Robert Sapolsky sums up that we do not have ‘free will’ because our actions resulted from prior causes, which themselves resulted from prior causes, which….., corollary with the answer Einstein got over a question on how the Earth is balanced – Turtles all the way down (a seamless chain of causality stretching back in time), and uses a very sensible way of explaining ‘no free will’ on a large and small scale connecting both in the same instance. He leads us through this causal chain of events that goes back to seconds (caused by neurons firing), to minutes (caused by a thought, memory, emotion, or sensory stimulus), hours to days (hormones), to months (long-term experiences, e.g. depression), to years and decades (e.g. childhood, genetics), and centuries (the culture of ancestors).
Sapolsky duly argues that the activity of brain precedes conscious awareness of actions and introduces us to some reliable episodes in the first few chapters. His central point is that “we are nothing more or less than the cumulative biological and environmental luck, over which we had no control”.
This book is both about the science of why there is no free will (if you do not agree that there is no free will, at first instance) and the science of how we might best live once we accept that. Science, of course, is relevant; but that does not make free will a scientific question. It occurred to me that slavery, not on anyone's will and which has been rampant through ages is morally wrong beyond doubt.
The empirical facts about slavery are relevant, but this does not make the issue of the moral justifiability of slavery a logical question. How we should adjust our attitudes and behavior in light of a belief in determinism, if we were to acquire such a belief, is definitely not a scientific question. Much of the book is devoted to establishing that our behavior (choices/formations of intentions and actions) is determined in this sense, and thus not free. Sapolsky holds that this implies we cannot legitimately be held morally responsible for it!
Sapolsky concludes: “You cannot decide all the sensory stimuli in your environment, (Quantum effects) your hormone levels this morning (depending on the available chemicals inside you), whether something traumatic happened to you in the past (not in your control), the socioeconomic status of your parents (almost all can recount this fact), your fetal environment (no choice), your genes (again), whether your ancestors were farmers or herders - we are nothing more or less than the cumulative biological and environmental luck, over which we had no control, that has brought us to any moment”.
Here is the unit-wise abstract covered in 15 chapters albeit with a lot of foot-notes and elaborate appendix, that is not included here.
# The introductory chapter is well begun with the goal being “there is no free will” and those who do not believe in that being proved wrong. Due to the cumulative biological and environmental luck a society often holds people morally responsible for the actions every individual denies and this is attributed to the neuron which functions with a causeless cause.
# Slowly moving up to ‘consciousness’ that is often the unsolved mystery
with the neuroscientists on where it is stored, this author calls it an
‘irrelevant hiccup’. This is where our matter meets the energy of the Universe.
# The intention to shoot is crime and how missing a shot absolves the shooter of the crime is considered as something not in our control. Thus if the shooter can press the button for shooting, it is triggered by the molecule in the brain which connects the matter around us to the consciousness part of our existence. For such a task to be taken up the hormone glucocorticoids mobilises energy from the cell and the hippocampus raises the levels of these to execute it.
# The actual work of the author is probably described in this unit where it was interesting to learn that the ‘frontal cortex’ is the last part of the brain to develop – and is least shaped by genes and most helped by environment! That is why some mature slowly and hence childhood environment is held essential for the development of a person including the way he develops in the womb.
# The process in Pre-Frontal Cortex is held responsible for the analyzing skills a person might develop. Doing the right thing when it is the hardest improves cognition and based on these, humans can evolve out what is right and what is not. An example that is quoted is the mention of ‘months’ in order. After September, October follows but with a mention of August the brain can try to correct the process and might go on to account for the change in actual 'value'. It is here the value of dopamine comes to the fore and craves for something new or novel. This process is adequate during adulthood.
# The influence of chaos on us is then narrated as predictability over time. An example is how the “Moon influences the Sun”, which actually means that “Earth influences how the Moon influences the Sun on Earth”! This part of the book has elaborate mazes and puzzles that would warrant a skip if one is not interested in probing them. I did skip.
# After the rendition of chaos, the relationship between it and 'free will' is accounted next. Indeterminism of Chaos means that although it does not help you prove that there is free will, it lets you prove that you cannot prove that there is not! Even if Chaoticism is unpredictable it is still deterministic.
# The outcome of these is considered “Emergent complexity”. A waterfall maintains constant emergent features over time despite no water molecule participates in the waterfall-ness more than once. Here the author uses few more examples like Slime mould experimentation, Snow flake construction, branching capillary leaf, diffusion-based geometry etc. Somehow the Pareto distribution principle is discussed (the 80-20 rule). But an interesting part in this chapter was that most proteins in our bodies are specialists interacting only with the handful of other proteins forming small functional units. This is important as we do not supply interacting ‘chemicals’ for these interactions resulting in deficiency of essential chemicals in the body and subsequent malfunctioning.
# The isomerism, a functional one that is often described in chemistry is best depicted here (keto-enol tautomerism). While the ‘enol’ form of the hormone may lead to estrogen production the ‘keto’ form leads to testosterone and thus a small flip between these isomers (of the order of 100000 flips per second) might result in the birth of a girl or a boy!
# Quantum Indeterminacy is explained with ample examples including Brownian Motion of the molecules in solution. These particles bumping around randomly may interact and lead to quantum entanglement or non-locality or wave-function collapse or even QM tunneling. It was tough to account why the author says this here, but wave-particle duality could come in handy if one is aware of this – the outcome that is unpredictable.
# If free will is random, then believing in religious person to be spiritual is left to one’s choice because a religion is organized over several years and gets refined over time so that spirituality has no connection whatsoever as it may be found in normal persons as well (how did he get that? No free will). Quantum healing by an Indian author and other similar books get mentions here. The author randomly choses several facts pertaining to the body functionality to prove this. Tubulin with 445 amino acids with a good number of atoms in this molecule plays a vital role in the hippocampus where one can find several synapses and the law of numbers cannot account for the quantum bubbling that happens there.
# If free will is a myth, our actions are the mere amoral outcome of biological luck for which we are not responsible. Then why not run amok? There is random mention about DNA, ECG or EEG and the number of countries where people do not believe in God is related with spiritual thoughts. Religious pro-sociality is mostly about religious people being nice to people like themselves! From micro to macro.
# The biology underlying your change in behaviour is the same as when a sea slug learns to avoid a shock administered by a researcher. Some correlations with the negative feelings and human reflexes are correlated here with those of animals’ behaviour. This follows an elaborate discussion related to the experimental animal Aplysia whose functionality with a siphon system is sketched out with lots of figures, some including sensors. Suddenly there is Donald Trump’s quote on Mexicans!
# The last chapters seem to be not very coherent with the aim with which the book was started. There is more about history and the society. How the medicinal system in earlier days was classified into four basic catergories like black and yellow bile, Phlegm, blood and how the seizures (epileptic) in humans were considered as an amusing by the evil spirit. This is then related to thoughts in our brain. Most people have an internal voice in their heads narrating events, reminding us with the tasks ahead and intruding with unrelated thoughts.
# The Joy of punishment elaborately discusses the history related to punishing the cheaters over several ages. The shocking info about the Nobel Prize winner Breivik gunning down about 69 people just as casually as one could have a walk in the lawn and escaping punishment was something that the Norway government could not resolve amicably. A Nobel man running amok was an uncontrolled event.
# “After you have pooped, do you wipe front to back or back to front” was a questionnaire over a few European countries. Those choosing 'front to back' were considered right and those otherwise were supposed to lose friends! Another one was on 'Leptin' which is there among obese people and has been remarked as a disease by many. There is a poem in the last chapter that I did not read because it seemed out of context. People in future will always marvel at what we did not know. Time!
