TED Conversations

Stan Bogdan

TED Translator

This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »

Do we have choices in life?

Most of you will say yes, but i think the things we consider when making a choice are based on previous experiences (so i say no). So, does free will exist or are we slaves of the environment we grew up in, the education we recieved and the genes that we inharited?
I think that we must concentrate on the process of decison. What happens in our brian? What information is it being processed?
when i choose not to touch hot surface of the iron when it is plugged in, that is because my brain asociates it with pain based on previous experiences. if the process of decision is more complex, the brain analises other posibilities that derive as well from the previous experiences. So, again i ask, do we have choices. if, hipotetically, two babies cloed from the same subject are living two identical lives in two parallel diferent universes, when they are asked to pick a number between 1 and 10 at the same time, will they choose the same number?

+1
Share:

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.

  • thumb

    Vivek Trivedi 10+

    • +1
    TED Translator
    May 2 2012: We do have choices in life, but our choices tend to harm our mental being, in case we take them as considering our own benefits. Our choices give rewarding results when we take them considering well being of humanity and surroundings. If we go back and check the decisions we made for ourselves in the past, we will be able to analyse that some were only to appease somebody or some were only for monetary rewards and some were only to look good in "others" eyes.

    Till our teenage, not all decisions are completely ours, so we can't go back and cry foul over them, but after a particular age, we may call it a mature age, the decisions we take are completely ours and we shall held ourselves responsible for anything good or bad comes as an outcome of those decision.

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.