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Intentionally Ignorant: Does Free Will Exist?

2018-06-08 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:42 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning · mode: Personal essay · tags: song or performance

Hank says he rationally accepts determinism (nothing he does was not fixed at the Big Bang) but chooses to ignore it in daily life, because accepting it would hurt his flourishing; he lives in intentional ignorance of a few realities, such as the death of the last human, since his goal is happiness, not perfect understanding.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank doubts he can make any decision not predetermined since the Big Bang

  • ★★★ Hank says he doesn't know whether he or anyone can do anything that wasn't predetermined from the moment of the Big Bang. (unsure) — 00:00:08
  • ★★ Hank has seen fairly compelling arguments that the universe's initial conditions define the words he is saying right now. — 00:00:15

00:00:27 — Random words and a seagulls song as 'decisions' that still came from the Big Bang

  • ★★ It doesn't seem possible to Hank that his song, the seagulls Yoda song, Emily Dickinson and Shakespeare were all inevitable results of particles seeking lower energy states. (playful) — 00:00:58

00:01:12 — Quantum randomness, the self as a physical phenomenon, determinism, choosing to ignore it; 'space balls'

  • ★★ If the future can't be predicted from the Big Bang, the randomness comes from quantum fluctuations, not from human decisions. — 00:01:12
  • ★★★ Hank says 'me', the story he tells himself about himself, is just another inevitable physical phenomenon: a ball rolling down a hill. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ Hank has come to rationally accept determinism, which philosophy defines as everything being part of an inevitable chain of cause and effect. (hedged) — 00:01:36
  • ★★★ In everyday life Hank ignores this: he chooses, with the free will he doesn't have, to ignore that he doesn't have free will. — 00:01:46
  • ★★★ He ignores it because accepting that he has no free will would lead him to decisions that harm his ability to flourish joyfully. — 00:01:54
  • ★ Hank announces he now calls planets 'space balls', which is itself an inevitable consequence of the universe's starting conditions. (playful) — 00:02:07 · space ball

00:02:19 — Lived experience, intentional ignorance, the last human, happiness over perfect understanding

  • ★★ Accepting that he isn't making decisions doesn't fit Hank's lived experience: he still has to decide his video topic, dinner and his next word. — 00:02:21

  • ★★★ The actual point of the video: Hank lives in intentional ignorance of a reality. — 00:02:38

    “I live in intentional ignorance of a reality.”

  • ★★ Hank does the same about the inevitable situation in which one human being is left and then that last human dies. (hedged) — 00:02:47

  • ★★ As a 'science dude', Hank believes in the intrinsic goodness of understanding the world more accurately today than yesterday, individually and as a species. — 00:02:56
  • ★★★ Yet there is a very short list of things Hank thinks it's better to ignore, because his ultimate goal is not a perfect understanding of the universe. (hedged) — 00:03:06
  • ★★★ Hank's ultimate goal is to find happiness and to help other people do that too. — 00:03:17
  • ★ Hank doesn't know whether this video served that purpose, but he tried. (unsure) — 00:03:24

00:03:29 — Sign-off, an apology and fart noises for comfort

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In the description Hank says he used to argue that predetermined decisions were still decisions made with free will, which now seems to him a palliative. — video description
  • ★★★ Hank says he now simply chooses not to accept something he knows is true, does the same with universal meaning and his inevitable demise, and ignores a trillion other truths every day, so he thinks it's OK. (hedged) — video description · meaning of life
  • ★★ Hank recognizes that free will is far from settled among philosophers, scientists and physicists: the video is not about whether free will exists but about how he reacts to many people thinking it doesn't. — video description
  • ★ Hank suggests the video maybe should have been called "I don't want to know!" rather than "Intentionally Ignorant". (playful, hedged) — video description

Humor (significant)

  • Hank blurts random words, then shows they still came from the Big Bang — 00:00:27

    “Larger park! That had to have come from nowhere, right? No, it came from the Big Bang.”

  • How Hank lives with determinism day to day — 00:01:46

    “I choose, with the free will that I don't have, to ignore the fact that I don't have free will.”

  • Hank announces he now calls planets 'space balls' — 00:02:07

    “Me calling planets "space balls" is just an inevitable consequence of the starting conditions of the universe.”

  • To cheer up John after a bleak video, Hank uses what always helps his toddler — 00:03:34

    “[copious fart noises]”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: free will

Also: People: Emily Dickinson · Orin Green · William Shakespeare

Works: Seagulls! (Stop It Now)

Terms: space ball

Concepts: Big Bang · Happiness · Human extinction · Quantum mechanics · science

Characters: Yoda

Only in the description or credits: death anxiety · meaning of life

Also centred on free will: Free Will Fetish · My Two Favorite Jokes

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