Free Will

Free Will

I’ve been thinking about the idea of human feelings and emotions being ‘biochemical algorithms’ developed over millions of years on the East African savannahs as defined by Yuval Noah Harari in his book, Sapiens.

It certainly leads to the conclusion that there is no such thing as ‘free will’, just another human myth to try and explain the only two functions that scientists are beginning to acknowledge, deterministic evolution through natural selection and the apparent statistical randomness of the universe, which preclude any such concept as ‘free will’.

When I look back over my life, contemplating, meditating on its course and the decisions that have supposedly led me to my current position, I honestly can’t see that any other decisions than the ones I made were truthfully, factually open to me.

I know that there are those who will claim my complete agency and responsibility for those decisions. But, the longer I live, open myself to and see the reality around me, the more I doubt the idea of ‘free will’, that in truth, all our decisions could be mapped out by an AI agent, given enough data, biochemical, psychological, external, could predict every single decision I or anyone else would ever make.

Therefore, ‘free will’ is a myth (IMHO). You are certainly entitled to your own opinion on the matter…

–LE

Eternal Now

 

Eternal Now

To paraphrase Carlin

Now doesn't really exist

Merely the intersection 

Of future and past

Here it comes..

Wait, it's almost here

Not yet…

Now?

Nope, it's already gone

Here it comes again…

But 

It's the future that

Doesn't exit

Merely a hoped-for 

Potential, 

An assumption

Of continuation 

And the past is

Only a story of what has

Passed through

The eternal present 

Only a pattern of

Neurons strung together

Temporarily until

Those patterns dissolve

Into the Void as

The essence of our

Perceptions also

Dissolves into that same

Void from which our

Constituent essences 

Continually recycled in

The Eternal

Now

–LE

Temporarily Etched On The Ground

It Doesn't Matter

It Doesn't Matter

whether it's Social Security 

Medicare

the post office

or the VA

the only reason

to privatize 

is to give our money

the public's money

(tax revenues) 

to our leaders’

crooked friends

in the private sector

and on Wall Street

private ‘efficiency’ is a myth

doesn't exist 

never did

just capitalist propaganda 

to keep the rich rich

and those in power

even more powerful

we

the ‘unwashed masses’

can go to hell

where we obviously 

belong

time to ‘kill’

the leviathan 

–LE

Identity

 Identity 

All human Identify is

Based on stories

Stories we tell ourselves

Based on the stories

Handed down to us

Since the beginning of

Human communication 

It's how we establish

Our reality

These stories are based

On the selective information

We call 'facts'

Our vested interests intact

Since there are no such things

As 'facts'

Just perspectives

Agreed to by

Humans in charge

The 'winners'

So to speak

But

In spite of the overall

General stories

We each have our own

Individual stories too

Just as 'fact-free' as

The general ones

Merely perspectives

Guiding the rendering of

Our masks

What we want or

Expect others to see

Protects our vulnerabilities 

Our true realities 

We are human

After all

-LE 

Letters Of Marque

 

Letters Of Marque

That is 'privateers'

In other words

Pirates

Sanctioned by

Governments to

Raid and capture, or

Sink enemy

Commercial entities 

Ships, stores, and such

Their frequent symbol

The Jolly Roger

Crossed bones with

A grinning skull atop

Even though letters of marque

Officially faded away 

In the mid nineteenth century 

Modern 'privateers'

That is pirates

Still ply their trade

But they are now called

Hedge fund managers

I'm waiting for them

To use the traditional symbol 

With the skull grinnning

Back at you...

--LE - 7/28/25

Stock internet photo...

Tui Shou

Tui Shou

When practicing push hands

I let my hand textures morph

Through soft and 'sticky' to limp to

Letting my hand-blades spring out

Like claws from

Cat's paws for the 

Decisive bloodless cut

My center and blades

Flowing and dominating

The swirling currents

Of my body's space/time

Embrace

--LE - 7/26

Mesquite-dreams

 

ancient Mesquites lean dangerously 

over the path as if whispering to

younger ones on the other side

some copses remind me

of groups of people lounging

under bushy ramadas

gossiping in low tones

‘look at those untethered ones’

‘they don't seem to know that

everything comes to those who wait

those rooted in place’

some remind me of leggy

spindly visions of

broccoli florets 

–LE - 7/26

Mesquite-dreams - Ink'n brush and watercolor pencils in watercolor sketchbook - 8x5"