Because the odds favor them, not by a lot on any individual bet — that would be too obvious to the bettors — but just by a little.
All the casinos need is a tiny margin, and if you make a lot of bets, you eventually will lose.
Your GPS stopped working. Which route will you take?
Imagine you are flipping an evenly balanced coin, and you bet $10 on each flip.
The house takes only one tiny cent per flip.
If you flip 100 times, on average, you’ll lose $1.00. That minuscule $.01 adds when you do something 100 times.
Now, rather than coin flips, let’s talk about decisions.
How many do you make each day? (Stand, sit, step, chew, inhale, what to wear, pee, business decisions, life decisions, etc., etc.)
Perhaps millions? Maybe billions?
And each of those decisions is influenced in your brain by such inputs as: Cortisol, Thyroid Hormones, Estrogen and Testosterone, Insulin. Melatonin, Serotonin, Dopamine. Ghrelin, Leptin, Alcohol, Caffeine, and Nicotine, along with physical exhaustion, thirst, hunger, odors, sound, touch, pain, temperature, disease, age, and all the other physical and psychological inputs.
And any one of those decisions could change your life.
Examples: What you say to your boss, to your child, to your wife, whether to drive or walk, the route you take, what to eat for breakfast, whether to get a haircut, scratch an itch, play a game, wash your hands — the list is almost endless — and every single decision you make is influenced by a whole multitude of influences on your brain.
Given the massive number of decisions you make and how much each can influence your life and future choices (there is a multiplying effect), how much “free will” do you think you really have?
Read these excerpts from a recent Scientific American Magazine article:
Research suggests a range of psychological phenomena—such as our emotional state, dietand exercise habits, sexual activity and even color preferences—fluctuate throughout the year.
And now a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA demonstrates how moral values can also shift.
If all those decisions are affected by simple seasonal changes, imagine how much your decision-making is affected by thousands or millions of other inputs your brain receives every minute of every day.
For the study, researchers analyzed more than 230,000 online survey responses—a decade’s worth—from people in the U.S., along with smaller groups in Canada and Australia.
That is a huge study.
The questions were based on a standardized framework social scientists use to assess people’s judgments of right and wrong.
This framework, called moral foundations theory, sets up a taxonomy of “five pretty fundamental values that shape human social behavior,” says lead author Ian Hohm, a psychology graduate student at the University of British Columbia.
Is it possible? Why did you try? Why didn’t you?
Keep those words in mind: “Shape human social behavior.”
The framework considers loyalty (devotion to one’s own group), authority (respect for leaders and rules), and purity (cleanliness and piety) to be “binding” values that promote group cohesion and conformity.
It’s doubtful that anyone could question whether these values affect your decision-making.
These principles, often associated with political conservatism, consistently received weaker endorsements in summer and winter.
And in summer, the more extreme the seasonal weather differences, the more pronounced the effect.
One explanation for seasonal swings could be anxiety.
Using a 90,000-respondent survey dataset, as well as data on Internet search frequencies, the researchers found that anxiety levels also peak in spring and fall.
“There is a close relationship between anxiety and threat,” says University of Nottingham psychologist and study co-author Brian O’Shea.
Other studies have shown that people who feel more vulnerable to seasonal illnesses tend to be more distrustful, more xenophobic and more likely to conform to majority opinion.
Again, these have a strong influence on your decisions and actions, It’s fascinating how even subtle changes in our environment can impactour judgments and behaviors. (No “free will” there.)
“When you’re threatened,” O’Shea explains, “you then want to get protection from your in-group.” These findings suggest seasonal timing could affect jury decisions, vaccination campaigns—and even election outcomes, the study authors say.
People in juries feel they are making “free will” decisions. I “feel” (but I knowbetter) that my many decisions to be vaccinated and my voting were the result of my “free will.”
But, of course, they were not.
They were heavily influenced by massive numbers of inputs to my brain each minute.
Howard University psychologist Ivory A. Toldson, whose work involves practical applications of statistics, notes that the study relies on data from “Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic (WEIRD)” populations and cautions that generalizing from such results runs the risk of “overlooking the unique moral experiences of marginalized groups.”
In other words, he says everyone’s experiences (brain inputs) are different, which affects their decisions differently.
Hohm agrees that such a pattern wouldn’t affect everyone the same way but emphasizes that the study highlights the seasons’ effect on human psychology.
“One thing that this article is showing is that we are very seasonal creatures,” says Georgetown University School of Medicine psychiatrist Norman Rosenthal, a leading expert on seasonal affective disorder who coined the term in the 1980s.
“The internal state definitely affects your behavior.”
It also shows us that “free will” does not exist. It is an illusion—a strong illusion—created by your brain to make sense of the gigantic number of inputs it continuously receives.
Even your decision to believe this, argue with this, or discuss it with someone is affected by every input your brain receives every minute of every day.
Have you ever said, “I didn’t feel like it, ” “I wasn’t in the mood, ” “It’s not worth the effort,” or “It’s too much hassle?”
That may have felt like free will, but it was the accumulation of inputs to your brain.
You do not control your brain; your brain controls you. You just don’t feel it because your brain doesn’t let you.
In “What is the Measure of Consciousness” and “Is A Rock Conscious?“ we take consciousness from its indescribable, unfindable, unscientific, mysterious, anthropomorphic foundations and move it to something that can be identified, measured, qualified, and quantified.
It allows us to move from seemingly simple questions that cannot be answered — “Is this conscious?”and if so, “How conscious?”— and provide a straightforward answer.
“It is conscious, and its consciousness can be determined and measured by its response to stimuli.
Since everything, from an electron to the universe responds to stimuli, everything is conscious, the measure being the quantity and quality of the stimuli and the responses.
In “Does Free Will Exist?” and “More about non-existent free will,” we remind the reader that the brain—what you think, believe, and do—is affected by chemicals and electrical signals.
So, we cannot claim free will when continually exposed to such chemicals as Cortisol, Thyroid Hormones, Estrogen and Testosterone, Insulin. Melatonin, Serotonin, Dopamine. Ghrelin, Leptin, Alcohol, Caffeine, and Nicotine, along with physical exhaustion, thirst, hunger, odors, sound, touch, pain, temperature, disease, age, and all the other physical and psychological inputs.
Where is free will? Nowhere.
You cannot know the current effects of all those inputs at any point in time, much less filter them out to arrive at purely “free will.”
The inescapable conclusion is that while, to some degree, everything is conscious, nothing has free will.
Yet they are intuitively related, sometimes in the reverse. That is, our intuition says that many things are not conscious and many things do have free will.
As the history of human thought, and specifically the recent Relativity and Quantum Mechanics theories, have taught us, our intuition is not reality.
Intuition works reasonably well when helping us survive in our limited lifestyles, but it is a complete bust when we try to discover the secrets of the universe.
Very few things are as they seem to us.
The stars, sun, and moon do not rotate around us. Nothing can exceed the speed of light, though entangled particles seem to do it.
When we go very fast, we age slower and lengthen, and very small things can be in two places simultaneously.
And if those weren’t weird enough, our mere observation can change reality.
There is a commonality among consciousness, free will, Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics. All involve intuition.
Intuition is that gut feeling or instinctive knowing without the need for conscious reasoning. It’s like a mental shortcut that helps you make decisions quickly.
Think of it as your brain drawing on past experiences, patterns, and subconscious cues to guide you, often without you even realizing it.
Historically, arguments about the existence of consciousness and free will have been based on “my intuition is better than your intuition,“ not on what we consider scientific reasoning.
The people who have told me that free will does exist are absolutely positive about this. Why? They feel they are free to make their own decisions.
However, they cannot know how chemicals and physical sensing impact their judgment and decision-making. They are like people who have never been away from home, arguing against the existence of homesickness. The brain cannot tell what effects have changed it.
They do not know what they cannot know.
No brain can process all available information, so brains take shortcuts and make assumptions. The brain survives by filling the sensory blanks with illusions.
The brain cannot process its inner workings. It receives electronic inputs related to light, sound, and touch. It creates illusions about what those inputs mean, then sends signals to itself and other parts of the body based on interpretations of the illusions.
We name that translation “consciousness.”
The problem occurs when you get to specifics.
Question: Is a bee conscious?
AI Answer: Consciousness involves awareness of oneself and the environment. While bees exhibit complex behaviors and communication skills, whether they possess consciousness similar to humans is still debated. They operate on instinct and learned behaviors but don’t seem to have self-awareness.
The industrious insects can count and alter their behavior when things seem difficult, and now some scientists say there’s proof they also like to play. A study recently published in Animal Behavior suggests that bumblebees, when given the chance, like to fool around with toys.
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London conducted an experiment in which they set up a container that allowed bees to travel from their nest to a feeding area. But along the way, the bees could opt topass through a separate section with a smattering of small wooden balls. Over 18 days, the scientists watched as the bees “went out of their way to roll wooden balls repeatedly, despite no apparent incentive to do so.”
The study’s first author, Samadi Galpayage, at Queen Mary University of London, added that it is yet more evidence that insects may be capable of experiencing feelings.
“They may actually experience some kind of positive emotional states, even if rudimentary like other larger animals do.
The finding suggests that insects, like humans, interact with inanimate objects as a form of play. Similar to people, younger bees seemed to be more playful than adult bees.
We do not know which thousands of stimuli affect our feelings, beliefs, decisions, and actions at any given moment.
SUMMARY
While people may equate free will with consciousness, the two are mutually exclusive.
The measure of consciousness is reaction to stimuli, but reacting to stimuli eliminates freedom of will.
If reactions to stimuli define and measure consciousness, then everything that reacts is conscious on some level.
And if “free will” means being unaffected by external and internal influences, it cannot exist. Nothing is immune to inputs.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
PS As I was writing this, I became very drowsy and was going to quit. Hey, I’m nearly 90 years old.
But I drank a can of Celsius, which contains lots of “B” vitamins, plus the equivalent of two cups of coffee. All those chemicals made my drowsiness evaporate, so I’m able to finish this post.
One might argue that my “free will” let me continue, but that doesn’t consider all the other things going on in my body — all the medicines, breakfast foods, temperature, the comfort of my chair, etc. — that made me keep writing.
Free will is a placebo, an illusion, though a pretty strong one.
Monetary Sovereignty
In the post “Does Free Will Exist?” we argue that it does not exist and is nothing but an illusion.
Free will is a philosophical and scientific concept that refers to the ability to choose between different possible courses of action. It implies that humans can act independently of any prior event, state of the universe, or outside influence.
Free will is often contrasted with determinism, the view that human actions are predetermined by natural laws or causal factors. Free will is a logically impossible illusion.
If you believe “free will” exists, try this experiment: Ask someone with autism to stop spinning, hand-flapping, and all the other stemming they do. Assuming they would like to stop and indeed do stop, this might come closer to demonstrating free will.
But my guess is that this simple “cure” for autism won’t work, and the people will demonstrate they don’t have free will.
The counter-argument might be that they have free will for some things, and others are beyond their ability to stop — sort of a partial free will.
But I claim free will does not exist in any form, not even a little. Everything we think of as “free will” is our brain giving us orders based on chemicals and neuron communications.
I recognize that proving free will exists is difficult because it’s hard to prove that chemicals and electrical communications do not cause any specific thought.
But I keep seeing evidence free-will doesn’t exist.
Ever since the first human heart transplants back in 1967, patients have reported, often reluctantly, some eerie and inexplicable changes to their personalities.
Following surgery, some say they feel less like themselves and more like their donor.For instance, one transplant recipient in the 1990s reported suddenly developing a love for music after receiving the heart of a young male musician.
“I could never play before, but after my transplant, I began to love music. I felt it in my heart,” she told scientists in a paper published in 2000.
Other transplant recipients say they developed new tastes for food, art, sex, or careersfollowing their surgeries.
Some even claim to have new “memories”implanted.
A 56-year-old college professor received the heart of a police officer killed by a gunshot to the face. After the transplant, the recipient said they had dreams of “a flash of light right in my face… Just before that time, I would get a glimpse of Jesus.” “That’s exactly how Carl died,” the donor’s wife told researchers. She said the main suspect looks “sort of like some of the pictures of Jesus.”
An online survey among 23 heart recipients and 24 other organ recipients found nearly 90 percent experienced personality changes after transplant surgery, no matter the organ they received.
Most of these changes had to do with temperament, emotions, food, identity, religious/spiritual beliefs, or memories.
Brian Carter and his colleagues at CU conclude that “heart transplant recipients may not be unique in their experience of personality changes following transplantation.”
Instead, they argue that “such changes may occur following the transplantation of any organ” and that this demands further research.
Liver or kidney transplant patients in previous studies tend to report changing feelings of stress, anxiety, depression, or other mental health issues.
The “systemic memory hypothesis” predicts that all living cells possess “memory”, and that a transplant recipient can sense a donor’s history through their tissue.
Although a transplant organ’s nerve connections are severed, nerves may still function within the organ. Some evidence suggests nerve connections may be partially restored a year after transplant surgery.
Neurotransmitter interactions based on donor memories might then cause a physiological response to the recipient’s nervous system that impacts their personality.
The study was published in Transplantology.
The study is too small to be definitive, but when added to other facts, it does seem to support the absence of free will.
As we age, the brain undergoes synaptic pruning—which essentially “cleans house” by removing less-used neural connections. This process is influenced by several factors:
The brain tends to keep the neural pathways that are frequently used and eliminate those that are rarely activated. By pruning unused connections, the brain can function more efficiently, allowing it to process information quicker and more effectively.
Genetic factors play a role in how and when this pruning occurs. Exposure to new experiences, learning, and mental stimulation can impact which connections are maintained and or pruned.
Essentially, the brain optimizes itself based on our behaviors and experiences, and none of this is under our will or control. It happens without our knowledge.
A child’s brain changes second by second in structure and in the chemical and electrical inputs it receives. These chemicals and inputs continuously change the child’s desires and beliefs.
We all know that what a child thinks today will change tomorrow and every day after that.
We know that a 5-year-old doesn’t have the judgment of a 30-year-old, and let’s not even talk about teenage judgment.
Input and structure, neither of which are under our intentional control, guide our thoughts and actions. Yet some people claim we have “free will.”
How can we have free will if our brains and our inputs keep changing, unintentionally and unbeknown to us?
There can be no argument that drugs not only affect the brain and the body; for many drugs, that is their very purpose.
Antidepressants can help improve mood and reduce symptoms of depression, but they can also cause side effects like changes in sleeppatterns, appetite, and energy levels.
Antipsychotics treat conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and can affect thinking and behavior, sometimes causing drowsiness or changes in personality.
Stimulants: Drugs like caffeine, nicotine, and prescription medications for ADHD can increase alertness and energy but may also lead to anxiety or irritability.
Benzodiazepines: Often prescribed for anxiety, these can have a calming effect but may also cause drowsiness and changes in mood or behavior.
Opioids: Used for pain relief, these can affect mood and behavior, sometimes leading to euphoria or, conversely, depression and anxiety.
Additionally, our thinking is affected by natural chemicals, which are unique to each person. Dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, glutamate, and gamma-aminobutyric acid all affect thinking, feeling, and acting.
Then we have hormones like testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, and oxytocin, the combination of which can dramatically affect what we think, feel, want, believe, and do.
The question, “What is consciousness?” has been called a “hard problem” because consciousness is difficult to identify, define,measure, categorize, and locate in the brain.
Some people use the word “awareness,” thinking they have answered the question, but awareness is just a synonym that merely shifts the question to “What is awareness.”
For centuries, philosophers and physical scientists have debated the possible consciousness of entities such as a sleeping person, an “unconscious” person, a dog, a fish, a bee, a tree, a flower, a bacterium, an electron, a rock, the earth, the universe, a fire, etc.
Some claim consciousness only occurs in a brain or nerves, definitions that omit the awareness of trees to pathogens, and the signals trees give and receive when attacked by diseases, bugs, and even humans.
I suggest that if we argue about something, we at least should be able to identify the thing we’re arguing about, and not give it a vague, non-specific, moving-target identity, that will cause further confusion.
Free will
In previous posts — Is A Rock Conscious, What is the Measure of Consciousness? and Be more creative and exercise your brain by working the so-called “hard problems,” — we describe consciousness as the perception of, and the reaction to, stimuli.Everything perceives and reacts to stimuli, and this perception and reaction can be measured. No mystical, magical, “my-intuition-is-better-than-your-ition” silliness.
It’s perception and reaction. They are simple, straightforward, measurable, and comparable among entities.
It’s a definition that allows for discussions about which entities have more consciousness than others, without resorting to the mysticism of the unknowable.
And that brings us to “What is free will.”
It’s become an even harder problem than “What is consciousness” because while consciousness exists,free will doesn’t.
“Free will” is defined as “the ability to act at one’s own discretion,” but “discretion” needs a definition.
I suggest that when people claim they have free will or act at their own discretion, they mean that their discretion is independent of any physical, chemical, or electrical stimulus and is a product of pure reason.
If you have a better definition of free will, please let me know what it is.
Meanwhile, I suggest that free will is an illusion.It does not exist.
You are not the master of your brain. Your brain is the master of you, and its operation is based on its chemistry, electricity, and structure.
That is how you make your choices. Don’t think your choices are made by some mysterious inner voice that somehow is not connected to the cells and chemicals in your brain.
Test your opinion against these thoughts:
1. Does a drunk have “free will”? No, because the artificial chemicals in his brain make him alter his behavior.
2. Does an obese person have difficulty losing weight even when they want to? Yes, the natural chemicals in his cells make him eat more or what he knows he shouldn’t.” Free will?
3. Can fear change your brain chemistry and make you shake, make yourheart pump, and make youforget what you wanted to say? Free will?
I try and try, but I just can’t get to sleep.
4. Have you ever experienced a so-called “earworm,” a song that makes youkeep humming it, even when you would like to forget it. Free will?
5. Is it free will that makes youtoss and turn and stay awake when you are worrying but desperately want to sleep? Free will?
6. Addiction and substance dependence hijacks the brain’s reward system and makes you demand more and more. Free will?
7. Phobias: Irrational fears control your behavior, making you do things you otherwise wouldn’t do. Free will?
8. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Compulsions make you do things beyond your control. Free will?
15, Medication Side Effects: Drugs can alter mood and behavior, impacting decisions. Free will?
Free will? “Yes master,”
16. Social Conditioning: Lifelong habits and beliefs formed by society influence choices. Free will?
In each case I have bolded words (“make,” “involuntary, “cause,” “overpower,” “impact,” “affect,” “disrupt,” “alter,” and “influence”) to indicate changes of your decisions and your actions against your free will.
These examples illustrate how brain chemistry and external factors often override what we perceive as free will.
Stop for a moment and try to think about all your decisions, actions, preferences and beliefs that are based strictly on your free will, and not in opposition.
How often have you used words indicating your lack of free will? I couldn’t help myself getting angry. I simply had to eat that cake. I knewit was dumb to buy that dress, but I did it anyway.
Your decision-making is not based on magic. It is based on the chemicals, electrical signals, and physical structureof your brain. If you are smart, you will make better decisions than if you are not. But what makes you bright?
As you age from newborn to child, teenager to adult, and elderly, you’re still the same human being, and you still feel you have free will. But your brain chemistry and structure change, along with your experiences and your desires.
In old age, why do you look back and think of the stupid things you did as a teenager? Why did you do them? Your desires were affected by your brain’s chemicals, electrical signals and physical structure, all of which change daily.
The phrase, “I don’t feel like it, today” — we all have said it on occasion — but why don’t we feel like it today, but did feel like it yesterday? Perhaps it’s your hormones that are making decisions for you:
Cortisol is released in response to stress. Prolonged high levels can lead to memory issues and mooddisorders.
Thyroid Hormones are vital for brain development and function. They regulate metabolism and are crucial for cognitive processes..
Estrogen and Testosterone influence brain regions involved in learning, memory, sexual behaviors, and emotion processing.
Melatonin regulates the sleep-wakecycle and is important for maintaining circadian rhythms
Serotonin plays a key role in mood regulation, sleep, and appetite.
Dopamine is involved in reward, motivation, and motor control. Imbalances can be linked to schizophrenia.
Ghrelin and Leptin regulate hunger and satiety, influencing eating behaviors and energy balance
I know this is stupid, but . . .
Any changes in any of these hormones and you will think and act differently?
See:Hormones Affect Our Physiology and BehaviorParents often blame their teenager’s unpredictable behavior on hormones, but those molecules play a crucial role in the brain. Neurons can quickly deliver the brain’s messages to precise targets in the body. Hormones, on the other hand, deliver messages more slowly but can affect a larger set of tissues, producing large-scale changes in metabolism, growth, and behavior.The brain is one of the tissues that “listens” for hormonal signals — neurons throughout the brain are studded with hormone receptors — and the brain’s responses play an important part in regulating hormone secretion and changing behaviors to keep body systems in equilibrium.
Have you ever heard the term amygdala hijack“?
Psychologist Daniel Goleman first used the term “amygdala hijacking” in his 1995 book “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.”
It refers to situations wherein the amygdala hijacks control of a person’s ability to respond rationally to a threat. This leads to the person reacting in an intense, emotional way that may be disproportionate to the situation.
Without the ability to use their frontal lobes, people are unable to think clearly, and they are not in control of their responses.
The amygdala triggers the release of hormones as part of the fight-or-flight reaction to a threat.
Fight-or-flight response
Amygdala hijack takes place when the structure triggers the fight-or-flight reaction when it is not warranted. The person is then unable to come to their own rational conclusionabout how to react.
The amygdala causes the adrenal glands to release the hormones adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline causes the air passages in the body to dilate. This allows the body to supply more oxygen than usual to the muscles.
This hormone also causes the blood vessels to contract, allowing the body to redirect blood to the major muscle groups, including the heart and lungs.
The release of adrenaline also causes the pupils to dilate, thereby enhancing a person’s vision.
During the fight-or-flight response process, the body also increases its blood sugar levels in order to increase energy levels.
All of these reactions allow a person to fight the danger more effectively or to flee from it if necessary.
During amygdala hijack, a person may react in a way that they could regret later. This may include being aggressive, argumentative, or violentin a manner that is dramatically out of proportion to the situation.
When I attend a scary movie, and a monster leaps into a close-up, I involuntarily jump and my heart races. When I view a sex scene, I may be aroused. A chase scene might make my heart beat faster. A sad scene might depress me. All of this is automatic and involuntary.
Do you still think you have Free Will?
Monetary SovereigntyTwitter: @rodgermitchellSearch #monetarysovereigntyFacebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell;MUCK RACK: https://muckrack.com/rodger-malcolm-mitchell; https://www.academia.edu/
……………………………………………………………………..
The Sole Purpose of Government Is to Improve and Protect the Lives of the People.
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 