Everything Is

Predetermined: Albert
Einstein (and his friends)
and Ramana Maharshi

Gary Weber, Ph. D.

 Everything Is Predetermined
Ramana Maharshi
Are only the important events in a man's life, such as
his main occupation or profession, predetermined, or
are trifling acts also, such as taking a cup of water or
moving from one part of the room to another?
Ramana Maharshi replied, Everything is
predetermined.

Albert Einstein
"Everything is determined, the beginning as well as
the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is
determined for insects as well as for the stars. Human
beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a
mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an
 Can Physics Explain
Consciousness?
Eugene Wigner :
Physics cant even prove physics
"It was not possible to formulate the laws (of quantum theory) in a
fully consistent way without reference to consciousness."
In The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural
Sciences, the mathematical formulation of the physicists often
crude experience leads in an uncanny number of cases to an
amazingly accurate description of a large class of phenomena."
Biology and cognition could be the origin of physical concepts, as
we humans perceive themthat mathematics and physics were so
well matched, seemed"unreasonablehard to explain otherwise

What can be logically deduced about free will, choice,

karma/sin, and knowing the outcomes and sources of our
actions from our current scientific understanding?
Is Predetermination Scientifically
Reasonable?
Benjamin Libet UCSF 1983
Participants
Watched a clock and noted precisely when they decided to flex
their wrist
Noted when the movement actually occurred
The intention to move occurred 200 milliseconds before
movement actually began.
Electrodes placed over the motor control areas of the brain
recorded when the brain had begun initiating the movement.
Electrical activity of the muscles involved in the wrist
movement determined precisely when muscle movement
began.
Brain activity to initiate movement started about 550
milliseconds before the action began.
However, participants were only aware of the intention to
move 200 milliseconds before it occurred.
The brain had initiated the movement before the participant
 Movement Initiated < Awareness
of the Movement

Movement is
We are aware Action
initiated by
350 ms of the 200 ms
the brain occurs
impending
without our
action
awareness

What role do we
play in the
action?
 But What About Deciding
Something In Those 200ms?
Strawson (1994)
At birth, ones thoughts, feelings and behaviors are
determined by genetics, prenatal learning and
environment.
Subsequent thoughts, feelings and behaviors are built
on that foundation decisions and choices are a
result of accumulated experience, as modulated by
genetic factors
If one tries to change oneself, those goals and
methods are determined by genes, etc. what one
can be is determined by what one already is
Time to veto conveys no more free will than the time
between putting eggs on waiting for them to fry
The Growing Case for Genetic Causation
Francis Crick - You, your joys and your sorrows, your
memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity
and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast
assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules

Functional DNA polymorphism in DRD4, MAO-A and 5HT genes

linked to pathological gambling; FAAH gene w/385A allele
damps fear circuitry and intensifies reaction to making money

A DRD2 gene allele can intensify responses to gambles

Harvard and UCSD studies found that genes may be 46%

responsible for how popular and how connected we are

MSU study showed that a mutation in serotonin receptor gene

5-HT2A is linked to a variation in popularity

Two NEJM studies found binge eating strongly associated to

Recent Work On Individual Neurons
Hint At Biology of Thought
 Contemporary Extensions of
Libets Work
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, (Bhattachcarya and
Sheth, 2009)
More complex thought processes - looking at aha/Eureka
insights, when they are known and where they come from
Simple, practical problems, not well known w/o a linear,
methodical solution

EEG predicted who would have the insight by different

brainwave activity in right frontal cortex up to 8 seconds
before the insight was realized

Conscious thought does not solve problems

Unconscious processing delivers the solution when it has

been worked out
Modern Complex Systems (Chaos) Theory
An MIT meteorologist (Edward Lorenz) was conducting a
computer modeling experiment.

To save time he restarted his huge program in the middle of a

run with his printout data which rounded variables to 3-digits,
while his computer worked with 6-digit precision.

Surprisingly, the result for the entire weather system changed

dramatically.

A new mathematical approach developed which focused on the

impact of small, seemingly insignificant changes on the
behavior of large complex dynamic systems

Used in mathematics, topology, physics, population biology,

biology, meteorology, astrophysics, information theory, cardiac
cycles, war, etc.
 Complex Systems Theory Applied to
Intelligent Choice and Free Will
Complex Systems Mathematics observes:
Situations are less predictable further from the initial conditions.
Complex interacting systems undergoing change (our lives) are
unpredictable.

All parts of the system affect, and are affected by, many other parts of
the system in a complex web of cause and effect and feedback.
Predictions based on linear logic (a > b > c) do not work.

Completely unpredictable results can emerge even if the original

conditions are known in great detail.

With all the interactions and feedback, huge amounts of knowledge are
required that cannot be collected and assembled in time for even one
simple decision.

The human mind is suited for simple situations using simple logic.
Short-term memory holds about seven pieces of information at a time
inadequate for todays complex, interconnected world.

This inability of our minds to generate reliable decisions gives us great

 You are NOT in control
It is impossible to know the ultimate outcomes of
any of my actions and who they will affect, or how
the current situation came to be.

What if a small change happened in your

great-great-great-great grandmothers life? Would
you be here today in this room?

Were you in control and knowledgeable of

everything surrounding the most important decision
in your life including all of its subsequent
implications?
Even Simple Interactions Are
Massively Complex
 Games Demonstrate The
Hopelessness of Our Situation
In chessworld
Only two families each with father, mother, three sets of
older twins and eight younger children.
Only limited and prescribed movement is possible. Each
person can only be in one of about 60 adjacent houses.
If someone moves into a house occupied by a member of
the other family, the only possible outcome is that the
current occupant dies.
Everyone moves alternatively by family until one family is
gone.
Clearly a much, much simpler and less populous world than we
occupy.
Possible different sequences of interactions of those two
families is 1 followed by 123 zeroes (Shannon number).
An estimate of the number of particles in the known
universe is 1 followed by 79 zeroes (+/- a few zeroes).
 The Bhagavad Gita Strikes A
Similar Tone

And even if, clinging to the I-sense, you say that you will not fight,
your intention will be in vain; Nature will compel you to act.

Even the wise man acts in accordance with his inner nature. All
beings follow their nature. What good can repression do?

No one, not even for an instant, can exist without acting, all beings
are compelled, however unwilling, by the three strands of Nature
called gunas.
 You Are Not In Control
If everyone has free will and is in control, how
does that work for 6,800,000,000 people?

What if 100,000 people want the same item?

What if ten people want different results from a

situation and they are from four different religions?
How does the bookkeeping work of all results of
all behaviors of 6,800,000,000 people, 16 hrs/day for
their lives on everyone else? Who keeps track of all
of this karma and sin?
What Is This I That Makes These
Choices and Has This Sin/Karma?
How Does An I Get Built?
How Does An I Get Built?
How Does An I Get Built?
How Does An I Get Built?
 If Everything Is Predetermined
Where Does That Leave You?
Surprisingly, living in the moment, accepting
whatever unfolds, just as it is, whatever it is
Beyond the reaches of recursive,
compulsive, confused thought
Fully present and active in the world,
without regret, second-judgments, or hidden
agendas
Functioning at a higher, more creative level
without the interference of constant
background/foreground thinking
 An Aha Problem
The Problem
Three story house.
Three light switches on the ground floor.
Two switches do not work. One switch turns on a
incandescent light bulb on the second floor.
The light and all three switches are off. You may flip the light
switches as much as you want, but you may only go up to
the second floor once to check the light bulb.
How do you determine which switch works?

The Answer:
Switch one light switch (a) on for several minutes. Then
switch it off and switch another one (b) on. Then
immediately go upstairs. If the light is on, switch (b) turned it
on. If the light is not on, feel the bulb. If it is hot, then switch