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(Obvious Disclaimer - Absolutely
none of what
follows was in any way, shape or form up to me.)
For
decades I was determined
by the universe, or,
theologically, God, to
know that for free will
to be understood by the
public as an illusion
would be a monumental
development in human
history.
Here are some of the
ways I was absolutely
forced to pioneer the bringing
of this truth of our
causal, unconscious
human will to the public's
awareness beginning in
1997.
For years I had worked to move
the truth about human
will from academia,
where it languished in
obscurity, to the public
spotlight. Then, on
April 7, 2010, the
universe made me
organize and begin
hosting
The "Predetermined Will
- Busting the Free Will
Myth" Meetup in
Manhattan NYC (now
called "Exploring the
Illusion of Free Will").
With that single act,
the truth about our human
will began to quickly
and widely spread, and
I found myself compelled
to
expand and intensify my
efforts. That the
mainstream media now
reports free will as an illusion is now
undeniable. What follows is a
brief history of what
caused that major
change.
In
early 1997, I began work
on a book refuting free
will. After having
me draft about forty
pages, the universe
curiously had me begin
to edit and re-work the
pages, and the rest of
the book was never written.
Had it truly been up
to me, that book would
have been finished by
1998. Now the
universe has me plan to include those
pages in a book
scheduled for
publication perhaps in
2014. We'll
see.
In
September of 1997, I was
led to write a physics
paper titled
"Two
Proofs of Determinism in
All of Nature; A Case
for the Law of Cause and
Effect" that
the universe then caused
to be
accepted for review,
first by
The International
Journal of Theoretical
Physics, and
subsequently by
Physical
Review D15 (Particles,
Fields, Fluids,
Gravitation, and
Cosmology).
Although fate insisted that both
peer-review journals
ultimately decline to publish,
I
maintain my confidence in
the correctness of these proofs,
which refute the notion
of true randomness in
nature.
In
2000, I was driven to
plaster
Internet newsgroups with
articles refuting
free will. On
February 28, 2000, I
posted
"The Impossibility of
Free Will," and on
March 3, 2003,
"The Insanity of Free
Will." On
March 4, 2000, the
universe made me,
quite regrettably in my
opinion, follow up with
a piece titled
"Regarding Stupid
Psychologists and Free
Will."
In
2003, the universe made
me produce and host the world's first
television program
entirely about happiness
-
The Happiness Show. On
May 20th 2003, for my
seventh episode, I
recorded,
broadcasted, and uploade to
the Internet Archive
"Happiness and the
Determinism vs. Free
Will Question." With
over 8,000 views,this
episode is the fourth
most-downloaded of The Happiness Show
collection at the
Archive.
In
March of 2004, I felt
morally compelled to write
an article for The
Westchester, New York
Ethical Culture Society's
monthly newsletter, The Page,
titled
"Determinism, Free Will,
Ethics, and Happiness."
On
February 28, 2005, my
co-host Lionel Ketchian
and I revisited the topic
of human will as it
relates to happiness on The Happiness Show with an episode
titled
"A
Conversation About
Happiness, Free Will and
Determinism."
At
the Sunday Meeting of
that same Westchester,
New York Ethical Culture
Society, on April 17,
2005, God made me
deliver an
address to the
congregation titled
"Why
Free Will is Impossible,
and Why it Matters." that you can view
on YouTube if God
decides to make you.
During 2007-2008, under
the username Blisser,
I visited Atheist chat
rooms on
paltalk,
and repeatedly explained the theological and
scientific reasons why
free will is impossible. For a while,
the universe made me
host a patlalk
voice-chat
room entirely dedicated to
refuting the notion of
free will..
In
June of 2009, I was
compelled to begin
emailing a group of
philosophers and
psychologists with free
will refutations. Here's a sampling -
"Arguments against
Liberty of Indifference
and Quantum Indeterminancy"
June 1, 2009
"A
Simple Refutation of
Frankfurt-Type Examples"
June 3, 2009
"Is a Free Will Moral and
Worth Having" June
11, 2009
At the suggestion of
philosopher Robert Kane,
I
visited
The Garden of Forking
Paths free will blog,
and debated the academic
philosophers there. Here are a few of the
discussions I entered and, in
my compelled and humble opinion, won -
"A Flaw in the Standard
Argument Against Free
Will?" by Bob Doyle
June 26, 2009
"History of FW
Skepticism"
by Kevin Timpe
June 29, 2009
Are Humans Glorified
Thermostats? by Kip
July 3, 2009
On Saturday, October 17,
2009, I
delivered the address
"Why We Humans Do Not
Have a Free Will"
at
the
2009 Empire State
College Student Academic
Conference in
Saratoga Springs, New York.
Cause
For the
Tipping Point
in Public
Awareness
About the Illusion of
Free Will!
Finally, on April 7, 2010,
the universe made me
organize the world's
first discussion group
entirely dedicated to refuting
the notion of free will
-
"The Predetermined Will
Society - Busting the
Free Will Myth" (now
called "Exploring the
Illusion of Free Will")
at meeup.com. I
live in
White Plains,
New York, but
God made me base the
group in mid-town
Manhattan. While
White Plains has a
population of almost 57
thousand,
Manhattan's
population stands at
over 1.5 million. I
also knew from personal experience that Meetup.com
members from much of the
New York metropolitan
area, with a
population of over 22
million, regularly
attend the meetings in
Manhattan.
By April 15, 2010, we
had over forty members.
While only three people
attended
our first
event, held in White
Plains, that's not
what mattered. A few days
after a new group is
launched, Meetup.com sends
an email blast to
members within an
expansive geographical
radius from the group -
in our case, presumably thousands of
members. More importantly, during
the months and years
that followed, Meetup
members searching for groups
based in Manhattan noticed
our listing easily
millions of times, and
saw our logo, as depicted
here -
As an example of the
buzz-creating outreach
possible through our
listing, a July 18,
2012 search for a Meetup
group keyworded
"philosophy" and located
within a 50 mile radius
of New York City had our
group
appear on the second page of results. Since
our April 7, 2010 launch
date, our group's
listing and logos has
probably been
viewed several
million times.
In my opinion, this is
how the universe caused the
current
global awakening to
the
understanding that free
will is an illusion.
Here are some historical
artifacts from the
group. This
following image is of a
refrigerator magnet I designed,
and presented as gifts
to members.
The universe later made
Nomi suggest that we
change our name in order to
attract more free will
believers, and "Do we
have a Free Will" became
our name for several
months. Nomi
was destined to play a pivotal role
in our moving the
question of free will
from academia to the
public spotlight.
Here is our name and
logo today.
(I
hope
God makes me design and
upload a better logo
soon.)
On
March 30, 2010, The Garden of
Forking Paths closed,
and morphed
into
Flickers of Freedom,
and I began debating
academic philosophers there as well.
Here are a
few examples:
Determinism: the Good,
the Bad, and the Ugly by
"Does Consciousness
Matter?" by Neil Levy
July 09, 2010
"G. Strawson @ NYT" by
Manuel Vargus July
22, 2010
On
July 29, 2010, I designed and ordered
a dozen custom t-shirts
from an ebay seller that declare "Transcend
the free will delusion." Here's
me wearing one of them.
Birth of the World's
First Television Series
Entirely About the
Illusion of Free Will!
In
September of 2010, I approached Nomi with the
idea of our co-hosting a cable TV
show about the illusion
of free will. Having
recorded almost 140
episodes as
producer and host of
The
Happiness Show, I
was familiar
with how to produce and
promote a show. Nomi
agreed, and the stage
was set for our new show. Here's a
photo of Nomi;
Our new White Plains,
New York weekly
television series,
Exploring the Illusion
of Free Will,
began recording on
November 27, 2010,
and premiered on January
6, 2011. Cablevision channel 76
broadcasts the show to
White Plains, and Verizon FiOS
channel 45 expands our
reach to sections of neighboring
Westchester County
communities that include
Ardsley,
Byram Hills, Greenburgh, Hartsdale,
Irvington, Mamaroneck, Mount
Pleasant, North Castle, Scarsdale,
and Tarrytown. Since 2012, our
show is also cablecast
to Manhattan at least
every other week on
their cable station MNN.
In January of 2011, I
designed and
published this site
to begin disseminating
the episodes and other
resources.
Here's a snapshot of
Nomi and me, and our
first guest, John Davis;
A large part of why free
will exploded into
public awareness in 2011
is that White Plains,
New York happens to be a
community of choice for
many of Manhattan's
"movers and shakers" who
prefer to raise
a family in a small
suburban city rather
than in The Big Apple.
Incidentally, Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg was born
here, and raised in
nearby Ardsley.This is the kind of "being in the right
place" luck that Malcolm Gladwell
refers to in his
best-selling book
Outliers.
Here's another
historical artifact --
The public service
announcement, (PSA) I designed,
and
The White Plains Media
Center
aired to promote the show.
The
Myth of Free Will Hits
Live Call-In
Manhattan TV on MNN!
The goal of
busting the myth of free
will got
another big boost in
2011 when another of our Meetup's
members, Enel, mentioned
to me that he
recently began training to
produce a cable television
series in Manhattan,
where he lives. Enel,
a
Mensa, quickly got the
importance of my
busting free will
initiative,
and understood the reach our
message would have on
Manhattan's public
access TV station, MNN. After two
pre-recorded episodes in the
spring of 2011 with Enel's friend Gene, and
two guys Enel met at the
MNN training,
Big Rob and
Frank, our live
call-in TV show,
Myth
of Free Will began
airing in preview on
September 23, 2011. We officially
premiered on January 18,
2012. Here's snapshot
of Enel and Alex, our
engineer;
Here's a link to our January 12,
1012 press release for the show -
"Manhattan and White
Plains Researchers
Refute Free Will on Live
MNN Call-In Show." Enel
and I quickly became a
single-minded team, and
great friends. We
began to
popularize the
refutation of free will
in other ways.
On
December 2, 2011, I published the edited
transcripts of the first
eighteen episodes of my
White Plains show -
Exploring the Illusion
of Free Will; Eighteen
episodes from the
world's first television
series about the causal,
unconscious nature of
human will.
Here
are some of the other
ways I've helped expand
the buzz about free will
being an illusion. Over
the last few years, I've
carried a sign that says
"Transcend the Delusion
of Free Will" through my
hometown of White
Plains, and up and down
Fifth Avenue in
Manhattan. Here's a
photo of me in front of
the Waldorf Astoria at
Fifth Avenue and 59th
Street -
Also,
beginning in 2010, I
designed and had printed
a debate sign that I
take to Central Park.
Over the last few years
I've spent many hours
there debating tourists
and native New Yorkers
about whether of not we
have a free will. It's a
bit hard to read, but
the bottom of the sign
says "Einstein and I say
we don't --Try to prove
us wrong." Here's a
photo -
Here's me with the sign
-
I
continue to amplify the
buzz about free will
being an illusion
through my many comments
to different blog and
video posts, through
another meetup I started
in White Plains called
"Life After Free Will,"
by revising and
publishing a second
edition of my book, and
in other ways.
More
or less, that's the
story of how the
universe made me create
a buzz about free will
being an illusion, and
why major media
publications began to
cover the topic like
they did in 2010. But
this is just the
beginning. Stay tuned
for more big news over
these next few years. |
