Archive for Intelligence

14 Days

// January 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Glenn

A quote from Abd-ar-Rahman III who ascended the throne when he was twenty-two years of age and reigned for half a century as the most powerful prince of the Umayyad dynasty in Iberia (Spain)…

I have now reigned about 50 years in victory or peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot. They amount to fourteen.

This guy became king (or whatever they called it there) at age 22 and reigned for 50 years. As he says, he had everything the world could offer but still didn’t find much happiness.

Free Will Presentation

// December 7th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Glenn

I had an “in-house” course at work this week entitled “Instructional Techniques and Presentations” or something like that…Anyways, we learned how our company structures their courses and at the end, we all had to give a 15 minute presentation on any topic we liked, following the given guidelines.  Some people chose to do their presentations on “real estate investment”, “rope knot tying”, “HDTV”, etc. and I chose to do mine on “Free Will”.  So, I figured I would copy my powerpoint presentation here to this blog, trying to write down the main comments that I said aloud during the presentation in brackets().

Free Will
Motivating Statement
Learning different viewpoints on the philosophy of Free Will allow students to deal with life and morality in a clearer manner.

(To begin, I read a small excerpt from the free eBook by Scott Adams entitled “God’s Debris” (available here)…

“Do you believe God is omnipotent and that people
have free will?” he asked.
“That’s standard stuff for God. So, yeah.”
“If God is omnipotent, wouldn’t he know the future?”
“Sure.”
“If God knows what the future holds, then all our choices
are already made, aren’t they? Free will must be an illusion.”
He was clever, but I wasn’t going to fall for that trap.
“God lets us determine the future ourselves, using our free
will,” I explained.
“Then you believe God doesn’t know the future?”
“I guess not,” I admitted. “But he must prefer not
knowing.”
“So you agree that it would be impossible for God to
know the future and grant humans free will?”
“I hadn’t thought about it before, but I guess that’s
right. He must want us to find our own way, so he intentionally
tries not to see the future.”
“For whose benefit does God withhold his power to
determine the future?” he asked.
“Well, it must be for his own benefit, and ours, too,” I
reasoned. “He wouldn’t have to settle for less.”
The old man pressed on. “Couldn’t God give humans the
illusion of free will? We’d be just as happy as if we had actual
free will, and God would retain his ability to see the future. Isn’t
that a better solution for God than the one you suggested?”
“Why would God want to mislead us?”
“If God exists, his motives are certainly unfathomable.
No one knows why he grants free will, or why he cares
about human souls, or why pain and suffering are necessary
parts of life.”)

Free Will Options

  • determinism versus indeterminism
  • compatibilism versus incompatibilism
  • The effects of one’s philosophy of free will on morality.

Determinism

  • Determinism is roughly defined as the view that all current and future events are causally necessitated by past events combined with the laws of nature.
  • E.g. Laplace’s demon, theological determinism, Newtonian physics, genetic inheritance

(In the history of science, Laplace’s demon is a hypothetical “demon” envisioned in 1814 by Pierre-Simon Laplace such that if it knew the precise location and momentum of every atom in the universe then it could use Newton’s laws to reveal the entire course of cosmic events, past and future. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace%27s_demon)

(Theological determinism is the viewpoint that all events are pre-ordained by God.)

(Newtonian physics goes along with the Laplace’s demon example in suggesting that using Newton’s laws, one can predict the future i.e. if you know the mass, velocity and acceleration of an object you can predict where it will be in the future)

(Genetic inheritance is the view that much (or all) of who we are as a person is determined by the genes we have inherited from our ancestors)

Indeterminism

(Of course, this is the opposite of determinism)

  • Every event is random
  • Quantum Mechanics deals only in probabilities

(I should probably upload my other presentation I did a few months back at work talking about Quantum Mechanics…amazing stuff…but in the context here, just know that QM is a science that is almost the opposite of Newtonian physics in how it deals with matter in probabilities and cannot pinpoint particles or define them)
Compatibilism

  • Compatibilists maintain that determinism is compatible with free will.
  • E.g. A person is able to “will” themselves to make a decision with conscious effort.

(I think this one is the most difficult to understand…people here believe that events are pre-ordained or are influenced by previous events, but not completely…so they believe in determinism but also believe in “free will”)

Incompatibilism

  • Incompatibilists accept determinism and reject free will.
  • If a person is determined in his or her choices of actions, then he or she must be like other mechanical things that are determined in their behavior such as a wind-up toy, a billiard ball, a puppet, or a robot.

(You can see here, that if you believe all future events can be predicted if you had enough information about the past and present (a good example being a computer program), then you would deny anyone has free will because we are simply following along what was created at the initial moment the universe was born)

Free Will and Morality

  • Many believe that moral responsibility requires free will. Thus, another important issue in the debate on free will is whether individuals are ever morally responsible for their actions.
  • It seems impossible that one can hold someone responsible for an action that could be predicted from (potentially) the beginning of time.
  • Medical professionals attribute many personality traits to genetics, upbringing, and physical brain condition.  These factors minimize the blame for a person’s immoral behaviour.

(I also cited the example from the news this year (couldn’t find the reference) of a man who was imprisoned because he had committed some sexual assaults.  While in prison, a doctor discovered he had a brain tumor.  Once the brain tumor was treated, he lost his sexually deviant motivation.  After some time, the tumor grew back and his sexual deviancy returned.  So there is a question as to whether this man should be held responsible for something that can be considered a medical condition.)

Final Exam
What is determinism?
What is indeterminism?
How does determinism relate to morality?

(What I really wanted the final exam question to be was “Do you believe you have free will?  Why or why not?”.  But of course, this is an opinion question that there isn’t a right or wrong answer for, and somebody could answer this question without having listened to my presentation.)

Your preliminary test has been marked…

// October 28th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Glenn

Dear Mr. _____

Your preliminary test has been marked and I am pleased to tell you that according to your result, it would be worth your while to take the official supervised Mensa test.

It is only fair to remind you that the results of the unsupervised tests have not always proved reliable: they should, therefore, be considered in the light of the exactness with which you followed the instructions.

If you choose to go ahead with the Mensa Supervised test please go to http://www.mensacanada.org/proctortest.php to set up a supervised test date/time.  Please note that the testing session is $90 and two standardized tests will be administered which last approximately one and half hours.  If you score 98% or higher on either one of the two tests administered, you will automatically become a member for one year.

Alternatively, if we do not have a proctor in your area, you can elect to be tested by a psychologist licensed by your provincial psychological association, who is an accepted specialist in I.Q. testing.  We are more than willing to accept such test evidence provided it is approved by our Mensa Consulting Psychologist and we urge you to try this course if you wish.

GOOD LUCK!

Sincerely yours,

Amy Sitoski

Membership Services

Mensa Canada

************

So do I bother with the full test?  What do I get out of it?  Bragging rights?

Rewire Your Brain

// October 4th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Glenn

I’ve been fascinated by a book I’ve read recently called “The Brain that Changes Itself” by Norman Doidge the brain1 Rewire Your Brain and it is the cause of this blog.

The main premise of the book is that the connections in our brain are constantly changing, and can be strengthened and can be modified to compensate for deficiencies caused by strokes or injuries.  One part that particularly jumped out at me is the suggestion that we can create new connections to help us deal with trauma.

If we think of the brain as a muscle, connections that are used repeatedly, strengthen, non use causes them to weaken.

If you have had a bad car accident, the next time you get in a car, you may feel fear and other similar emotions.  If you continue to think these fearful thoughts whenever you get in a car, you will strengthen this association, make it stronger, and in some cases, it turns into a crippling fear which won’t allow you to get in a car at all.

If you recognize this association and decide to change it, you can do so by thinking about pleasurable or calming things when you get in a car.  If you do this often enough, you will create a new connection that will allow you to get in cars again.

This procedure can also work in the reverse.  If you are addicted to internet porn and you want to break the habit, associate some strong feeling of fear or despair or depression with the act of looking at the porn.  If you can develop this connection strongly, you can be free of your addiction.

But be careful in choosing your new associations.  In the porn example, you don’t want to associate all sex with negative emotions, as that would cause problems with your wife.

And I’m not certain whether you can completely fool your own brain if you don’t actually believe what you say.  If you are trying to associate a negative feeling with your porn addiction but you still actually enjoy looking at the porn, I don’t think the new connection will take.  You have to actually believe it for it to work.

Vacation Blog

// July 22nd, 2008 // No Comments » // Glenn

So I’m on vacation and I am not as happy as I’d hoped I’d be. Why? Because happiness is not found here.

The pointlessness I feel at work is worse than this because there I must continually perform mind-numbing and pointless tasks. Here, I can do nothing and be much more content. But I don’t feel fulfilled or “happy”. What can I possibly due to make myself happy? Can’t think of a thing. The best I have come up with so far is to distract myself from actually thinking about life – which is a temporary solution at best. I’ve become much more of a social creature, meeting new people, hanging out with groups of people. I think I enjoy the unpredictability of meeting people and the surprises that occasionally happen with them. Apart from that…nothing.

I’ve noticed that my moods are greatly influenced by the weather. A warm sunny day makes me feel really good (as long as I am outside and immersed in it). Exercising also makes me feel good, but I haven’t figured out why yet. I wonder if it has to do with prolonging my life. Some moments I want to live forever and am afraid of death…other moments, the opposite.

I also enjoy talking and debating philosophical issues. Not may people enjoy this, so it’s difficult to find a listener. Also, what kind of jobs are there in philosophy besides “teaching philosophy”? I guess this blog is the next best thing.