FREE-WILL

By Amyn Ladhani

Do we really have options to choose or as we call it, Free-will? For a common person, it does exist and their basis of believe heavily depends on daily tasks or their religious beliefs. Choosing their child’s school, life partner, clothing, food or daily transport route are all “Freedom” to them. All moral decisions or indecisions comes under faith criteria but still counts under Free-will. Majority of this planet’s population can be described as “commoner” and any take on this issue raises eyebrows, in fact sometimes considered blasphemous.

However, science can easily prove that all above are routines and mechanisms controlled by our brain, for which we don’t have any knowledge or sense when it works, let alone controlling it. For instance, Free-will to choose color. According to science, color is an illusion created by our brain. All the creations are actually colorless. Color vision is basically a human ability to distinguish different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. Color vision relies on brain perception mechanism that treats light with different wavelengths and we don’t have any control on our brain. Even if we try to change that mechanism, we will lose the ability to enjoy colors. We don’t choose colors, brain does.

So, what, brain is mine. Absolutely, brain is ours but we are not brain therefore, we don’t have any control of any brain mechanism which mostly run the show. We need to conduct external laboratory tests to check our heart, blood or bones, brain won’t tell us.

Science believes “Cause and effect” theory (“Determinism”) with few differences, though not able to completely prove it, yet. According to a study conducted by Dr John-Dylan Haynes and his team at Max Planck Institute Leipzig, several seconds before we consciously make a decision its outcome can be predicted from unconscious activity in brain (Nature Neuroscience, April 13, 2008).

There are both types (for and against) of philosophers. Plato (428-328 BC) and Socrates (470-399 BC) advocated the existence of Free-will while Aristotle (385-323 BC) did not agree with them. American philosopher John Martin Fischer denies Free-will but says that humans are morally responsible for their choices.

Theologians are more or less agrees in the existence of Free-will though they justify it sometimes with one more part usually referred as spirit or soul. Eve’s decision to convince Adam and both eating fruit from forbidden tree is an example from theologians. Day of judgement would not have any meaning if Free-will does not exist, they say.

I am a commoner too and I am not a scholar but I tried understanding the Free-will from same resources available to all commoners, books and google. It is my humble opinion that Free-will does exist but not the Free-will we usually refer to. To make my point, I will begin with what we, humans made of.

 Deoxyribo Nucliec Acid (DNA) is a self-replicating material passes from generation to generation. 99.9% DNAs are same in all humans. 0.01% responsible for hair, eye and skin color, height and hereditary data. Humans also share DNA similarities with other living creatures, for instance;

-         Banana’s DNA is 60% same as humans

-         Bugs 61%

-         Cows 80%

-         Mice 85%

-         Cats 90%, and

-         Chimpanzees and bonobos 98.7%.

 Only 1.3% difference with chimpanzees is what it makes us who we are, humans. Life learnings or experiences are not stored in DNA but decisions and choices are influenced by “Brain”, structured by “DNA”. AND WE DON’T HAVE ANY CONTROL OR SAY IN DNA OR ITS FUNCTIONS. So, basically 98.7% of us does not enjoy Free-will, technically.

 Let’s look at brain and I am sure it will surprise a “commoner” as it did to me. Master, ruler, chief or whatever you call it, this tiny 3 pounds (1.4 kg) organ lives in darkness and never sees light, never hear anything, never taste anything and never touches anything but rules you. This master uses its sensory agents (five senses) to run the show but you never notice. Brain also knows all your hereditary information (family illness, weakness, strength etc) and you don’t know. Brain runs all your functions (heart, blood, cells, bones etc) without you knowing.

 Unlike other creatures, human brain is hardly half built (33% to 55%) upon birth of human but you still exist. When you die, all your experiences evaporate, no carry forward.

 Now, what you can do about it? How do you feel knowing this? Wait, there is more though I still think Free-will exist. Now let’s move step further, infancy period.

 At birth, our brain has all neurons (nerve cells) it will need in all life time. It’s the connection or wiring that needs building. First three years, this wiring goes on. This is also the time when our brain is most flexible and prepared to learn. After year 3 comes the trimming time. It’s like an electrician cuts the extra wires after completing a circuit, it’s called pruning in neurology. You become who you are not only because what grows in your brain but also because what has been removed from your brain (pruning). It’s very important.

 There are set standards human brain follows like;

-         human needs one year to walk

-         About 3 months to have first tooth

-         Full three years to have complete thoughts

-         2 days old recognizes mother’s voice and prefer it over other sounds

-         3 months old can discriminate primary colors and prefer yellow and blue over green

-         7 months old can match angry and happy facial expressions with the corresponding vocal expressions

-         9 months old can imitate simple actions which they see being performed

-         Child takes everything in mouth to fine tune sensory agents via object’s texture, feeling, how to reach (geometry) and aligning view and touch

-         The number of words an infant hears each day is the most important predictor of later intelligence, school success and social competence.

-         The child exposed to the language in infancy, refines his / her hearing ability including accent.

All above are set standards. We don’t have any kind of handling of it. We may have impact on consequences may be (like unfortunate motherless child will likely to have social issues in later age) but since we are talking about Free-will, do we see any?

Let’s move one step further, adolescence or teenage. Parents usually complains about how moody or non-focus their teenage children are. The children themselves are sometimes confused and frustrated, how so? Let’s see what science says about it.

Many cognitive abilities (including the control of attention or focus) rely on the proper functioning of a brain part called prefrontal cortex. This particular part undergoes massive structural changes during teenage and usually, it is the last brain area to mature completely usually by mid-twenties (Yes, you are reading right, human brain structure completes by mid-twenties). There is one more part in brain called orbitofrontal cortex responsible of analyzing future and decision making, matures in adulthood not in teenage. Hence, teenagers are less control on emotions, heavy risk taking and more reward or pleasure-seeking personalities. Most teenagers are more likely to do their homework for a $5 reward tonight than for a $50 reward at month-end. Do we see any free-will involve?

Now, we are in adulthood. How do we feel love or select our partners? There is whole lot of scientific details about it. I will just give you some glimpse of it (what I found) otherwise, you can just google “biology of love” and you will know how it works.

A team of scientist led by Dr. Helen Fisher broken down the process in three categories and all three categories stimulates or run by hormones. All these hormones are produced by a tiny region at the base of brain, called hypothalamus.

1.     Attachment

Oxytocin hormone (also called cuddle or love hormone). It plays a role in social bonding, sexual reproduction, childbirth and the period after childbirth.

Vasopressin hormone plays important role in social behavior, sexual motivation and pair bonding.

2.     Attraction

Dopamine hormone, apart of being neurotransmitter, dopamine plays a major role in the motivational component of reward motivated behavior.

Norepinephrine, apart of being neurotransmitter, Norepinephrine increased arousal and alertness, focuses attention, increases heart rate and blood pressure, triggers the release of glucose from energy stores.

Serotonin is a contributor to feeling of happiness and well-being.

3.     Lust

Testosterone is primary male sex hormone and anabolic steroid.

Estrogen is primary female sex hormone and also responsible for development and regulation of female reproductive system.

You can easily do the math here and agree that the question remains, where is Free-will?

We began with the seed of human life (DNA) until adulthood but did not find any clue for the existence of Free-will but actually it does. Let me tell you a story to make my point.

In 1552 BC, an Egyptian physician called Hesy-Ra observed a mysterious illness which caused patients to weaken and wither away. One of the symptoms was frequent urination. In 600 BC, a Hindu physician Sushrata wrote about disease he named “Madhumeha” or honey urine. Sushrata actually tasted the urine samples by observing ants. He figured that if ants are attracted to urine, it means person has the disease.

First time this disease was referred as diabetes in 150 AD by Greek physician Arateus of Cappadocia. He observed that “diabetes is the melting down of the flesh and limbs in to urine”. In 5th century Indian physicians were able to categorize different types of diabetes. In the middle ages, people known as “water tasters” were assign the task of tasting urine to diagnose the disease (if tastes honey like, patient has it). Finally, at university of Toronto, insulin was discovered in 1921 and first used for diabetic treatment on 11th January 1922.

There are two types of people in the world, followers and game changers. Everyone has option to use free-will but it’s the game changers who uses it. Hesy-Ra, Sushrata, Arateus and even the water tasters were all game changers. They did not give up though it took 3,500 years but if you remove these game changers from the line and you are back to square one.

Ptolemy, Copernicus, Aristotle, Ibn-Sina, Ibn-Rushd, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Ibn-al Haytham, Carl Sagon, Edison and many others in history, they all were game changers. They used their free-will to activate their intellect to explore. As it is said in scriptures as well;

“I am the origin of all creation. Everything proceeds from me. The wise who know this perfectly worship me with great faith and devotion”, (Gita 10:8)

“The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord. Searching all the innermost parts of his being”, (Proverb 20:27)

“And to Allah belongs the dominion of the Heaven and Earth, and Allah is over all things. Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and earth, and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding.” (Quran, Al-e-Imran 189-90)

We are benefiting today from what Galileo did, he himself could not take much of the benefit and so are the other game changers but Galileo got the benefit from Avicenna’s work. That’s how it works and it is essential for us to pass on the knowledge and for that we need those who use the option of Free-will.

Life will not become easier if we use free-will to activate our intellect but it will be worth living for.