The Choice That May Prevent You From Ever Choosing Again.

 

“It may be that we are puppets-puppets controlled by the strings of society. But at least we are puppets with perception, with awareness. And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation.”    Stanley Milgram

I once read an article where the author put forth the statement that there are two ways of looking at your existence, simply, you either believe you have a body or that you are your body.  The implications are quite profound, and make all the difference regarding the destiny of humanity.

If we believe we have a body, then that implies an ownership granted by something higher than chance. If you believe we are here as a creation of God, then God gave you the body you have to interact with the environment He placed us in.  And it also would mean that once we are done with this particular body, we move to another one in the next life.  

Such a mindset means, as John Locke emphasized, that we are born with natural rights, given by God, to all men (and women).  We are here with a purpose and what we do with our choices, free will is inherent with that belief, will be judged by God later. And as we are all equally endowed by our Creator with life, liberty and the right to pursue property (happiness) no government has the right to curtail us unless it is to protect others from harm. Everything here is based on choice, and God is the ultimate judge of our actions.

On the other hand, some believe we are our bodies. That means we are an extension of DNA processes involving amino acids which develop a body in the womb, as well as determine the growth and behavior of that body after birth.  One could point to behaviorist B.F. Skinner as an advocate of this.  We may think we make choices but our biology seeks survival and pleasure, and thus we are shaped (educated) to seek positive stimuli: good food, security, sex, etc.. We think we are in charge of our actions but we really aren't, it is society, the macro-organism of humans, that determines our beliefs, attitudes and direction until we die, and are no more.

Such a mindset means freedom is a myth. We are hard-wired by experience that is merely influenced by our biological impulses to seek approval (security).  We are akin to being rats in a cage, directed by institutions that were here before we were born and will exist after we die.  Education is not for enlightenment, as it would be to Locke, but rather to shape compliant citizens. Media is a tool for steering the organism to believe in choice while controlling choice at all levels. Therefore, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. This of course opens the door to extreme tyranny as Chomsky noted when critiquing Skinner. 

Of course, this has implications for the future.  We hear the people associated with the World Economic Forum say that choice as defined by people like Locke is outdated.  There is even the idea that the future will not even be human, that we will shed this biological body for something (promised) to be better. Naturally, if we see the brain as nothing more than a biological computer, and our perception (and personality) as a process of directing the organism to food and such, then the idea of integrating non-biological mechanisms into the brain is akin to reformatting your computer.  And as Skinner believed humans would destroy themselves unless a secret elite were put in charge of directing them, wouldn't an upgrade to modify personality be ideal? You could make people happy without drugs, sexually fulfilled without a partner, willing and able to work no matter how mundane the task, and content to "live" in this adapted world until slated to be turned off. Of course, the elite planners would not wish for such an existence, but as technology makes more and more people "useless" then those people could live out whatever perceived pleasures of life they had without reproducing or being able to rebel.

Just to note, a person who believes in the concept of having ownership of their body could agree to a mechanical upgrade maybe to cure a disorder, or boost IQ, or even to expand their connection to the cosmos.  The only risk is trusting those in charge of the upgrade. I mean, one day you wake up and you are no longer you anymore. Your soul is no longer the steering mechanism and is either banished (spiritual death, with a body still in possession of memories, etc and able to go to work), or you think you are in charge but slowly are integrated into the computer framework.  

It seems the question of free will is still with us with some promising a future of enhancement, and others who want to march ahead to Humans 2.0 and dispense with the concept of free will altogether. We are at a critical juncture that dwarfs emergence of philosophical or even religious movements of the past.  If we modify humans in the ways some are suggesting are inevitable then there might not be a turning back, aside from a rebellion from those who did not accept the upgrade or a geomagnetic storm like the one hitting earth in 1859 that could wipe out everyone who did get modified. 

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