markjgsmith

My unsophisticated view on whether we have free will

People are always talking about this in podcasts and around the internet, and I suppose it’s all quite interesting, but I just wanted to have some clear thoughts about it myself. So I spent a few minutes thinking about it and this is what I came up with.

It’s probably completely wrong. I wouldn’t take this as life advice.

Do we have free will?

Yes. Because…

1. You have a sort of biological choice algorithm in your head, implemented from neurons organised in neural networks, and it develops in your brain over time, and at any one time that choice algorithm is used to make choices that act on the inputs your brain is receiving. The choice is independent from the inputs, rather than being somehow packaged up and smuggled into your brain along with the inputs

2. We have the ability to introspect, so in principle we have the ability to observe and see instances of unfree coercion, and change our thought processes accordingly - YMMV, every person's situation is very different, some have a lot more external pressures than others, which isn’t always bad, but it definitely can be

3. If you remove everything, so you are an astronaut floating in the emptiness of space, you can still make choices

Therefore humans have free will. In this view, free will is very similar to independence of thought.

Feels kind of good to have that written down, at least I’ve got something I can point to now. #

Cool things that were in web2.0

Last week I listened to a John Gruber interview with Tom Watson and Daniel Agee, the founders of the photo sharing app Glass. They talked a lot about what it was like during web2.0, including some of the cool things that got developed in that period.

I enjoyed the brief trip down memory lane, an oasis of calm amongst the current madness all around. I spent a few minutes making a list of some of the things I remember, and enjoyed wondering how some of these types of technologies and trends could blend with things in web3.0.

Here’s that list:

• Rocketboom, Ze Frank, and videoblogging
• Citizen journalism
• Creative Commons licensing
• Crowd funding
• Community events and meet-ups
• The Maker movement
• 3D printing
• Photo sharing
• Video streaming
• Online maps and navigation
• Blogging and RSS
• Live photo feeds from events with photos displaying on your desktop as they are taken
• Journalism integrated with data analysis tools
• Social media
• Newsrooms integrating social media into their broadcasts
• Wikipedia
• APIs everywhere
• Web services - AWS, Azure etc
• Podcasting and podcast tools
• Open source hardware
• Open source software
• Github repos and actions
• Bit torrent for sharing assets with listeners to collaborate on
• User Generated Content
• Live video streaming mixed with forum/chat rooms with bots that trigger video and audio overlays when events like tipping occurs
• Gifs
• Memes
• Newsletters
• Weird one offs that never took off like Chat Roulette

Some of these were around before web2.0, but got very popular during web2.0 and arguably some were developed more recently but IMO feel very web2ish. Nonetheless when I think about web2.0, these are some of the things that come to mind. #

The cruelty economy

The Creator Economy has been pretty great.

So many things to watch and listen to. But that’s nothing compared to what’s coming down the pipe: The Cruelty Economy!

Creative Economy + Web3

Crypto, blockchains, memecoins, DAOs, cosplay, algorithms, Anon, AI, brain-computer-interfaces, WOW.

War and peace…AT THE SAME TIME!

Some of you are gonna love it! At least some of the time.

What could possibly go wrong?

With our patented starvation&thirst algorithm, nothing! #