Oh, where to begin? First, this isn’t science or scientific. This is religious propaganda poorly disguised as science, and funded by a religious organization. It doesn’t belong anywhere near this magazine that once had value, but Templeton has deep pockets.
As it is presented, the “experiment” is fundamentally flawed. Testing all of humanity against a constrained and insignificant sample space does not produce relevant results. Were people tested over time? People from vastly different societies? People who are “mentally handicapped” such that they don’t value what the usual selfish human values (nihilists)? What about people from other times? People of different ages? Heck, it doesn’t even matter. It was just 30 people! Maybe the experiment should have been testing why these people behaved this way. Repression? Pervasive fraud and lies in our society? Shortage of resources? Rebellion against stupid experimenters?
Sorry, but why the hell would you send me back to stop WW2? Knowing full well who funded this experiment, it would make no sense because I’m not Jewish. Like many others, I probably wouldn’t have been born if it wasn’t for WW2. (Then again, maybe I wouldn’t have been born if Hitler won.) Why would you recommend that I essentially kill all of THOSE people that would have existed AND myself? Why wouldn’t I be sent back to the 1300s with some god damned penicillin? Do you know how many people died from the plague? Probably not, but I can tell you that it was orders of magnitude more than WW2. Just for your insolence, I may very well send Hitler’s mother back to the future, stay there and get his job done right, and then his mom can have another baby Adolf who will rule the world that I created! Since we’re talking nonsense here, maybe I would hold my breath in transit and go all the way back and kill Abraham. That way, there wouldn’t have been anyone to kill in WW2, or survive and complain incessantly (your pick!) If you want a religious twist, send me back to the Inquisition. There, you will find me probably doling out punishment because THOSE PEOPLE SURVIVED! Tourism! Give me any other period in time that would give me the opportunity to extinguish one of the major religions and I’m in! Really though, I would probably use my few minutes to find a brauhaus and get a hot dog and a beer. Philosophize on that.
Back to science… With perfect knowledge of a system, nothing is random. Randomness is only what we use to explain that which we cannot observe. It’s perceived to be random. So, removing the stochastic element from the universe, it’s all just math. I can see that there’s no shortage of assumptions here that our “free will” is somehow insulated others’ actions. It’s the same system. Drr.
Lastly, anyone suggesting that science should not be full disclosure should be burned. People can handle the truth. People may think that they can’t because they have been coddled for so long, as well as the usual nefarious reasons (sex, money, power.) Sure, as with all big changes there is time for adaptation, but that’s one thing that humans are good at. Regardless, it’s contradictory. Stating that telling everyone that “free will” doesn’t exist and expecting the same outcome essentially states that humans are deterministic and can’t make up their own minds!
Seriously, though. Does anyone really think that people don’t already know all of this? Sure, they may go to church, pray, and say that they are nice people, but deep inside they are in denial. What they really want is to bang Miley Cyrus or Mel Gibson. “But I wouldn’t!” Pfft. Okay, if not that, they definitely want to have enough (or lots) of money, be free from bills and government, and basically… exercise free will! It’s a good thing that they are sentient enough to know that a little bit of greed gets you places. It got humans this far since it’s part of our toolkit of survival instincts. Telling humans that they must deny their humanity just reeks of religion. You’re a sucker if you hit that space bar.
