A sixteen year old, Atheistic High-school student whom much desires camaraderie with those whom possess similar interests and traits.
Skepticism, Science, Theology, Media, Art, Reading, Technology, Biology, Nano-tech, Computation Devices, and, finally, social connection.
Science trumps illogic in all cases, newer, especially digital media should not be feared, it should be embraced, religious belief/believers should be much more tolerant of those whose opinions(and/or facts) differ.
Anything ranging from general topics of politics and modern affairs to direct theology and science.
Acting, singing, and some other performing arts.
I stumbled upon TED whilst researching topics for a school project, immediately I became immersed within the brilliance of the organization and that which it supports(namely clear thinking, and the sharing of knowledge). TED has been instrumental in my mental and ideological maturation and for an increase in general consciousness and evaluation of that which surrounds me. At times it has also given me hope for the general well-being of humanity intellectually, showing me that the status queue, the average, the mean is not all that life has to offer. For all previously state reasons I greatly appreciate TED.
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A reply on Conversation: Do you believe we have true freewill?
Our free will or ability to choose from available permutations of action/response is severely limited both by our intellectual and analytic skills as well as our ability to perceive said permutations or courses of action. Imagine a situation in which a person, let's call him John, comes across a relatively simple fork in his path. The fork has two visible branches, neither of which have any indication as to their destination or quality. John thinks that he has only two choices(technically all choices are available but they do not pertain to this example. ie: John decides to do the Macarena) if he wishes to proceed: the left fork, or the right. However there is an alternative which he cannot observe: an underground path leading directly to his destination. Does his lack of perception mean that he is fated to choose from only a fraction of the possible paths? Does his hand preference make him lean towards the side of his favored hand(as it do most) thus making him slave to innate bias from birth?
Certainly both factors play a part but let's exclude the perception factor as that is somewhat more abstract. In the case of subconscious bias, either innate or learned, we are subservient. As people, we are automatically prefer our race to other races(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq1PDYB1G1U) no matter what we do to consciously counteract it, we have an unconscious preference. So, to a very real extent, we have a default leaning which may supersede any conscious decision, thus voiding "free will".
Sorry if this comes off as a "wall of text"
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