Saturday, January 22, 2005
"I am not a number..."
This week, I watched all 17 episodes of The Prisoner - which fits in nicely with the theme of the previous post.
One thought triggered by it: human consciousness can perceive the system in which it is enmeshed - but can never sit outside that system.
There is no escape from The Village.
One thought triggered by it: human consciousness can perceive the system in which it is enmeshed - but can never sit outside that system.
There is no escape from The Village.
Monday, January 17, 2005
Free Will
Shawn asks an intriguing question about free will.
Now the notion of "free will" has been debated since ancient times. It was a fave of theologians.
But it's also a bit of red herring.
It may well be that I am a pawn of my instincts and prejudices.
However, whilst some insight into my motivations may be useful, I still have to make decisions. I am never completely free (except in perhaps an existential sense). But how do I continue to make decisions?
Snowden's point, in my view, is less about "free will" in its classical sense than self-awareness and the "double hermeneutic" when studying human beings - i.e. they can understand they are being studied and change their behaviour accordingly. Hence the Cynefin injunction that every diagnostic is an intervention in the (socially) complex space.
Now the notion of "free will" has been debated since ancient times. It was a fave of theologians.
But it's also a bit of red herring.
It may well be that I am a pawn of my instincts and prejudices.
However, whilst some insight into my motivations may be useful, I still have to make decisions. I am never completely free (except in perhaps an existential sense). But how do I continue to make decisions?
Snowden's point, in my view, is less about "free will" in its classical sense than self-awareness and the "double hermeneutic" when studying human beings - i.e. they can understand they are being studied and change their behaviour accordingly. Hence the Cynefin injunction that every diagnostic is an intervention in the (socially) complex space.
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