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ã 2005-2007
Human free will is a property of the universe. Theoretically
speaking, from a physics point of view, the universe evolved from simple mechanical properties to complex mechanical
properties. I mean simple in the sense of individual isolated particles of
matter. Complex properties result from assemblages of particles. Atoms are more
complex than are individual particles. Molecules are more complex than atoms.
Life is more complex than all else. In the theoretical physics sense,
mechanical forces of attraction and repulsion worked together to cause diverse
dumb particles to arrange themselves into complex assemblages demonstrating
increased mechanical complexity. Yet, in contradiction to this mechanical
viewpoint, empirical evidence makes
clear the universe was directed toward life and intelligence. The goal of the
universe was the
realization of human life and intelligence culminating in human free will.
Theoretical
physicists generally analyze the universe in a manner consistent with the
presumption: There was one unexplainable miracle. That miracle was the origin
of the universe. Physics treats everything after the beginning as if its
evolution was caused by and is derivable from properties in existence at its
origin. Its origin is a miracle for all observers including those who resist
admitting it. There are no causes for the origin of everything. We cannot
analyze the origin of everything. No equations can ever reveal original cause.
All equations are formed from something. Zero null points occurring in
mathematical models are not representative of a universal beginning state. None
begin with nothing as their premise.
There
are efforts by theoretical physicists to model the origin of the universe.
However, their work consists of mathematically based speculation. The equations
are studied on the premise they may reveal hidden truths about the origin of
the universe. Unfortunately for these efforts, this is not possible. Beyond
viewing the empirical evidence, the theorist relies always upon their
imagination. The equations can give back only those ideas the theorist
initially put into them. It is only physicists’ imaginings that are revealed in
their theories.
The
bases of these imaginings are empirically observed patterns of motion. The
effects that physicists analyze are always changes of velocity. There are two
parts to this analysis. One is to discern the unique patterns in changes of
velocity. This is experimental physics. The other is to speculate about causes
for the patterns. This is theoretical physics. The speculation is often not
admitted. There is truth in empirical knowledge about patterns of motion.
However, that is as far as truth can be verified. Theory consists of inventing
natures for unknowable causes.
In
order to proceed in the face of the unknown, physicists imagine they are
identifying causes. Physicists communicate, using their theory, as if some
causes have been made known. Nevertheless, the apparent success of theoretical
physics not withstanding, we do not know the nature of cause. Knowledge of
patterns in empirical data is very useful, but theory’s usefulness is limited
to helping us keep our imaginations orderly. Keeping the fruits of imagination
orderly is not the same as proving our imaginings are truth.
Commonly,
physicists’ theoretical analysis of the universe follows a narrow philosophy.
The standard analysis of patterns of motion has been guided by a philosophy of
mechanistic evolutionism. A description of the universe is adopted based upon
mechanical causes of fundamental properties. These interpretations are fitted
to the patterns observed in empirical evidence of motion. Contrary to common
belief, the interpretations are not dictated by empirical evidence. They are
only educated guesses. Physical natures are imagined to exist. Names and units
of measurement are assigned. Nevertheless, these are all imaginative guesses
about the nature of cause.
Physicists
imitate, by means of mathematical equations, the patterns observed in the movement
of the objects. They then attach their guesses about the nature of cause onto
terms in the equations. For example, some terms are given the names of force,
mass and electric charge. No one knows what are force, mass and electric
charge, but the manner in which they are presented makes it appear they are
proven. There is no proven scientific understanding about the means by which
the universe operates. This lack of fundamental understanding does not prevent
theoretical analysis. Theory is unhampered by the lack of knowledge that it is
trying to replace. This fatal flaw does not prevent theory from making a
convincing case in favor of itself. The empirical evidence is orderly and much
of this orderliness is carried over into the theories.
It
is required that the universe be orderly for it to be comprehensible to us. It
is required by virtue of the existence of order that all effects ultimately
result from original properties. Physicists know that the original properties
caused life and intelligence. Yet the controlling theories are only
mechanistic. Physics is the study of motion and the prediction of future and
past motion. The past is predicted back to very close to the origin of the
universe. The quest is to determine the origin of order within the confines of
mechanistic evolutionism.
The analysis of the most important effects of the universe, life and intelligence, also relies upon the discernment of order. Intelligence is orderly. The discernment of order is an intellectual property provided by the universe. The orderly operation of human functions leads to intelligent recognition of the rest of the universe. Orderliness means continuity of control. Control must be continuous or order will be lost. All orderly possibilities exist potentially in the birth of universal orderliness. It is required that the full potential of life and intelligence must have existed from the beginning of the universe. Their full means for development had to have been provided for from the beginning. The creation of orderliness is a property of intelligence. The recognition of orderliness is a property of intelligence. Intelligence is always involved in all aspects of order.
Physicists
endeavor to find mechanical reasons for orderliness, but they inevitably fail.
They do not even know the causes of motion. This failing reaches beyond simple
motion of objects. All investigations are missing a scientific explanation of
cause. Today’s mechanical scope of scientific analysis is what prevents us from
understanding life and intelligence. Mechanics offers us no hope of progress.
If we do not know why objects move, then how can we hope to understand the
evolution of life and intelligence? The answer is: We cannot hope to learn the
development of life and intelligence unless we recognize that the universe has
fundamental non-mechanical properties relative to life and intelligence. These
properties cause matter to develop into complex relationships that lead to
macroscopic signs of life.
We
can endeavor to learn the development of life and intelligence by freeing our
minds from the artificial restrictions theoretical physicists have introduced
into scientific learning. Our thinking has long been shackled by the ascent of
mechanical theory. We will not progress beyond mechanical modeling of the
universe so long as physicists insist that the fundamental properties of the
universe are mechanical. The cause of life and intelligence is definitely not
mechanical. This is evidenced on every level by the inability of mechanics to
predict or explain life and intelligence. We must look elsewhere. This new
search will consider all effects including life, intelligence and change of
velocity.
Change
of velocity is an important property of life and intelligence. Particles of
matter participate in generating complex life and intelligence. They do this
while changing their velocities. These changes of velocity are far more complex
in their effects than mechanical theories allow. In other words, changes of
velocity involve far more mysterious and wondrous causes and effects than are
recognized by physics mechanics. We can’t begin with mechanical properties and
work our way up to life and intelligence. The development of life and
intelligence should be investigated by tracing these most important properties
backward through their evolutionary process. This effort must no longer be
derailed by mechanical ideas such as electromagnetic theory.
The
real natural properties are not yet analyzed. Physicists do not acknowledge
they exist. The fundamental properties of life and intelligence have been
obscured from our vision by the facade of imaginary theoretical mechanical
forces. We need to look beyond the facade to analyze macroscopic life and
intelligence. We should expand our search and look anew, advancing down to the
fundamental level. That is where everything begins. That is where life and
intelligence begin. However, we can initiate our investigation by starting with
life and intelligence at their highest level. We should start where
intelligence is most clearly revealed. That is where our search for the origin
of life and intelligence can begin.
We
can focus this initial effort by analyzing the greatest effect accomplished by
intelligent life. Human free will is the greatest effect of the cause of life
and intelligence. Just as patterns of motion are expected to be traceable into
the past, human free will must also be traceable. It must be the case that human
free will is the result of the earliest fundamental properties. The true natural
properties belong as much to complex life and intelligence as they do to simple
motion. Tracing the evolutionary path of human free will will involve the union
of macroscopically recognized intelligent traits with the true natural
properties of the universe.
There
are generalities about the nature of the universe that are useful for an
introductory understanding of human free will. The primary generality is that
the universe is orderly. In other
words, it is controlled. The appearance of order demonstrates that order always
existed. Even if some of the order of the universe goes unrecognized by our
standards, it certainly exists by the universe’s standards. The fundamental
properties must be orderly because the macroscopic properties are orderly.
Disorder cannot create order. Full understanding may always be beyond our
ability. We may not be able to comprehend the operation of the universe in
detail, but we can know for certain that order always existed simply because it
exists now.
The
realized forms of this order, its physical effects, do change; however, they
always had a constant presence in a complete sense. This completeness consists
of combined potential complexity and realized complexity. In other words, order
of any kind always follows from order of another kind. Order proceeds only from
order. The universe is always under control. The universe is controlled, and
yet it is so diverse that at times it can appear chaotic. At the fundamental
level, physicists resort to terms of description such as weirdness and fuzziness.
They analyze much of it by approximation techniques such as probability
analysis. This is an outsider’s point of view.
Our
macroscopic perspective gives us a limited perspective. As we look closer and
closer to the basics of existence we lose our way. We cannot find the unity
that must be there. The activity begins to look more and more like chaos. We
observe that, from this apparent chaos and disorder, order arises. The fact
that order exists at all is proof that order exists at every point in space and
time during the whole existence of the universe. The point is that while it can
appear to us that order arises out of disorder, it is not truly possible for
order to arise from chaos and disorder. True disorder has never been a part of
the operation of the universe. Rather, lack of comprehension is involved in our
analysis.
The
universe does evolve, but not from an origin of disorder. It evolves, but not
because simplicity can generate complexity. Within the universe, complexity
comes only from equivalent or greater complexity. The greatest possible effects
of complexity in the universe exist right from the start in a potential state.
The nature of the universe has never been simple. It evolves from one mix of
realized complexity to another. The full potential for all the complexities of
the universe existed at the beginning of the universe. The successive forms of
evolution of complexity are different in realized effects. Yet, they are the
same in terms of combined remaining potential and existing realized complexity.
The full capacity to bring forth all forms of realized complexity for all time
is constantly present. In other words, the evolution of the universe follows
from its original fundamental properties.
Full
intelligence existed at the beginning of the universe as potential complexity
and evolved toward realized individual complexity. The evolutionary progression
toward realized complexity coexisted with potential complexity. Realized
complexity increases while potential complexity decreases. Evolution is a
process that moves from potential complexity to realized complexity. Dispersed
particles fill much of the universe coexisting with complex structures such as
galaxies, planets and life. Human life, the greatest example of realized
complexity, exists within a universe of much unrealized complexity.
The
universe evolved toward greater individual complexity in the midst of dispersed
potential complexity. The life producing action of the universe advanced from
potential general complexity to realized individual complexity. We witness this
process. We witness the organization of matter taken from the earth and formed
into living things. We see, in reverse, that same matter become dispersed again
returning back to the earth. The orderliness by which life is formed is not
then lost. It is possible for that same matter to be raised up again and once
again become recognized life. We see that the process is orderly.
Everywhere
we look we find orderliness. Even probability analysis relies upon orderliness.
We observe the orderliness and use it to analyze the universe. We analyze the
present, back into the past, and forward into the future. We can do this
because orderliness is deterministic. We usefully mimic motion activity with
physics theory. Physics theory is useful. The more useful it becomes, the more
correct we believe it to be. This is untrustworthy reasoning. Physics theory
appears successful because the evolution of order from potential complexity to
realized complexity is predictable. Physics theory borrows all its usefulness
from the natural orderliness of the universe. It is borrowed. It is not created
or made known to us by the theory itself. Theory is a façade.
The
fundamental properties that constitute life and intelligence exist in their disassociated
generalized form. Their effects, at this level of development, are so unlike
our human concept of evidence of life and intelligence that we fail to
scientifically define its existence. We don’t seem to be able to begin from the
bottom up, but we can try beginning from the top down. We can try to trace the
properties of intelligence by looking backward from its result. Human free will
is the ultimate result of the fundamental properties of intelligence.
The
physical origin of the universe contained the fundamental properties of
intelligence. They are orderly. In other words, they are deterministic. How
then is human free will the supreme result? How does individual freedom of
thought emerge from universal control? It occurs because the orderliness of the
universe is not communicated to us fully intact. We are released intellectually
from the control of universal determinism. This results from the method by
which we view the universe. We do not see the universe in its continuous form.
We see it as discontinuous and incomplete. This results from our receiving
discontinuous and curtailed information via photons. We use our incomplete
genetic intelligence to interpret the incomplete information. In a sense, we
must generate complete, smooth thoughts from piecemeal data.
The
anticipation of change is what allows us to connect together independent pieces
of information. Our minds search for ways to connect discrete pieces of
information together. We imagine what change may be occurring based upon our genetic
knowledge of change possible. The data is always about change. Even though
received information is always about change, our thoughts are not only about
change. Our thoughts include both change and ‘no change’.
We
experience change, but we invent ‘no change’. We do this because ‘no change’
exists as a genetically programmed idea. It is an intellectual given. Ideas are
what we are genetically given as the tools to be used for understanding
information. ‘No change’ is an essential idea to human thought. This idea is
not based upon anything ever experienced at anytime or any place in the
universe. No living thing has ever observed ‘No change’. However, we are
intelligently predisposed to understand the concept of ‘no change’.
Our
view of the universe is an interpretation of an approximation. We picture the
universe differently from its physical nature. Our view is a mix of the
approximation and interpretation. We are genetically programmed to know the
universe in a useful, intelligent manner. We subconsciously contain an
intelligent, specialized understanding of the nature of the universe. Here I
use the word intelligent to distinguish human perception from the mechanical
perspective presented by physicists and endorsed by scientists in general.
Our
conclusions can be shallow or deep depending upon the effort we put into
forming them. The more facts we have the more likely our conclusion will be
deeply supported. The more we think something over, the more deeply our mind
will search for a better conclusion. This inexact method of matching ideas to
information is an important part of creating human free will.
Scientists
seek to learn how the universe differs from our human interpretation. They find
that the universe is very different from how we perceive it. When scientists
describe what they have learned, they believe they are removing interpretation
and replacing it with objectivity. This is only partially true, because
scientists also rely heavily upon interpretation. We cannot escape from the
need for interpretation. We often experience difficulty in separating out
invented interpretations from intrinsic, genetically based, interpretations. So
long as scientists do not recognize the existence of genetically based
interpretations, they will offer many invented interpretations.
The
information we receive is anticipated by our intrinsic intelligence. Everything
we will learn is already within us in the form of probable and possible
meanings. However, our individual interpretive abilities are made flexible.
There is inexactness and incompleteness both in the meanings we contain and the
information we receive. The mix of these for each of us is unique. The
discontinuity of received information is the extrinsic part of free will. Our
store of genetically generated meanings is the intrinsic part of free will. The
combination of these two properties forms the basis of free will. In both cases
they are uniquely incomplete. None of us has the same store of knowledge or
receives the same information. It is possible the meanings we choose may be
right or wrong, and will often be different for each of us. This is why I say:
It is the rationing of knowledge that gives rise to free will.
The
universe is continuous in its nature. This follows from the fact that it is
controlled. Control requires absolute continuity. However, our share of
intelligence overlays an interpretation based on discontinuity. We see the
universe as being discontinuous. We do not view the properties of the universe
in their full forms. The missing information helps facilitate choice about the
meaning of the information we use. The
possible meanings often include approximate choices that lend themselves to a
variety of interpretations.
Intelligent
discontinuity is inserted between the universe and us, making our choices
flexible. This flexibility of choice is the essence of free will. Our inexact
individual choices produce conflicts in perception among individuals. This
makes alternative and even opposing interpretations appear reasonable to different
people. The result is that reasonable people can honestly disagree. There are
also environmental and cultural components to choice; however, it is the
fundamental discontinuity and incompleteness of the interpretive process that
lays the foundation for free will.
Human
intelligence is the single greatest effect in the universe. However, this
effect is not realized in a single form. The triumph of human free will is
represented by the totality of human life. Our macroscopic understanding of
intelligence is represented by the totality of all life forms. It is realized
in their collective abilities. We are each different from all others. Our
individual intelligences are unique by virtue of what they lack. Each of our
portions of intelligence is uniquely limited. Universal Intelligence uses
inexactness and incompleteness to help make human free will possible.
It
is in this partial state of simulated intellectual disorder that free will
begins.
Then intelligence artificially removes the induced disorder by adding an
artificial form of continuity back onto the information received from the
universe. So, it is intelligently made possible for order to arise from
disorder. This is only possible because the disorder was overseen by an orderly
universal intelligence. The two-step process of intelligently creating
discontinuity and then inserting a new continuity is the means for the
realization of free will. Since the apparent disorder is always under control,
it is more accurately described as planned disassociation. Free will arises not
from true disorder but from intelligently designed disassociation.
In
other words, the information of the universe is first cut to pieces by our
intelligence. Then, we select some of the pieces and join them together,
forming approximations of interpretations of reality. Some information is lost
or even misinterpreted. We take what we think we have and smooth it back
together to form a new kind of continuity. For example, we see limits on the
structure of individual objects. Usually this technique yields an
interpretation that is better in the sense of usefulness for life. Sometimes it
is misleading. At other times it is clearly wrong. In each case the interpretation
is often presented to our conscious mind as a certainty.
Our
sense of constancy or permanence is imposed upon our limited perspective of the
universe. There are two general components to intelligence: The pre-existence
of all required understanding and the information generated by the operation of
the universe. The information has an important common foundation. The
information delivered to us by the universe is always information about change.
That is because it is delivered via photons. Everything in the universe is
continuously experiencing change. Photons are the messengers of accelerating
matter. Matter only communicates with us when it is changing its velocity. We
do not directly experience permanence.
Energetic
photons are caused by change and end by causing change. Change is the ingredient
that is constantly present in the universe. The universe exists because of
change. Change guarantees that no two experiences will be identical. We live
because of change. From the limited perspective of physicists, change is viewed
as the variation of motion. However, there is a fullness to change that
communicates far more than just change of velocity. It is the impetus for
activating intelligence. Our intelligence is fueled by change.
It
is through change that we are made aware. It is through change that we learn.
We act through change. It is through change that we express our will. Even with
all the change within the universe, there is also stability. The properties
that cause change are stable. They are the orderly properties of the universe.
Their orderliness is what makes change useful. Change makes sense to us
because it is the result of orderliness. We require both change and order. We
rely upon change for existence, but we seek order for meaningfulness and
understanding. We need both change and stability. There is a natural stability
in the laws of the operation of the universe. The natural stability of the
universe is in its orderliness. There is also an induced stability.
The inducement of stability is due to commonness of culture and environment. We establish society to introduce stability into life. There is a tendency to bring a significant degree of constancy and sameness into our experiences. Sharing a common environment and culture gives us stability. Our cultures and environments tend to establish norms and habits for us. While nothing is experienced exactly the same by each of us, there is often a high degree of similarity that closely approximates sameness. In many ways we become culturally programmed to perform in predictable manners.
However, we are not fully predictable. We have different experiences. We are capable of breaking with the past. We are born with the means to do this. Our individual experiences activate different parts of our intrinsic intelligence. We escape cultural and environmental conditioning by contemplating two things. We contemplate the comparison of external impression with individual, unique, internal guidance. Learned behavior is repeatedly tested against internally generated choice. Also, we escape by drawing upon our internal, genetically transmitted reserve of yet untapped knowledge. This can sometimes be a struggle of such magnitude that it may lie dormant unless we vigorously pursue it. Those who succeed in doing this demonstrate the existence of free will. Those who do not make the effort can foster doubt.
If the future was really the product of a simpler mechanical past, then the universe would consists of dumb objects, some simple and some complex, bumping around with not even a hint of awareness. There would be no life. There would be no intelligence. There would be no such thing as free will. We know free will exists. We know this because we can choose not to be chained to the past. We know this because we willfully rush forward into new levels of understanding that repeatedly break with the past. Not all pieces need to be in place and yet we can suddenly become aware of how to solve each puzzle. We cause ourselves to become aware of the existence of missing pieces that were not yet known. We will completed knowledge into existence. We freely do this.
Our universe is not properly represented by the mechanical model which physics theory offers to us. This universe that gave birth to us is a universe with the inherent ability to generate recognizable intelligent properties. It can do this only if it is first in possession of its own intelligent properties. It is probably the case that all apparent properties are different aspects of a universal intelligence, and there are no fundamental mechanical properties. We live in a universe that has the talent to generate free will from determinism. The universe may not have free will, but it has the means to give us an ability that very closely approximates it. That is a supremely intelligent accomplishment.