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Free Will

Ofcourse there is no such thing as free will. It just so happened that was reading Robert Sapolsky's Determined when I also tuned into this podcast while driving. I had not particularly sought out the book or the podcast. The later was quite entertaining and it kept be company for the entire trip. The book I found fairly tedious reading. It reads like Sapolsky's notes and rants collated over time processed rather hastily into a book. The number of pages is definitely not warranted. 

The point he is trying to make was clear quite early. The reader will choose to agree or disagree as is their right. So what should an author who is intent on proving free will is a myth do at that point? Cite authorities who share his point of view, dismantle the arguments of those that disagree. He does all that but that is where tedium begins. There is a point to the book, in the pile of raw notes there is content that could have been shaped to make that point with more elan. Maybe Sapolsky lumps his readers in the same bucket as his students who have absorb the material in whatever style he chooses to deliver it. Us readers, unlike his students have a choice - we can move on to other books and other things in life. We are not beholden like they are. I wish Sapolsky had tried a tad harder on behalf of the reader. 

Ironically, a few dozen pages in I recalled a story my mother told told me about the questions Yudhishthira was asked by Yama and how he responded to each of them. The precision of the responses made a lasting impression on me - that is probably why such things are taught to kids when they are still young. When I thought back about the questions and answers in later years, it clarified that whole point was establishing a framework. It does not mater nature or nurture (the simplified version of what Sapolsky is describing the reasons why a person cannot have free will), the framework is universally applicable and it helps people do more right than wrong in their lives no matter their disposition, the impossibility of exercising free-will. This is how things can stay in balance.

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