choice

index

v.2 (see version history) called from A1-BeingHeard.php#A1_intro (to e_Choice.php#ButterflyEffect), and from A2-Content.php#A2-Intro.

choice

Schopenhauer's words: 'Man can certainly do what he wants but he cannot will what he wants', accompany me in all life's situations and reconcile me with people's actions even if they are rather painful to me. This understanding, of the lack of free will, protects me from taking myself and my fellow human beings too seriously as acting and judging individuals, and from losing my good sense of humor.

Einstein credited his insight to Schopenhauer, but Schopenhauer only seems to have referred to interest and motivation not free-will:

As little as a ball on a billiard table can move before receiving an impact, so little can a man get up from his chair before being drawn or driven by a motive. But then his getting up is as necessary and inevitable as the rolling of a ball after the impact. And to expect that anyone will do something to which absolutely no interest impels them is the same as to expect that a piece of wood shall move toward me without being pulled by a string.

It is true that we cannot choose to want something other than what we want in the same instant that we discover we want it, but we can, within limits, choose to change our behaviours, and so to change our habits, our PERCEPTION and our wants. Such change is an everyday reality. Whatever we choose, our wants inevitably change over time; and so we can then also choose to change them.

A CHOICE precipitates a cascade of events, a process of systemic feedback that either reinforces or changes our tastes and PERCEPTION. Over time these changes coextend with changes in our wants.

Whether or not there is free-will, we must choose whenever we can.

The natural laws of cause and effect constrain us, yet we are not simply bundles of elementary particles that the Big Bang scattered inescapably down their paths like packs of snooker balls.

Given the state of a system at some time, the laws of nature determine the probabilities of various futures and pasts, rather than determining the future and past with certainty.

Lorenz discovered that systems of all kinds exhibit 'deterministic chaos'. At any point in time, the smallest 'unobserved' change in them gives rise to an unpredictability in their behaviours that grows exponentially.

..formally deterministic fluid systems .. are observationally indistinguishable from indeterministic systems; .. two states of the system differing initially by a small "observational error" will evolve into two states differing as greatly as randomly chosen states of the system within a finite time interval which cannot be lengthened by reducing the amplitude of the initial error...

Deterministic chaos, commonly referred to as the Butterfly Effect, is popularly illustrated by the example of a butterfly flapping its wings. This causes small changes in air movements, altering, for instance, the initial conditions of a weather system, that weeks or months later results in a storm thousands of miles away.

Although Lorenz discovered deterministic chaos through his studies of meteorological systems, the Kyoto Prize, awarded to him in 1991, praised it as:

..a principle that has profoundly influenced a wide range of basic sciences and brought about one of the most dramatic changes in mankind's view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton.

By limiting predictability, it is the probabilistic laws of nature that have made CHOICE a fundamental and inescapable requirement for life. Independently of the impact of chance, for us too it contributes significantly to our development of adaptability, viability, and sustainability.

Information technology has mainlined the paradigm of 'hard determinism' as simple scientific fact, and with it the fatalism of inevitability. But despite this virulent verbal narcosis, and the sense of hopeless impotence that flows from its self-fulfilling prophecies, our behaviours remain EXPRESSIONS of choice, the roles we play subjective and variable, products of PERCEPTION as much as of fate. What we tell ourselves, perhaps especially now, is central to our future.

... words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind. Not only do words infect, egotize, narcotize, and paralyse, but they enter into and colour the minutest cells of the brain.

from: 'My credo', a speech given by Albert Einstein to the German League of Human Rights, Berlin 1932.

from Chapter III of 'On the freedom of the will', Arthur Schopenhauer, 1839.

Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, on quantum physics, in "The Grand Design", 2010.

This PopNote in e_Choice.php is a Freeman Dyson quote, plus an include of n_semioticLife.php (a Hoffmeyer quote).

For the biologists, every step down in size was a step toward increasingly simple and mechanical behavior. A bacterium is more mechanical than a frog, and a DNA molecule is more mechanical than a bacterium. But twentieth-century physics has shown that further reductions in size have an opposite effect. If we divide a DNA molecule into its component atoms, the atoms behave less mechanically than the molecule... If we divide an atom into nucleus and electrons, the electrons are less mechanical than the atom. .. all physicists agree with the experimental facts which make it hopeless to look for a description independent of the mode of observation... The laws of subatomic physics cannot even be formulated without some reference to the observer. "Chance" cannot be defined except as a measure of the observer's ignorance of the future. The laws leave a place for mind in the description of every molecule.

..unlike non-living processes, the categorization of substances through processes of molecular recognition, as exhibited e.g. at the level of bacterial chemotaxis, already realizes the split between objects and properties. In many cases, several different compounds may serve exactly the same functional end implying that the process is fallible (while it makes little sense, by contrast, to conceive of pre-living processes as fallible) - in the sense that certain other compounds recognized and "approved" by the bacteria may nevertheless fail to support survival. E. coli is able to swim upstream in a sugar gradient due to its ability to recognize a range of carbohydrates (objects) from the partial shape of the perimeter of the molecules (properties) and, for the same reason, they will be deceived by artificial sweeteners with the same partial shape property, just like human beings will be so deceived. Molecular recognition may fail, leading the organism to accept irrelevant or even poisonous substances, a failure which is objectively measured through its consequences for survival.

from: "The Great Chain of Semiosis. Investigating the Steps in the Evolution of Semiotic Competence." p.8, Jesper Hoffmeyer & Frederik Stjernfelt, September 2015, Biosemiotics 9(1) DOI:10.1007/s12304-015-9247-y (Emphasis added).

From: "Disturbing the Universe." by Freeman Dyson. Harper & Row, 1979, p.246-249. "Freeman Dyson FRS (1923-2020) was a British-American theoretical physicist and mathematician known for his works in quantum field theory, astrophysics, random matrices, mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics, condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, and engineering. He was professor emeritus in the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and a member of the board of sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Rudyard Kipling; in a speech to the Royal College of Surgeons, London, 1923.

From the abstract of: The predictability of a flow which possesses many scales of motion by Edward N. Lorenz. First published: June 1969, Tellus, Volume 21, Issue 3, p.289-307:

It is proposed that certain formally deterministic fluid systems which possess many scales of motion are observationally indistinguishable from indeterministic systems; specifically, that two states of the system differing initially by a small "observational error" will evolve into two states differing as greatly as randomly chosen states of the system within a finite time interval, which cannot be lengthened by reducing the amplitude of the initial error. ... It is found that each scale of motion possesses an intrinsic finite range of predictability, provided that the total energy of the system does not fall off too rapidly with decreasing wave length.

The Kyoto Prize managed by Inamori Foundation is an international award that we would like to contribute to the progress and development of human being by endowment of the persons who made significant contribution to the progress of science, advancement of the civilization, and enrichment and elevation of the human spirit.

A description of the goals of the Kyoto Prize, provided via its website. A more english but perhaps less beautiful, less precise description of these is given on Wikipedia.

Description retrieved on 9/4 2024 from a DuckDuckGo search that was displaying the meta content property description of an index page on the Kyoto Prize's website.

biophysicality

If we accept that all descriptions of the ineffable are unavoidably metaphorical, and if creationist and anthropocentric teleologies and their concepts of the soul are set aside, then BEINGS can be defined simply as 'vehicles' of life and LIFE inferred recursively.

BEINGS, rather than merely 'wet' physical entities, are BIOPHYSICAL EXPRESSIONS organized and animated by the interpretations their BIOSEMIOTIC systems make of their external and internal environments.

Any psychological construct, to exist, must have a BIOPHYSICAL correlate To survive, every BIOPHYSICAL construct requires a psychological correlate. Psychology, in actuality, is a study of METABIOPHYSICAL expression.

Those attributes of BIOSEMIOTIC systems, which in humans are referred to as awareness, consciousness, EGO and mind, are PERCEPTIONS, generated from the information that the SENSES of a BEING provide of NOUMENA that it encounters — in the same way as the PERCEPTION of colour is.

wellness

In an individual, the development of wellness and illness is a function of the interaction between their BIOPHYSICAL actuality and their environment. It is this system as a whole that is impacted by any medical or psychological interventions, and any social support and care, that the individual receives or is privated of.

Research into cancer and other diseases has long since identified the existence and primacy of METABIOPHYSICAL systems, and the need to address these as a whole; however, despite the work of the WHO modern societies and their BROADCASTING systems appear obdurate, discounting 'holism' and instead promoting increasingly reductionist models.

MEANING, is that which a BEING PERCEIVES of the EXPRESSION of a . It is inherited, encoded and developed through the reference-frame of the individual's ONTOGENY. Different reference-frames then inevitably arise.

Those BEINGS less able to recognize and reconcile differing reference-frames are at greater risk in social groups of being misinformed and deceived.

Whether or not there is free-will, we choose whenever we can.

Ultimately, short term success is an insufficient guide for future action. Locusts are successful but find themselves unable to escape developing from their peaceful co-existance as individuals into the cannibalistic wars of their swarms.

virtuality refers to abstractions of actuality that pre-process EXPERIENCE.

We recognize what we see; this is our PERCEPTION, inherited and learnt from EXPERIENCE.

Seeing what we expect to see we then construct and integrate accordingly the data that our eyes and other senses are capable of registering.

The term BEINGS, applies here to all forms of LIFE, whether multicellular (humans, ants, plants, etc.); unicellular (bacteria, archaea, algae, etc.); or the MODULAR societies of slime molds, jellyfish, ants, humans, deer, etc.

BIOSEMIOSIS is the recursive process of RECOGNITION through which every BEING generates MEANING by aligning its PERCEPTION of current EXPERIENCE with those previously EMBODIED in itself, or externally, either by itself or through inheritance. ENDOSEMIOSIS and EXOSEMIOSIS then refer, respectively, to the RECOGNITION of internal and external NOUMENA.

EMBODIMENT here then refers both to the biophysical EXPRESSION of BIOSEMIOSIS and the semiosis that biophysical EXPRESSION represents. In this, embodied and extended cognition are descriptions of BIOSEMIOSIS.

While seeming to vary considerably from those used elsewhere, the definitions here are inclusive.

A metatransition is a metasystem transition to EITHER a more complex OR a simpler structure, ultimately leading to a transitory OR a permanent evolutionary transition in individuality.

NB. The labels, 'more complex', 'simpler', 'transitory' and 'permanent', here refer to relative positions on subjectively defined axis, not to any objective measure.

Here, metasystem refers to a general, rather than to a restricted, controlling or organizational system which maintains the homeostasis necessary for the functioning of a system and its subsystems.

functioning, disability and health

First drafted by the WHO in 1980, the International Classification of Functioning (the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health), is an holistic overview of wellness and illness. Despite its publication, and the fact that today biopsychosocial models are taught in medical schools, the significance and impact on social organization and its institutions of these models might appear to citizens to have been relatively minimal — perhaps because of the powerful lobbies that work to promote a fundamentalist belief in scientific reductionism.

After nine years of international revision efforts coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Health Assembly on May 22, 2001, approved the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health and its abbreviation of "ICF." This classification was first created in 1980 ... by WHO to provide a unifying framework for classifying the consequences of disease. ... Functioning and disability are viewed as a complex interaction between the health condition of the individual and the contextual factors of the environment as well as personal factors. The picture produced by this combination of factors and dimensions is of "the person in his or her world." The classification treats these dimensions as interactive and dynamic rather than linear or static. It allows for an assessment of the degree of disability, although it is not a measurement instrument. It is applicable to all people, whatever their health condition. The language of the ICF is neutral as to etiology, placing the emphasis on function rather than condition or disease. It also is carefully designed to be relevant across cultures as well as age groups and genders, making it highly appropriate for heterogeneous populations.

Human beings are spatially and temporally limited parts of the whole that we call "universe"; yet we experience ourselves and our feelings as separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness.

footnotes of n_Einstein_Translation.php included in entryNote.php, e_Einstein_HumanDelusion.php, and e_personalMeta.php.

my translation

Ein Mensch ist ein räumlich und zeitlich beschränktes Stück des Ganzen, was wir „Universum“ nennen. Er erlebt sich und sein Fühlen als abgetrennt gegenüber dem Rest, eine optische Täuschung seines Bewusstseins. Das Streben nach Befreiung von dieser Täuschung ist der einzige Gegenstand wirklicher Religion. Nicht das Nähren der Illusion sondern nur ihre Überwindung gibt uns das erreichbare Maß inneren Friedens. Albert Einstein, 1950.

Einstein wrote the above words, in ink (bold emphasis added), in a note now held in the Albert Einstein Archives, Jerusalem. The translation I have made of them, and quoted from, is made in light of the translation that appears underneath them on the note and written in another hand.

There seem to me several reasons to make another translation: to reflect the gender neutrality of the German more consistently; to echo Einstein's use of both the word delusion and illusion; and to better reflect the certitude of the note's opening argument — carried in the brevity of the original German yet somehow stunted in the translation on the note itself in English.

The translation I offer here then, supported by translations by Google on 6 March 2024, is based on that written in pencil on the original note:—

Human beings are spatially and temporally limited parts of the whole that we call "universe"; yet we experience ourselves and our feelings as separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of our consciousness. The striving to be free of this delusion is the only object of real religion. It is not nurturing the illusion but only overcoming it which gives that measure of inner peace which is attainable. Albert Einstein, 1950.

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us "Universe", a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of pure religion, not to nourish the delusion but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.

This translation, in pencil on the original note, became the text of the condolence letter sent from Einstein to Dr. Marcus on 12 February 1950. The first two sentences of it were then used to open the letter of condolence sent on the 4 March 1950 to Norman Salt.

delusions and illusions

Einstein spoke the refined German of the Bildungsbürgertum, a language characterized by its precision. It might the be reasonable to assume, as an inspection of Einstein's note also suggests, that his use of the word Täuschung (delusion) twice and Illusion once, was considered not careless.

The German word Täuschung in the original note, meaning 'delusion'.

Etymologically the word delusion implies an action, a deceiving, referring here to that suffered by human beings through our consciousness, through which we perceive a deceptive appearance, the illusion of being "separated from the rest".

Technically, delusion is a belief that, though false, has been surrendered to and accepted by the whole mind as a truth; illusion is an impression that, though false, is entertained on the recommendation of the senses or the imagination. Illusion (n.), developed in Church Latin from the late 14c. onwards to mean: a "deceptive appearance".

On delusion, and illusion; from the Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved: 4 October 2022.

Although I believe the translations that I have found are faithful, quotations, stripped of their context can lose much of their quality. Transliteration of punctuation, for instance, can result in an English that makes their authors sound coarse or uneducated; and 'grammatical transliterations' may substitute gender bias for the gender neutrality of an original.

Where I have edited translations it has been only in order to address issues of punctuation, prosody, and inference that I felt detracted from the content of the originals. The edits have been made with due diligence and, although I am not a professional translator or writer, I believe they are both faithful, and required to make the fluency, erudition, and sensibility of the originals explicit. Original texts are provided for readers to draw their own conclusions.

Footnote {delusion01a} of n_Einstein_Translation.php.

..as free-spirited and anti-bourgeois as Einstein may have appeared to be all his life, his language remained the refined German of the Bildungsbürgertum of his time, a language he mastered with virtuosity.

from a 2008 essay by Barbara Wolff, Albert Einstein Archives, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.