TED Community » Emory King

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  A comment on Conversation: Do you believe we have true freewill?

  Jun 14 2011: "We are free to create our own interpretation of ourselves in relation to the world, to create a project of possibilities, of authentic actions as the expression of freedom."
  - Jean Paul Sartre

• A reply on Conversation: how do i make or add friends?

  Jun 14 2011: Nicholas I am this same type of rare person you describe. It is difficult to find others of our same interest indeed.

• A comment on Conversation: Create a game that provides real monotary value

  Jun 14 2011: A simple way to monetize a game could be to adopt the same structure that online poker sites use. Though it would be difficult to do this for long-term games like World of Warcraft, i imagine monetary values in a game like WoW could be competed for in outlets like battlegrounds and dungeons.

• A comment on Conversation: What kind of role do play motivation in the behavior of a person ?

  Jun 14 2011: I think motivation is made up of our physical/emotional inclinations as well as our logical reasoning for pursuing incentives. In this discussion, the incentive in question is irrelevant. Since our emotional and logical inclinations are transient and constantly change from time to time, our behaviors could be described as inconsistent. Perhaps concepts like character, attitude, and motive arent sufficient in trying to account for behavior because these qualities are not static. Thus, nobody is perfect and our behavior falls to inconsistency.
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: What is the best advice you received in your life?

  Jun 14 2011: My favorite:
  
  "Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances."
  - Sun Tzu
  
  and also:
  
  "Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively"
  - Socrates

• A comment on Conversation: Do you believe we have true freewill?

  Jun 14 2011: All of this reminds me of a phenomenon that psychonauts experience called "Ego-Death". I would describe it as the realization that the partial attitudes and beliefs we adopt are really only heuristic constructs of our conscious mind; and that absolute objectivity of thought can only be possesed by abandoning all subjective constructs, or myths of ego (as Mark has fitingly put it).
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  A reply on Conversation: Do you believe we have true freewill?

  Jun 10 2011: I read it. If we accept the idea that everything we think and do is deterministic, how can we expect to fulfill any purpose at all? Indeed, it would seem that there is no ultimate reason to even exist, as what we are and do is only the by-product of the workings of physics and causality.
  
  It would mean that the nihilistic logic we have contrived to explain our existence is actually malignantly incompatible with any possible human purpose. For us to escape this feeling of hopelessness, it would be necessary to adapt to our dilema by adopting (as William James might put it) the will to believe. And so maybe, for all practical purposes, the subjective identity that we so dearly hold on to is inculcated in our neurological workings as a necessary component in order to support our existence. Yet, It would be our choice to adopt something with so little OBJECTIVE reason for it. And thus appropriately termed, freedom of will.
  
  With all the sciences, there are bounds that limit our discernment of them. Even time (causality), can be said to be a human fabrication. If we were to ride upon the negation of that, then all of the deterministic view could no longer hold, and for that matter, any view of which we hold plausible.

• A reply on Conversation: Do you believe we have true freewill?

  Jun 10 2011: I think so. Possibly the potential to choose and alter our deliberations is ingrained in our biological makeup a priori. Within the objective rules of our physical workings, there lies a subjective factor. Call it the SPIRIT FACTOR hahaha. Terms like neuroplasticity and adaption come to mind when i think of this, and even free will. I think it is because of such a phenomenon as this that we all have varying beliefs and attitudes that make up the whole of a value pluralistic.
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  A comment on Conversation: Do you believe we have true freewill?

  Jun 10 2011: Our ability to predict decisions based on our understanding of neurology doesn't compromise the validity of the decision made. It is simply the understanding of HOW decisions are made. Yes, the conglomeration of our physical endowment with our experiences, temperament, and location in space and time is what influences the makeup of our decision-making system, but the products of that system's process are still decisions nonetheless.
  
  We are this system that we call our brain and body. If our decisions and actions ARE predetermined by the rules of physical and chemical reality, I personally, cannot deny the fact that i still FEEL in control of my conscious thoughts and actions. I am my system, and you may be your system. And our own particular autonomy is what makes us human, even if different from person to person.

• A comment on Conversation: Probiotics, like yogurt, are known to support healthy gut microbes. How could we apply this idea support a healthy house, subway, or office?

  Jun 10 2011: Although probiotics can be beneficial to the microbial system in certain situations, an excess of microbial proliferation can cause ill side effects such as gas and infection. In the same way that the digestive system works best with an even microbial balance, any closed environment such as a home or office is managed best with a healthy balance of benefeactors, whatever those benefactors may be.