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Epilogue:
How Refuting Free
Will Went From Academia to the
Public Spotlight – with hyperlinked
articles in major publications –
2004-2012
Everything
is caused, and so it is with the
popularization that free will is an
illusion. For centuries, the
determinism vs. free will debate
languished within academia where
proponents of free will could not
understand, or accept, the simple
but compelling truth that both
determinism and indeterminism make
free will impossible, and their
colleagues who understood this truth
had not only all but given up on the
prospect of showing them the error
of this conclusion, also either
lacked the moral courage or failed
to appreciate the vast personal and
global benefits to be gained through
the wider public’s understanding and
accepting of this truth. Below is
the history of how a few invaluable
friends and I moved –
most
correctly how the universe made us
move –
the free will topic from academia
into the public spotlight. This
grass-roots, bottom-up and
shoestring-budgeted initiative
ultimately led to an explosion of
media coverage over the last few
years that included landmark cover
stories that exposed free will as an
illusion by New Scientist
in 2011 and Scientific American
Mind magazines in 2012, and to
New York Times best-selling
author Sam Harris publishing his
2012 refutation titled Free
Will. While evident that this
heightened major media and public
interest in the topic began soon
after I launched my Madison Avenue,
New York City-based Meetup group
titled, “The Predetermined Will
Society – Busting the Free Will
Myth” on April 7, 2010, I begin this
history with some of my earlier
efforts and initiatives to create a
public buzz about free will being an
illusion. To show the causal
correlation between my strategies
and the ensuring explosion in media
coverage, I have chronologically
list and hyperlinked the mainstream
media articles that appeared within
that timeline.
History of How Refuting Free Will
Went
From Academia to the Public
Spotlight
In
early 1997,
I began work on a book refuting free
will. After drafting about forty
pages, I began to edit and re-work
the pages, and the rest of the book
never got written. I plan to include
these pages in a book scheduled for
publication later in 2014.
On
September 12, 1997,
I wrote a physics paper titled
“Two
Proofs of Determinism in All of
Nature; A Case for the Law of Cause
and Effect” that was accepted for
review first by The
International Journal of Theoretical
Physics and subsequently by
Physical Review D15 (Particles,
Fields, Fluids, Gravitation, and
Cosmology). Although both
peer-review journals ultimately
declined to publish, I continue to
maintain confidence in the
correctness of these proofs that
refute the notion of true
randomness, or uncaused events, in
nature.
In 2000,
I plastered Internet newsgroups with
articles refuting free will. On
February 28th, I
cross-posted “The Impossibility of
Free Will,” and on March 3rd,
“The Insanity of Free Will.” On
March 4th, I followed up
with the regrettably titled and
toned (thankfully I can’t honestly
blame myself) “Regarding Stupid
Psychologists and Free Will.”
In 2003,
I produced and hosted the world’s
first television program entirely
about happiness – The Happiness
Show, and on May 20th, for my
seventh episode, I recorded,
broadcasted, and uploaded to The
Internet Archive and Google
Video,
“Happiness
and the Determinism vs. Free Will
Question.”
In
March of 2004,
I published an article in The
Westchester, New York Ethical
Culture Society’s monthly
newsletter, The Page, titled
“Determinism, Free Will, Ethics, and
Happiness.”
Salon –
“How free
is free will?” by Farhad Manjoo, May
21, 2004
Foreign
Policy
– “Undermining Free Will” by Paul
Davies, September 1, 2004
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.”
On
April 17, 2005,
at the Sunday Meeting of that same
Westchester, New York Ethical
Culture Society, I delivered an
address to the congregation titled
“Why Free Will is Impossible, and
why it Matters.”
The
Cornell Daily Sun –
“Prof
Denies Human Free Will” by Julie
Geng, August 30, 2005
During
2007 and 2008,
under the username Blisser, I
visited Atheist voice-chat rooms on
Paltalk, and repeatedly
explained the theological and
scientific reasons why free will is
impossible. During that time, I also
hosted a Paltalk room
dedicated to refuting the notion of
free will.
Science
Magazine
– “Case Closed for Free Will?” by
Elsa Youngsteadt, April 14, 2008
The
Economist –
“Incognito,” April, 16th 2009
In June
of 2009,
I began emailing a group of academic
philosophers and psychologists
various free will refutations.
Here’s a sampling of the themes:
“Arguments
against Liberty of Indifference and
Quantum Indeterminancy,” June 1st;
“A Simple Refutation of
Frankfurt-Type Examples,” June 3rd;
“Is
a Free Will Moral and Worth Having,”
June 11th.
Psychology Today
– “The Will is Caused, not “Free” by
John A. Bargh, Ph.D., June 23, 2009
At the
invitation 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 debates I entered and, in my
opinion, won: “A Flaw in the
Standard Argument Against Free
Will?” by Bob Doyle, June 26th;
“History of FW Skepticism” by Kevin
Timpe, June 29th; “Are
Humans Glorified Thermostats?” by
Kip, July 3rd.
On
Saturday, October 17, 2009,
I delivered the lecture
“Why We Humans Do Not Have a Free
Will” at the
2009 Empire State College Student
Academic Conference
in
Saratoga Springs, New York.
The Tipping Point in the Buzz about
the Illusion of Free Will
On
April 7, 2010,
I founded the world’s first
philosophical 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 based the group at 550 Madison
Avenue in mid-town Manhattan because
while White Plains has a population
of almost 57,000, Manhattan’s
population stands at over 1.5
million. Also, I knew from personal
experience that Meetup.com
members from much of the New York
metropolitan area, with a
population of over 22 million,
regularly search for and attend the
events in Manhattan. My plan was to
create a buzz about free will being
an illusion among the many
Meetup.com members who happened
upon my group’s listing while
searching through Meetup
groups based in New York City. I
estimate that since our April 7,
2010 launch date, my group’s listing
and logos have been viewed hundreds
of thousands, if not millions, of
times. Evidently, this listing was
the beginning and principle cause of
a public buzz that jumpstarted the
subsequent major media explosion of
coverage on the understanding that
free will is an illusion.
Scientific American
– “Scientists say free will probably
doesn’t exist, but urge: ‘Don’t stop
believing!’” by Jesse Bering, April
14, 2010
(Dated incorrectly as April 6, 2010
see comments for correct date).
The
Garden of Forking Paths
morphed into Flickers of Freedom,
and I began debating academic
philosophers there as well. A few
examples: “Determinism: the Good,
the Bad, and the Ugly by Roy
Baumeister,” June 28th;
“Does Consciousness Matter?” by Neil
Levy, July 09th; “G.
Strawson @ NYT” by Manuel Vargus,
July 22nd.
Time
Magazine
– “Think You’re Operating on Free
Will? Think Again” by Eben Harrell,
July 2, 2010.
The New
York Times
– “Your Move: The Maze of Free Will”
by Galen Strawson, July 22, 2010.
On July
29, 2010,
my desire to take this important
truth to the streets compelled me to
design order, and regularly wear a
dozen custom t-shirts from an eBay
seller that declare “Transcend the
free will delusion.” I also designed
a banner inviting discussions about
the determinism vs. free will
question, and held numerous public
debates over the last few years at
the Mall near Bethesda Fountain in
Central Park, New York City.
The World’s First Television Series
Entirely
about the Illusion of Free Will
In
September of 2010,
I approached Meetup member Nomi with
the idea of doing a cable TV show
about the illusion of free will.
Psychology Today –
“Beyond free will and determinism:
Take a chance with the Dice Man” by
Joachim I. Krueger, Ph.D., September
20, 2010.
The
Telegraph
– “Neuroscience, free will and
determinism: ‘I’m just a machine’”
by Tom Chivers, October 12, 2010.
The
Telegraph
– “Neuroscience and free will: when
definitions become important” by Tom
Chivers, October 12th, 2010.
On
November 27, 2010,
I began recording for our new White
Plains, New York weekly television
series, Exploring the Illusion of
Free Will.
Psychology Today
– “A random walk through the free
will-derness” by Joachim Krueger,
Ph.D., December 5, 2010.
On
January 6, 2011,
our show premiered in White Plains
on Cablevision channel 76. It still
cablecasts 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, it also cablecasts twice
a week or more in New York City on
Manhattan’s cable TV station, MNN.
Part of how and why the topic of
free will exploded into public
awareness over the next year and a
half is that White Plains, New York
happens to be a community of choice
for many of Manhattan’s movers and
shakers who prefer to live and raise
a family in a small suburban city
rather than in The Big Apple.
Incidentally, Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg was born here in White
Plains, and was raised in nearby
Ardsley. Cablecasting my show in
White Plains, and other Westchester
County, New York communities is the
kind of “being in the right place”
luck that Malcolm Gladwell refers to
in his best-selling book
Outliers.
Also in
January of 2011,
I created and published the show’s
website, Exploring the Illusion
of Free Will to begin
disseminating the episodes.
Psychology
Today – “How The Adjustment
Bureau Threatens Free WIll” by David
Kyle Johnson, Ph.D., March 8, 2011.
New
Scientist
– COVER
STORY – Free Will: The Illusion we
can’t live without “The Free Will
Delusion” by Dan Jones, April 16-22,
2011.
Here's a link to an online version.
The
Atlantic –
“The
Brain on Trial” by David
Eagleman, July/August 2011.
The
Huffington Post
– “The Conspiracy Against Free Will”
by Paul Pardi, August 3, 2011.
The
Myth of Free Will Hits Live Call-In
Manhattan TV on MNN
September
23, 2011
– The goal of busting the myth of
free will among the public got a
huge boost in 2011 when my Meetup’s
group member, Enel, informed me that
he had recently begun training to
produce a cable television series in
midtown Manhattan, where he resides.
Enel quickly appreciated the
significance of my plan to bust the
myth of free will by creating a
public buzz. He also fully
understood the wide reach our
message would gain through
Manhattan’s public access TV
station, MNN, and by being listed on
Time-Warner’s on-screen TV channel
guide where it would be seen
millions of times by viewers while
searching for shows to watch through
their cable service. After airing
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, Enel’s live call-in TV
show, Myth of Free Will began
airing in preview on September 23rd,
2011 with me as the associate
producer and co-host.
USA
Today
– “Why you don’t really have free
will by Jerry Coyne, January 1, 2012.
On
December 2, 2011,
I published the first edition of
this book as Exploring the
Illusion of Free Will: Eighteen
episodes from the world’s first
television series about the causal,
unconscious nature of human will.
On
January 18, 2012,
The MNN show Myth of Free Will (now
titled No Free Will)
‘officially’ premiered.
Psychology Today
– “The True Meaning of Freedom” by
Alex Lickerman, M.D. January 22,
2012.
Waikato
Times
(New Zealand) – “Free will is a
figment of our imaginations” by Joe
Bennett, February 5, 2012.
Los
Angeles Times
– “Book reviews: ‘Free Will,’
‘Religion for Atheists’” by Richard
Rayner, April 08, 2012.
The
Daily Caller
– “Do People Have Free Will” by Matt
Cockeri, April 9, 2012.
Psychology Today
– “Free
Will Is an Illusion, So What?” by
Raj Raghunathan, Ph.D., May 8, 2012.
The New
York Times Sunday Review
– “The Amygdala Made Me Do It” by
James Atlas May, 12, 2012.
Psychology Today
– “Your Chaotic Mind” by Joachim I.
Krueger, Ph.D., May 25, 2012.
SB
Nation
– “Free Will, Responsibility, and
the Penalty Box” by Megalodon, May
26, 2012.
Psychology Today
– “Don’t Blame Yourself (or Others)”
by John A. Johnson, Ph.D., May 28,
2012.
The
Guardian
– “The Question: Do footballers know
what they’re doing?” by Jonathan
Wilson, May 29, 2012.
The
Guardian
– “Guilty but not responsible?” by
Rosiland English, May 29, 2012.
Scientific American Mind
– COVER STORY “Who’s in Control? How
Physics and Biology Dictate Your
‘Free” Will’” by Christof Koch,
May/June 2012.
The
Atlantic
– “The Perfected Self” by David H.
Freedman, June 2012.
The
Huffington Post
– “Free Will Is an Illusion” by
Victor Stenger, June 1, 2012.
Psychology Today
– “The Curse of Free Will” by
Joachim I. Krueger, Ph.D., June 3,
2012.
Psychology Today –
“Nietzsche
on Self-Control” by Joachim I.
Krueger, Ph.D., July 1, 2012.
The New
York Times’ Sunday Book Review –
“Have it
Your Way; Free Will by Sam Harris”
by
Daniel Menaker, July 13, 2012.
Los Angeles Times – “Jerry
Sandusky — a head case puzzle” by
Robert M. Sapolsky, July 15, 2012.
Los
Angeles Times – “Letters:
Free will and the brain” by
Laurent McReynolds, July 20, 2012.
The
Washington Post
– “The Philosophy of ‘You didn’t
build that’” by Dylan Matthews, July
20, 2012.
Denial, or a Breather to Take it All
in
A strange
thing happened in July of 2012.
Extensive media coverage of the
topic of free will very abruptly
ended. Since then, few, if any,
major magazines or newspapers have
covered the topic. Perhaps the 2012
presidential elections and the
holiday season that followed explain
this. Perhaps the public began to
deeply understand that free will is
an illusion, and that absolutely
nothing they thought, felt, said, or
did was in any way truly up to them.
Perhaps people didn’t like how this
revolutionary new understanding made
them feel, or how it could
nevertheless greatly benefit their
lives and transform our world. I end
this book with the same quote by
American philosopher John Searle (in
2012, the 13th most cited
post-1900 philosopher in the world)
with which I began the first 100
episodes of my television series. He
exclaimed that for free will to be
acknowledged as an illusion –
“would
be a bigger revolution in our
thinking than Einstein, or
Copernicus, or Newton, or Galileo,
or Darwin – it would alter
our whole conception of our relation
with the universe.”
Revolutions, especially those
involving human thought, can be
scary. The questions that now remain
are how soon will major media
publications and best-selling
authors, perhaps now joined by
Hollywood studios, resume this
pioneering exploration of the
illusion of free will, and who else
will emerge to take part in this
historic leading of our world to a
categorically new human
consciousness?
Next chapter
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