offense against and beg for forgiveness and the offender who would forgive them and hug them and that person never committed any more offenses. The result was that the village very rarely had any offenses committed among them and never for anything more serious than that.
It might have been a story that Dr. Wayne Dyer shared during one of his presentations. Regardless it was a true story and had a lot of impact on me. It showed me that most crimes are committed by people who feel they are usually feeling insecure, unwanted, unloved, excluding perhaps those who haven’t a normal conscience or the ability to feel compassion or empathy such as a socio or psychopath. When you look at the economic outlook and the living situations and the relationship issues among children who grow up in areas of poverty and gangs and suffer abuse and violence it’s no wonder they have high crime rates.
We would have a much more peaceful world if we were all kinder and compassionate with each other and instead of beating children for doing something wrong we expressed more love and forgiveness and communicate openly among family members in a healthy non abusive manner it could change the whole future for those children.
You're describing a Ho o pono pono ritual.
This comment is incredible and made my day! Thanks a million!!
Sounds like North Korea would make you happy.
Nice!
I've found that people forgive for more than one reason, and one is to not be owned by the idea or experience, and another reason is to make the offending individual feel something, whether it's shame or love or understanding.
It's easier to move forward with these practices.
Understanding the concept of determinism and lack of true Freewill, brings people to a greater appreciation for good deeds and paying it forward.
@@richtomlinson7090 I've never been able to forgive without some empathy/understanding for the offender .... But I have lied to myself trying to forgive for other reasons....
Now an atheist, I am relieved to let go of the idea of free will. Compassion for myself and others has only increased now that I am no longer a Believer. I am far happier and more at peace than as a Christian who believed my purpose was to obey and serve our “creator.” Life is far more meaningful to me now. ❤
Same here. Next step of growth will be believing again but in a better way. God is not in a book and determinism is a choice 😂
haha! You do you; I trust you know yourself and know where your heart leads. All the best @@jgarciajr82
@@jgarciajr82How do you see your ideal 'spiritual' future?
Interesting. How does the change of believe show in daily life ?
My daily life is healthier in all areas. Happier and more at peace. As noted in my comment above.
Robert Sapolsky is a legend!!!!!!!
Totally amazing human being.
No he’s a PROGRAMMED MACHINE according to his own words who doesn’t deserve compliments….
Yeah unfortunately this is like 1 from 300 000 or million or so... We are already eating nano-plastics worth of 1 credit card weekly. 140IQ engineer can do 1 years work in 3 weeks get paid only for 3 weeks. Finds 2 new physical phenomena, professor tells him: "We are not trying to win nobel prize". Professor wastes trillion $ grant, but technology is there and flames with women and rich, while high IQ people get paid less than ppl that are 10-30 times dumber than them and yet they have to endure abuse and normal ppl know they need them and it makes them scornful as they know they are smarter then them and they need them... Literally... We need create new aristocratic aristocracy which stems from oldest ones and put 99.9999% into cages in zoo... Or we are doomed... Only have is AI will tell rich ppl how dumb they are, unless they abused it to get power and become gods and torture everyone else for trillions of years and their mental constructs... Life is so fucking hell... It is backwards completely and absurd hell... Wisdom of Silenius...
He’s not a human being , unless your calling him a monster 🤔
Sapolsky's theory is a humanist one. I've always liked him since seeing his lectures on neuroscience and complexity.
It's beyond a theory. There is no evidence, of any kind, that a distinct causal agent (distinct 'self') exists. Free will concepts are just ridiculous things that a majority of humans believe in, and a majority of humans are pretty ignorant/delusional.
Humanitarianism is a paradox- that's where anti-humanitarianism comes from. We can not promote the human without simultaneously promoting the anti-human. Do we not have enough evidence of this?
@@dieselphiendI'm interested to hear an example. Not saying you're wrong I'm just not quite sure what you mean.
@@bradfordlangston836 Hitler, Pol Pot, The Drug War. The road to hell is paved in good intentions. Reality is paradoxical. Good is only as real as we allow evil to be. No other concept in human history has maimed, killed, imprisoned, and enslaved more people than the so-called 'greater good'. Black and white thinking renders us all prisoners in Plato's Cave of subjective duality. Reality has become an mere abstraction, and people are its constructs.
@@bradfordlangston836 Hitler, Pol Pot, The Drug War.
Every one is on their own journey and mind your business and let people be where they are.judge not lest you be judged fits the situation. You want to improve yourself blow up the TV and go outside you’re going to be just fine.
It really irks me to see an atheist chunk a turd quote the Bible.
nice you got nothing out of this podcast gj
Are you too lazy to listen to this podcast? it's ok it's not your fault.
Well....the podcast does suck to be fair. Also, it's clear there are a bunch of bubble boys in here.
I’ve always wondered about the meaning of life, really as far as I can remember. I’ve always asked a lot of questions. Friends have told me that the meaning of life is to be content in the moment or to keep searching for the meaning of life. It’s definitely frustrating for people like me. I have such a strong sense and recognition that everything, humans included, are just doing the same things over and over, and cycles repeating. It’s as though we are in a cell with a comfortable chair and a fidget toy. and a carrot and a glass of water hang from the ceiling forever out of reach.
Or we are just like all the other mammals in most respects. The squirrel doesn't stop hunting nuts throughout his region when he has plenty enough nuts. He keeps hunting nuts until he is satisfied there are no more nuts. Large feline species will steal another animal's freshly caught meat. In the same, humans can simply create greater profits for themselves by setting less fair wages for others. The only difference is that human's unique ability to reason allows them to justify that their theft is not a moral issue. Which leaves the fact the humans will only regulate themselves to a greater degree than the cat if pressured by social regulation.
About the carrot. The difference again is the modern human can reason that it is no longer a real carrot, instead a fantasy football team, a porn star, a new pair of shoes statice. The modern human has learned that he no longer needs reality much of his time of existence. If society doesn't regulate him, he can make up whatever fantasy needs (carrots) that satisfies as a real need.
The universe is cold & dark.
You are a light which shines brighter than the Sun.
The depths of space cannot extinguish you.
Even death can be conquered.
This theory does offer a charitable view of shortcomings. But it also takes away a self improvement option from a self reflecting person. As when a person can observe their own shortcomings and have a sense of a realistic option to improve themselve at their own will. Giving that up is a very big price that this theory is asking for.
Spot on comment! You get why this is not a great idea to spread around haha!
But then how do we make sense of the two? People really need to know their efforts will yield them good results and honestly, well I can only speak for myself but... I want to know that my efforts will make me a better person than someone else. I want to feel like I'm better than a homeless drug addict who does nothing. If my efforts don't yield that I might as well join him...
Yet this desire is incompatible with the reality of us being mere determined machines.
One must ask what our value system ought to be under these data.
Not at all. His theory allows for change and for self improvement and self reflection. It's just that you being the kind of person who is capable of that self reflection or the kind of work and commitment and self discipline necessary to change a specific thing isn't by chance--you being that kind of person is because of a whole bunch of factors you didn't control. He's not saying therefore do nothing. He's saying recognize the ways in which you having that kind of brain is due to things you didn't control.
@@chaptereight2639 I like this view much better than the way he is putting it. I hear what you are saying as: you haven't earned your free will, it evolved as a brain function over millennia and it depends not so much on your character but on the state of the brain tissue in the neocortex, use what you've got, appreciate free will as a brain feature don't take as your own merit, be aware that this feature may not work in everyone or may not work all the time. Free will as a brain feature exists (that's simply a biological fact) but this feature itself is obviously not responding to the free will. Instead of denying the existence of a neocortex function we are then clarifying that while the neocortex has the ability to monitor and intervene into automatic responses of the deeper parts of the brain (free will), there is nothing that can intervene into the quality of the neocortex functioning and in that sense it is predetermined by the quality of it's biologically tissues.
@@chaptereight2639Thanks! This is great answer
As an unpopular opinion I don’t think his argument completely make sense.
Firstly:
Let’s say my frontal cortex was damaged, then potentially all that is happening is that I am simply losing my consciousness’s ability to interface with my environment - meaning I could no longer filter and edit what’s in my brain. He use the example of the pole going through the brain of that man and then after the man became very aggressive but it’s possible that he always was aggressive underneath but was able to control it before. Just because my joy stick is broken doesn’t mean I don’t have potential free will. It just means it can no longer express itself.
Secondly:
Let’s say I could become conscious of a specific cultural and ancestral trend influencing my behaviour in that moment- That I could make some aspect of that unconscious, conscious. But then in that moment I can now choose to act differently. It’s the awareness that allows some free will to take hold.
To me it seems like we mostly don’t have free will but that doesn’t preclude the possibility that one could get hold of free will sometimes with awareness.
The final argument is about physics and not behavioural psychology… and the fact that there are quantum theories about consciousness that suggest you can go beyond quantum mathematical particle computations which means there could be another layer to who we are. After all 95% of the universe is made up of matter we don’t understand (dark energy and matter)
I also don’t think that just because this idea of no free will is a ‘stress reliever’ is a good reason to get board with the idea. You can still figure out a way to be aware of what’s going on without bashing yourself and being stressed about it.
No one is saying anyone has to do anything. But I think it’s pretty limiting to think of oneself as having no capacity to reach different levels of awareness if they want. The problem is people make it about being superior or inferior. And that’s BS. It just is, there’s no superior.
@@TheMirageQuest How do you know what you are aware of, how do you distinguish what is real from what is an illusion? We take for granted how lots of waves of energy of every frequency imaginable, all bounding off of this and that and colliding into each other, end up entering our brain and our brain makes some kind of meaning of it all, a great deal goes into "making meaning", and we have very very little, almost no control, over those processes. If by "free will", we mean, an "I", as in self differentiated from others, that certainly is true. But if we mean true autonomy over anything by acts of will, no. Consider, if we could agree on what consciousness is, then we end up having to acknowledge that such consciousness exists in some kind of ecosystem. We are not free to determine that ecosystem, how we perceive it, what we think the meaning of it is, or why we like one thing over another in it. For some fun, have a look at the rather short RUclips "Richard P. Feynman Talks About Waves", great stuff. Even in saying "reach different levels of awareness"... the very act of "being aware", there is no free will over that.
This keeps me from ultimate despair... life. I won't argue with someone who has to light a match to see the sun about if there is a sun or not. That is how I feel about the origins of life - there is a "mind" at work, blatantly obvious, one that seems to like to tinker, and it is wonderful, fascinating. Determine things about that mind? Ugh. I hate those discussions, the ones about which God. Older now, I get to avoid them.
@@IronPoorBlood Hi there thanks for your input. I was hoping someone would challenge me on the idea!.
I think that science is such a great helper for this process of inching towards more awareness, in order to know what is illusion I really like Donald Hoffman's Book 'The case against reality'.
I think just learning about the brain and how it is not capable of seeing reality can be in itself the process of being aware, and perhaps gaining a spark of what is beyond. The more we learn about possible ancestral conditioning, the more we can slowly free ourselves from it. It also means that we identify less with all the genetic programming so we can be more honest with ourselves, and not try to protect our identity all the time, which leads to more lying to oneself.
To address your next point about not being able to control the ecosystem. There has been a case where someone's brain was damaged in the way that she no longer had proprioception of herself as a separate identity, which tells me that perhaps its just chemistry that makes us feel separate. It could be that we are both separate and that our true identity is a living field of consciousness, in which case we have the free will of that living connected field?
To say 'we are not free to determine the field' , well what is 'we'? maybe 'we' is the field on some implicate level.
I watched the Feynman video. I was also often thinking about all the waves that are happening around us all the time that we are not aware of. Im not sure I understand your meaning, but I think that its not necessary to be aware of everything that is happening all the time, in order to be aware of one's own conditioning and choose to go beyond it?
How exactly would you define free will? I feel like most arguments on this topic essentially boil down to a difference in how we conceptualise the idea.
@@vesem6892 yes I agree with you. They often seem to miss out on definitions in these discussions.
I would describe it personally as the ability to choose a course of action with a greater degree of independence from prior events or states than before. I would even say that free will is a spectrum rather than being black or white and that in the higher freer end of the spectrum we don’t yet have any scientific evidence to declare what is happening for sure.
I learned neuro-behaviorism from Robert Sapolsky's lectures on the Stanford RUclips channel. Bestowing education is a form of wealth that transfers from one generation to another & that is the only true wealth.
Love Robert Sapolsky and this podcaster for asking the right questions-my first time hearing him, Tom.
We ARE biology. When I was counseling and coaching people to help them live their lives, I educated them on their biology first and how to use this knowledge to their advantage. I have been in jobs where after being introduced with a snippet of my life in silly exaltation , upon getting to the mike, even though my ego was celebrating behind the curtain, my mind and knowledge would always state that I’ve done nothing different or special than anyone else. I’d also state that the best thing I’ve ever done is bring a wonderful person into this world and would hope he would bring me grandkids. The audience shuffled and were either amused or uncomfortable. This was before I read or even heard about Sapolsky- it’s something I just knew. How can you not? My upbringing where competitiveness was not a value with my parents, but having a healthy self esteem will help me more than learning or wanting to outdo others, would serve me and society better in life. Then, my education in anthropology and later psychology/counseling, taught me the truth that we haven’t evolved for this modern world we’ve now invented and hence, we are a wee bit screwed up. So, per Sapolsky, I am one of the lucky ones. I’m just trying to prove that the tenants of realizing one does not have free will, as I did deep down, can still live a meaningful life. I am done with careers and am no longer in psychic pain because I didn’t play the competitive, materialistic game in my youth. Now, I have my beautiful grandkids and I spend my time volunteering and still helping people navigate a world we don’t have the biology to deal with. And no, I’ve not believed in a god. I’m not into ‘the Universe’ is running things, although I explored that. I do believe in energy and how that can create circumstances that does indeed buffet us around- but since we have no free will, we have to know that and maybe acceptance of the circumstances is better? what we can do is learn how we can manage our reactions- just as Sapolsky says when he’s talking about recognizing he wanted to see someone fry for a crime, but had to pull back. We can pull back and not get wound up about things we have zero control over. Thats a far better ideal to ascribe to vs using your biological gifts to seek entitlement or to hurt others based on perceived tribal hurts.
@dmshouse1 Great comment! Thanks.
Are you exercising free will by "loving him"?
I've never listened to Sapolsky, but just reading the description, it seems to sync very well with the non-dual philosophies that I've been looking at over the last year or two, and increasingly think hold a lot of weight. Can't wait to watch this!
Hey! Its good to see you here, i have been following your comments and contributions on Waking Up app Subreddit and wanted to say here that i appreciate your perspectives!
@@taylanulukr9081 wow, I think that's the first time someone has recognized me in a RUclips comment from another platform, lol! Thanks for your kind words!
I’m going to look up the Subreddit now…
Neat! I joined as I have never heard of this
Nice! Non-duality within subjective awareness is truth. Free will being a subjective illusion is also correct. Once you fully understand these concepts, there’s no turning back. Good luck on your journey 🙂
I lay in bed all day everyday. Been doing for about five years. Ain't been happier. I wish i'd done it years ago. Glad i was born somewhere that allowed me the chance of bedlife. It's grand.
Based!
Where are you born?
This made me laugh.
I'm still here! 😅 @@averagejane09
Don’t you get bored?
I love Dr Sapolsky! Thanks for the interview
I also realised this at around same age as him, so nice listening to this. It drove me insane for years and no one understood me... I did find peace with it in recent years but I hope more people come to realise it... I must get the book. :)
Best free will dialogue I've seen with Sapolsky. Other interviews have focused on his argument against free will but don't take the next step and really dig into what happens to our psychology once we are convinced of his argument. Well done!
I went 10 months without alcohol. . . and after watching this . . .. I've decided to start drinking again . . .
taking responsibility for your life sucks, but it's supposed to. it's not about toxic positivity, it's about being honest with yourself, as well as kind. it's really sad that so many struggle so much to find meaning, but giving up one's agency isn't the right answer.
“Taking responsibility for your life sucks, but it’s supposed to.”
Hahaha. Look at me. Life sucks but I face the hard facts and do what needs to be done!
That story is so old dude. I used to beat myself over the head with that crap too. Then I became mentally ill and my life fell apart. For years I blamed myself for it and thought of myself as the biggest turd in the universe. Relinquishing the illusion that somehow I could have prevented that or did a better job managing it has been an enormous gift to me.
But anecdotes aside, this is what the science points to, in my opinion. This doesn’t mean we don’t pay our bills or punch random people in the face. Actions still have consequences, and we have operating systems which (hopefully) allow us to make reasonable decisions in certain situations.
Our value is in who we are. We do not 'have a life'. We are life. Societal expectations are nonsense
A persons life is not to be seen but experienced🦋
Finally someone who can truly grasp Roberts take on free will.
“Many of my critics pretend that they have been entirely self-made. They seem to feel responsible for their intellectual gifts, for their freedom from injury and disease, and for the fact that they were born at a specific moment in history. Many appear to have absolutely no awareness of how lucky one must be to succeed at anything in life, no matter how hard one works. One must be lucky to be able to work. One must be lucky to be intelligent, to not have cerebral palsy, or to not have been bankrupted in middle age by the mortal illness of a spouse.
Many of us have been extraordinarily lucky - and we did not earn it. Many good people have been extraordinarily unlucky - and they did not deserve it. And yet I get the distinct sense that if I asked some of my readers why they weren’t born with clubbed feet, or orphaned before the age of 5, they would not hesitate to take credit for these accomplishments.”- Sam Harris
The harshest truth for me is knowing that pain and suffering will always outweigh the pleasure. Everyday, I ask myself if it’s really worth it to keep going.
He blew my mind at 135:05. I've always known that religion fills some need for people, but it never occured to me that a person might get a dopamine hit everytime they think about eternal salvation and paradise. I ❤ Robert Sapolsky.
Not sure, does he mention the fact that a majority of participants in a study involving controlled exposure to psylocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) called their trip the most important religious experience in their lives? Religion is chemistry.
Simple analogy in my opinion. The dopamine response comes from whatever investment you are focused on. Religion is one of them.
Society seems to me that this thinking of directional free will is enlightenment and superior evolution. I see degradation and society declining which is clearly beyond my control at a macro level. That is exactly why I have turned to God in a stronger faith than I ever had before. It is so evident to me that our free will has once again made a certain mess in this world. Hopefully, we have not refined our world to the point of Revelations.
You don't have to worry about revelations. There are no magical forces in the universe.
I think its important you DEFINE FREE WILL. Because I'm several minutes in and it sounds to me like you're saying we don't have control over a lot of things (which is true, we really don't), but I fail to see how, in light of that fact, we lack the ability to make choices that take our lives in one direction or another, which to me is free will.
The way I see free will is this. Take a decision like what you say, that there's are two choices, one that would lead to a better life and one that would lead to a worse life. You could say we have a choice, but in fact do we? Aren't our genes and life circumstances compelling us in one direction or another? We don't choose our genes, our parents, our life circumstances - not until we are an adult at least, but at that point all the conditioning has been created. That doesn't mean we can't "overcome" some of these things, but it's not a choice in the same way, because some of this conditioning or genetic predisposition makes it nearly impossible to make the choice we are not conditioned to make. We can change the equations by going through additional circumstances in life (say a spiritual awakening or a health crisis or some other drastic change that shakes things up enough), but going through those circumstances is generally not something we choose consciously to happen.
Like robot which follows its own programming isn't free will, google compatibilism and causa sui, problem of origination, prime mover unmoved.... Einstein said:"in Schopenhauer words: a man do what he wants, but cannot will what he wants"
“You can choose not to decide you still have made a choice”. Some drummer dude
You don't make ANY decisions. Your brain makes decisions based on its current state which has been defined by your genes, biology and environment over seconds, days, years, and eons. You just take conscious ownership of the decision after your brain has already made it, which is itself predetermined. That's the argument Sapolsky is making and he goes into much more detail in his book. It's a good read. I highly recommend it.
What's crazy is that you conflate a will with a free will lol. Read the guy's book, you dont have to agree, but you arent entitled to what amounts to calling him an idiot.
This is one of your best shows Tom. Thanks for putting it together for the benefit of us all.
Thank you soo much both of you! The was an exceptional lesson and perfect examplification of what we are as one human species are facing and showing by doing how to grow out of it and overcome it!
I loved the whole interview and both of you ❤
I don’t know what I don’t know 🤷🏽♂️ So let me make something up based on what I see instead of what I cannot see.
We are all capable of being changed, great…. there is still hope for you.
You're the man !! Live your intelligence , the way you speak and the simulation theory ! ❤
Beautiful discussion. Thanks Tom and your guest.
The love of the divine changed me and caused me to change direction. Before that, I knew not of love whatsoever. 50yrs under the veil. The divine is amazing 🙏💙
What does the “divine” mean to you?
I think a possible problem with people being open to the theory of there being no freewill is the ego. Im not talking about taking this theory as an absolute but instead something to consider. For, the theory is a least a condition, because some believe it as an absolute. Therefore it becomes a reality of belief in some that we encounter. So, if instead one was to say that all peoples situation of there being no free will is unique to each individual, and this situation contains a unique set of conditions (in the internal+external environment), and that within this situation and conditions exists the possibility of choice, *possibility*. Then one is in a better place.
Years ago Iuckily I arrived at the conclusion that none of us are better than the other, that any good ways in which we behave is a gift. The fact I can get up a create music, something I love to do, is a huge gift I am thankful for. And there is also some inherited stuff I'm not so happy about lol......
When we realized that the mind should be the first thing we invest time in studying everything will make sense why things are they way they are. It’s deeper than you think we are not just living to survive but living to create
Our intuition is God in us speaking to us to guide our journey through life ever evolving to be free of fear and find a new joy and happiness. Getting rid of old programming and beliefs no longer serves us in our quest for in lightened human experience.
Fear is a necessary emotion. Fear and desire drive us. Quietly yearning for what you don't have while fearing losing what you do. It's perpetual. A pendulum in the mind.
Intuition is a million years of evolution of the brain where if the subconscious doesn't recognize the danger fast enough you become dinner for some other animal. No supernatural explanations needed.
Correct. I’ve hd many a divine experience with god 🙏💙
@@Justineyedia Awareness is key. That helps to transcend
Life doesn't trap you, those who manipulate do.
They media can do that very well if people don't recognize it.
Yes, but we allow it to happen because we don't know better. It is possible to prevent it. Find your Agency, not an easy task, but certainly doable. Of course public schools could teach these skills, beginning in early education - yet, there in no interest.
Thanks for a wonderful conversation. You are both genius communicators. Tom you are an inspiration. Please continue on your mission.
Probably the best interview with Sapolsky I've seen. Great job!
Fantastic Sapolsky. Thank you for this interview 🙏
I think the very fact that convincing someone that they do not have free will likely change their behavior is evidence of free will. It can go the other way too.
All absolving yourself of free-will does is dissolve guilt, a very important, and painful emotion.
Exactly and the lack of the belief in god is still a belief in and of itself…surely made up by a human 😂
@@froyo9674 only if your a-priori is that god exists (a presumption for which you would require some sort of objective evidence)
One thing that amazes me about Robert Sapolsky is the sheer absurdity people are capable of believing in. Amazing as well is the degree to which he, and those subscribing to his ideas, are capable of denying the existence of what is utterly obvious - that we have free will and control in our lives. Simply stunning!!
Totally agree, mind boggling that people buy into this horseradish. Wokesm on steroids.
Since you must have listened to what he has to say before making such a statement - after all, doing otherwise would mark it as sheer prejudice - I would love to learn where you disagree with him. Have you ever experienced the effect of alcohol? The fact that adding this chemical substance to your brain's chemistry can alter the decisions you make strongly indicates that all your decisions are the product of chemistry. Alternatively, consider that the composition of microbes in your gut has significant effects on your mental health. Are you sure that counts as control?
I haven’t read his book, but I highly resonate with the idea that we are all worth the same, no matter the profession. I have been thinking about how life is deterministic for years. An idea that was probably inoculated from the impact theory anyway.
However, he seems to have some frustration himself related to the fact that life is deterministic, as it relates to society. He says that we have little control over our lives and that we shouldn’t judge people, but then he goes ahead and judges society “the idiocy of socioeconomic status”.
Yh but the fact that he can’t live up to his own standard doesn’t minimize the message. He once said about himself that 99% of the time he’s a total hypocrite.
I didn’t say his hypocrisy minimizes or negates his ideas, where did you get that?
This pre determined universe has determined me to believe in free will. Moving on
So the evolved meat-sack called theereverend has decided it's easier just to jump back into the Matrix and enjoy the illusory steak?
If you say that your decisions come out of nowhere or are practically random, and you are a believer in God, that is quite contradictory. Your decisions are not governed by nothingness or just a few variables; that doesn't make much sense. Even God or nothingness couldn't escape determinism because if God is eternal and encompasses all information, His freedom would be equal to ours, merely an illusion, and He would be somehow determined to be God. And if nothingness existed, based on our understanding of existence, it too should be determined to be. However, I don't believe such a thing is possible; nothingness is relative in expressions, but it is truly an illusion in determinism. The way you has decide to act is determinism beacuse there's some reasons you can't deny and makes you think that way
Jung himself was an extremely sensitive individual. Not many people discuss a serious mental crisis that manifested physically, taking him to the brink of death while he was still a kid. Physicians could not cure him , and finally he had to do it himself by purging a blasphemous thought.
Extremely sensitive people internalise even trivial affronts by less sensitive ones and react very negatively, often withdrawing into a shell. I do not know where Jung discussed one’s sensitivity being one’s form of violence. However, someone who knows about Jung’s line of thinking and his own personality can extrapolate it.
A sensitive person sees meanings in gestures which were never intended by the person it is attributed to, something that he would never have inflicted on another. This causes severe hurt and negative reactions, often passive ones. For an observer, there is no justification for the reaction. This, to my understanding, is what Jung refers to, as hyper-sensitivity evoking aggression- passive aggression in this case.
“Small and hidden is the door that leads inward, and the entrance is barred by countless prejudices, mistaken assumptions, and fears. Always one wishes to hear of grand political and economic schemes, the very things that have landed every nation in a morass. Therefore it sounds grotesque when anyone speaks of hidden doors, dreams, and a world within. What has this vapid idealism got to do with gigantic economic programmes, with the so-called problems of reality?
But I speak not to nations, only to the individual few, for whom it goes without saying that cultural values do not drop down like manna from heaven, but are created by the hands of individuals. If things go wrong in the world, this is because something is wrong with the individual, because something is wrong with me. Therefore, if I am sensible, I shall put myself right first. For this I need-because outside authority no longer means anything to me-a knowledge of the innermost foundations of my being, in order that I may base myself firmly on the eternal facts of the human psyche.”
Excellent comment.
Do you mind sharing the article or book you’re referring to please?
@plantasia4904 ‘The reflective nature of the introvert causes him always to think and consider before acting. This naturally makes him slow to act. His shyness and distrust of things induce hesitation, and so he always has difficulty in adapting to the external world.’
‘The introvert does possess an extraverted attitude, but it is unconscious, because his conscious gaze is always turned to the subject.’
- Two Essays on Analytical Psychology
‘An introverted consciousness can be well aware of external conditions, but is not motivated by them. The extreme introvert responds primarily to internal impressions.’
‘In a large gathering he feels lonely and lost. The more crowded it is, the greater becomes his resistance. He is not in the least “with it” and has no love of enthusiastic get-togethers. He is not a good mixer. What he does, he does in his own way, barricading himself against influences from outside.’
‘Under normal conditions he is pessimistic and worried, because the world and human beings are not in the least good but crush him.’
‘His own world is a safe harbour, a carefully tended and walled-in garden, closed to the public and hidden from prying eyes. His own company is the best.’
‘His retreat into himself is not a final renunciation of the world, but a search for quietude, where alone it is possible for him to make his contribution to the life of the community.’
- Psychological Typology
CG. Jung was an esoterical nutcase. Sorry. He was communicating with ghosts and I wonder how anyone could take him seriously.
@@diekritischestimme that was called a projection. I hope it made you feel better.
I will be saving this one for repeat!
I love listening to Sapolsky. The more I listen though, and I appreciate his perspective, the more it settles my questions in a creator. I do believe in a creator and that we go on after death. Beyond that I know what I don't know,
Mr. Robert's Logical point of views, are magnificent.Thank you for inviting him onto the show.👍
confusing the impact of environmental and biological affects on human decision doesnt mean that there is no free will , its a partial point but not the whole thing, several examples in real life have proved otherwise over and over again.
Yes. Some sloppy reasoning here.
Read his books?
We do have “free will,” in part, known as deterministic-freedom covered in my next book “Global Civility.”
The great seal of liberation is no longer being ashamed of oneself
Your guest is arguably one of the most learned and erudite people on the planet, and you start the podcast with a seemingly endless self-indulgent monologue about yourself.
we can all sometimes feel like we are better than others when we are better than others at something. i believe that it's okay as long as we are able to recognize it for what it is, a fantasy. having immoral or unethical fantasies from time to time is a normal thing that is both acceptable and unavoidable. as long as we doesn't actually start to believe these thoughts, playing around with them in our heads doesn't necessarily have to be problematic.
Right, and who doesnt believe them? Nice idea though
@@user-zx4ds8mt9b the few of us that actually understand these things. but yes, motst people will most likely believe them, unfortunately. all we can do is to keep educating the world about these things, and slowly more and more will understand
Maybe some people don’t think that they are entitled for a higher status because of their eye color they were given through no choice of their own. There ARE unfortunately plenty of people that have a sense of entitlement because of the color of their skin….I’m actually really shocked that this aspect wasn’t brought up into the conversation. Not complaining just surprised. I really appreciate this conversation being taken place in the public eye. Sam Harris is the only other person who I’ve heard talk about this topic. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out the reason why this isn’t a popular topic, in my experience I don’t think there’s a whole lot of people that can let go of the initial ego hit when presented with this information. Keep up the great work guys!❤
Thanks Tom for inserting the timestamps. Hope this is a new feature for all new vids.
So excited to learn something new but I’m only 10 minutes in & had 2 adverts already! 😫😫😫 I don’t know if I’ll make it to the end because of the disruptions 😞
You have to pay for premium to get no ads
So glad I stuck with it. Very very interesting! Only 10 or 11 adverts by the end lol
My best investment ever was to pay for premium RUclips. It's ad-free AND includes free access to google music (better than spotify) killing 2 birds with one stone.
It amazing how everyone is so religious yet everyone is so inconsiderate of their fellow man. Ironic!!!!
Religion should be about you not other people. Do less harm than you received.
Ocean currents and winds greatly influence your sail boat; the wake of your boat is not the cause of your course.
Robert Sapolsky is one of the most important thinkers of our time. Great interview!
I dont think that he has ever thought about the fact that everyone doesn't desire to be equal. Life has always been this way. Money and social status are desirable for a certain number of people and one has to jump thru many hurdles, good and bad. I could go on forever, this equity thing is pie in the sky and it's wrong, wrong think. Forced equality means equally poor and powerless. Individual rights give each person the agency to live as he/she sees fit within the law.
Free Will is Real. Because a WILL is something you write. People change their WILL multiple times in life, but you aren't the one who executes the WILL. It happens after death. In the same idea a will is your idea about the meaning and reason for life, but will doesn't mean doing what you want in life. You are free to think about life however you want to think about it...but the happenings was decided before you were birth. Your parents sex was a biological and chemical reaction and you are the result. And every action has a reaction and you have been living out cause and effect. And if you didn't initiate the first cause then you can't dictate or control the effect. But we are free to perceive these reactions however we want...its your story, then its history.
“you are free to perceive these reactions”
It’s like saying: “I have no will in what I’m going to wear tomorrow but when the day comes I will watch myself do it regardless.”
It’s a clumsy way of comforting yourself into having at least a tiny little bit of power over what you gonna wear tomorrow.
You can’t have the cake and eat it too. The observer has no free will thus nothing to perceive, only premeditated action.
@@Beyondhumanlimits1 the observer is always giving a perspective to life based on limited understanding so we postulate about what's happening, we are doing it right now.
I have friends I have known since I was 11 and it is now 68 years later. I loved them and then I hated them and then I kinda of accepted that’s life .. they have good and great qualities and then show such incredibly stupid narrow minded selves for a different period
in their lives..
And as we move into late seventies ..the good and bad almost are back to back . I have no doubt that at some point one luncheon will show the best and worse coming and going within minutes and hopefully we will all move a notch above both the good and the bad but I fear death will come at that moment or be close behind and we will never know ourselves together with another person above this polarity and who knows what will happen.
If, there is a free will, then we are always 100% culpable for our choices between good and bad. Not "shades" or degrees of culpability, but always 100% culpable. We are culpable for not choosing to help people. We are culpable for harming people. We get to endlessly judge the "goodness", or the "badness" of others choices. We can appeal to natural law if we like, or some codification of law. I gave up on free will when people told me my will was free, AND, major major clinical depression destroyed my life. For all the "will", I could not make my depression leave. I had five other people, a wife and four children, depending on me. It was a hell. The "free will, assumption of bad choices crowd", made everything much much worse. Now, now that I see how much of what goes on with people that they have little control over, I have way more compassion. I think that is a road Dr. Sapolsky indicated he is traveling in a similar way?
Chapters and an actual top tier guest?! Impact Theory back to form? By far the best in a while, Tom.
As I'm sure Daniel Schmachtenberger would tell you, while defaulting to the development of organized military forces may not be baked into us, it only takes one group/tribe/nation to do it to kick off a reaction that requires all other groups/tribes/nations to do the same or be outcompeted into either subjugation or destruction.
Every avenue of advantage that is utilized by one needs to be utilized or counteracted by all others in order to secure/deny asymmetrical advantage.
At one point, Robert mentions that atheists with a solid foundation act just as ethically as deeply religious individuals in a time where sociological control mechanisms fail. The people who act immoral in such a time usually do not have a solid belief system. I would be super interested to learn which study, or source Robert is referring to.
You can see this now by analyzing the people who are supporting the genocide of Gaza.
He's my favourite clever guy and makes sense on every level 😊
CLeverest ppl are the most hated shunned out...
Great episode. I love what Impact Theory is doing. Please get Vinh Giang on the show!
This will be difficult to understand unless you think about it through the lens of evolutionary biology/ psychology...we've spent a lot more time evolving into who we are than being who we are😉
😢A fool always sounds wise to another fool. A person that says there is no God, is a fool .
You mean like your master, Xi Jinping, tells you to believe? Last I checked you were all atheist, wumao, and that believing in a GOD is punishable by the state for being a "counter revolutionary" against the religion of Marxism.
YUP
I love Robert Sapolsky. He is why I say that I have a You Tube doctorate on Behavioral Human Biology. (Then I laugh. I watched his Stanford classes on You Tube while doing my trim one year.) I highly encourage anyone interested in this information to go through his lecture series. His enthusiasm and ability to articulate information in a way that is easily assimilated is refreshing and engrossing. Listening to him has helped me understand myself, others and has given me the ability to better understand the chaos we call human civilization.
As much as meritocracy doesn't make sense, I wish Prof. Sapolsky is nominated for and wins a Nobel Peace prize in my lifetime
It made sense enough to build the entire civilization that everything rests upon, thus allowing the blithe dismissals of meritocracy by "the vision of the ordained"
His views are fantastic.
I have thought for my entire adult life that the disparity in wages between sectors is outrageous.
I have known people on high wages who love their jobs, they find their jobs fulfilling / enriching and receive high levels of remuneration and class distinction.
Whereas, the average worker in retail, a cleaner etc. - often feel their life is empty, they feel low status and they struggle.
None of this is fair whatsoever and it makes no sense when we look at the science.
We're just one branch of a long, long line of dog-eat-dog organic soup . All organisms unconsciously compete for scarce resources (look at which trees survive to spawn more seeds by growing higher than other trees in response to the sunlight above the forest canopy). Competition (and the resultant control of resources/rewards) among mammals is the inevitable outcome of this long, evolutionary algorithm... Inequality is inevitable. What matters for happiness is how you react to the circumstances/jand you are dealt that shape every moment and outcome in your life: you can either be resentful and victim-like, or you can be grateful for all the things that you do have (indoor toilet; air conditioning; cheap antibiotics; sunshine...). Study the Stoic philosophy and you will find contentment.
First thing i thought when hearing Doc Sap argue away free will is that he's on his own quest to find God.
I've been wrestling with the idea of free will versus destiny, nature/nurture, the long-term effect of childhood trauma + head trauma on behavior, etc. for many years now. This interview has been extremely helpful, and has clarified a lot of things I was profoundly confused about for a long time. Thanks for posting it.
Awesome Thanks for the hard work and Emotional Support ❤
It seems to me that asking questions along the lines of, “what should I do with this information that there is no free will” misses the point. If there is no free will then there is no “should”. A person can’t “use” this information because that would presuppose the existence of free will.
I think you may have a narrow view of what "there's no free will" means. It doesn't mean you just give up and do nothing, it just means that whatever you do, it wasn't ultimately your choice to do it. In other words, you can still try to be a good person, help others, build things, etc., etc., but then taking that and believing you are a great person simply because you made those "decisions" and the person who ended up living in their parents basement and never did anything with their lives is a useless person, is not quite right. They made their decisions based on their own genetics, upbringing, life experiences, etc., as did you. They (nor you) were at the beginning of life given a list of which parents to have, which genes to have, which childhood to have, etc. All of these things play pivital roles into your choices. It doesn't mean you can't TRY to make the "best" choices for yourself, it just means you can't take the credit (or blame) for making a fantastic (or terrible) choice. I know many people don't like that, they have a moralistic view of things, and this kind of philosophy to them sounds like we are letting people "off the hook." But it also doesn't mean we can't protect society from people who make decisions to harm others. We can still do this, but we also don't have to punish them by making their lives hell just as retribution for something that they didn't ultimately choose.
@dvdmon I agree. A lot of people struggle with the free will debate.
I’ve noticed, you have to frame it correctly and define you terms.
Free will says something about the ego, humans tend to reject most things that attack the ego. Interesting isn’t it.
@@dvdmon LOL "It doesn't mean you can't TRY to make the "best" choices for yourself, it just means you can't take the credit (or blame) for making a fantastic (or terrible) choice." in one sentence you ruined all what you wrote. Decide - is there a free will or not? Wait, you are writing, than that's writing some machine instead of you, or you as a person?
@@mirovinac3968 lol, yes, it's very hard to talk about this because human language and how we tend to structure out thoughts is using this terminology of "choice" "doing", etc.
@@mirovinac3968Unless we have a agreed definition of what free will is we run into these problems.
The belief that free will is an illusion is as faith-based as a belief in god. The jury is still out
Exactly. I see zero evidence in this video to answer this old question. Nothing new and nothing scientific.
@@diekritischestimme I don't think this was the point of the talk, this is something both of them agree on so wasn't their focus to somehow break down the arguments pro or con. I would like to understand what the arguments against free will being illusory are, because the the ones I've seen in favor are quite convincing.
@@dvdmon The common notion of free will is inconsistent. However, the notion of subjective will in a more general sense is not so easily dismissed.
The problem with free will to me is that it falls apart when you start to define it, it only works as a vague notion. The vaguenes of it has to do with the vagueness of defining self (in particular the aspect of self that is agentive). This is the core of why the common free will notion is a nonsense idea.
Free will relies on a "black box" in the loop of decision making where we can say free will is occuring. As soon as the black box becomes white (ie, fully understood), it's no longer "free will" but a decision algorithm. Free will can only exist if there is a decision making step in the loop that is impossible to understand (predict) that is intelligent. As a biologist, Sapolsky believes it is all fully understood (or in principle, understandeable), which is why he says there is no free will.
My best guess right now is that there is a sort of will (as in an Agency), but it is not individualized. That is, there is a will that animates subjective experience and is uniquely filtered by our individuality (eg biological conditions). This does not give us a real moral responsability or ownership/guilt of our actions/results though, in that sense it would be identical to no free will. Going into the support for this "one will" idea would take a lot of time, but it starts with the understanding of what self is.
Thanks..that helps.
Free will comes in if you want to follow god or not. He can change the way you see things yet you rebuke him and don’t want to live for him. That’s free will
Saplosky makes me feel good while telling me my life has no meaning. Svengological master orator.
Awesome conversation what a gem.❤
DUDE his definition of depression... IS DEPRESSING. And accurate. Good god. And as someone who was chronically depressed for YEARS and then got out of it - yes, 100%. MENTAL HEALTH IS A DELUSION. Depression is the truth. Choose delusion.
How did you get out of it?
Everyone attempting to think their way through life, yep, that's worked out great so far eh? NOT!! To deny God requires more faith than I could ever muster.
So the alternative is to not think and believe in what ancient Jews tell us to believe in?
@@lpslancelot05every "free will is fake" shill is jewish
Robert Sapolsky is a genius.
Jew🧠
IT
So super grateful for you All
Much Peace and Love always
💞🤗🙏
Everyone open a dodgeball gym
I agree and disagree that there is no free will. The universe has set you on a certain path to walk. You chose which path that has been set before you to walk. I view this as a quantum tree. Think of it as being every choice leads to a new branch. You chose which branch grows and which one dies. The older you get the less branches or choices you have. So me being a 19 year old kid I have billions of branches I can chose to walk down. While a 40 year old will have Millions. While an 80 year old will have hundreds of choices to make. What do you think?
You can’t chose what tree you become. But you chose what branches grow and how high up you grow.
Nice analogy! I like the metaphor of the tree as the thing that is determined before your birth, but of all of its branches and twigs as the paths you can chose from within the particular species of tree you've been assigned to 'live'.
Free will is essentially the misconception that our ability to reason objectively defines our true selves, ignoring the profound influences of our environment, history, and biology on our decisions.
Good show Tom, Robert has some very interesting insights. I enjoyed thinking about the discussion.
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And after telling us that there is no meaning or purpose, he tells us on purpose that what he is saying makes more sense, meaning and purpose than living our delusion that there is indeed sense, meaning and purpose. WTF?!
What are you WTFing about? Meaning is what you make it. It's really that simple
@@LoganAddisMusic So my WTFing is my meaning as I made it, according to your absurd reasoning. If it’s meaningless to you, that’s the consequence of your understanding of meaning. You have no standing to criticize any meaning I or anybody makes of anything, in fact. See, you’re in self contradiction by even trying to correct anybody because you are imposing your meaning that you are making on somebody else!
"Why did you write the book on free-will?" - "I had no choice"
As a trans man I really appreciate Sapolsky's work on studying testosterone. It has helped me navigate my experience and some social misconceptions regarding aggression. It does affect my relationship with food and emotion and how functional my brain is without food..... After hearing about the hungry judge, its scary thinking we are still in a patriarchy 😬.
I say this all the time! When people think they've accomplished things, you haven't, it's in your DNA and your opportunities available to you that you are able to embrace in circumstances. I'm so glad that someone has observed this too.
Those more insightful than their social contacts are often categorized as out of their mind. Your nick, and your post, seems to indicate this happened to you.
Tom as A random, can I highlight a blinding spot that you may have?
You invite guests on to a podcast but seem to speak a very large amount about your own views which has an audience. We now understand because your view carries through each podcast. It would be great if you could hold back The what I believe statements and instead ask the question to the guest without stating your position as I think this would make a better podcast
To add, I also think it can come across as rude and frustrating for a guest, even though your intention is not this
Great conversation. Sapolsky's ideas are so important right now, and i am grateful that he sees that they can be taken in a way that is misguided, but is willing to work with those challenges to get them circulated.
"My" thoughts are,
the way language is used, from the get-go, sets up the fundamental root belief in free will. I am this, I am that, i do this, i deserve this, etc., has created and continues to create and strengthen and entrench a framework of individual agency and ownership where it doesn't exist. If this is truly seen, it is possible to continue using language the same way for practical purposes, but in a completely new light.
Have loved his lectures for many years at Stanford.