wonderings of a 19 year old - origin of thoughts?
Before you think a thought, it must first be generated through electrical signals, which means the thought already exists before you consciously think it.
So the thought is not created by you yourself, but by something else. The subconscious.
The subconscious prepares every possible thought you could think in the present moment and brings into consciousness the one that has the highest action potential across the sum of neurons. In this way, the thought that is most likely to fit your situation is promoted into your awareness.
Thoughts are therefore just a chain of influences that have entered consciousness through certain triggers. No human is truly the master of their own thoughts. Our subconscious is the master. We can only think the things that our subconscious allows into consciousness.
How, then, do new thoughts arise?
Influence -> stored in the subconscious -> triggers a thought.
Since thoughts themselves are also influences, a thought triggers another loop:
Thought influence -> stored in the subconscious -> triggers a thought.
Thus, we can say that all our thoughts are linked to the previous thought, plus all the other influences we absorb.
This means all thoughts depend on the influences we perceive.
Through this chain, we can say that none of your thoughts simply appeared out of nowhere, but always build upon the previous thought.
Now the question arises: Was there something like an original thought, or are all our thoughts merely the result of external influences acting upon us?
In other words, are we just creatures who have never truly decided anything in life, but have been completely shaped by our environment? Is it the case that we, as our own soul, as our own person, have never had and do not have any influence over our own thoughts?
Because everything arose from external influences?
Are we merely creatures wandering around, pushing and changing one another, but unable to change ourselves?
Like a marble statue that cannot change itself, but can only be shaped by the sculptor.
Are we the same kind of marble statue, trapped within ourselves, without the ability to shape ourselves, dependent on the things that shape us?
We might say, no, I can decide which influences I accept and which I do not. But is that truly your own decision, or is it also the result of the chain of thoughts?
Is every decision you make therefore not truly coming from you, but actually formed by external influences?
What is the self? What am I?
Are we our influences?
We are our influences.
I am only your influences.
Your influences are me.
Are we different only because we have had different influences?
What would we be without our influences?
Just a body.
Does our soul arise only through the influences of others?
My soul is your influences.
Without your influences, I am soulless.
The soul does not exist.
The soul arises with influences.
Humans do not have their own soul.
It arises only through your influences.
Humans don’t have their own soul.
It only arises through your influences.
crazy.
If we actually have no free will, and everything we observe and consume ultimately shapes what we think, do we then have the power to recognize this and change our consumption habits and influences through willpower?
If we assume that 100 percent of our thoughts, and therefore our personality, are influenced by what we consume and observe, then it seems clear that the only way to influence our own thoughts and personality is to change what we consume and observe.
The problem is that you would not truly be able to decide this through free will if all the thoughts that led you to change what you consume are themselves the result of your past consumption and observations.
What do I mean by consumption and observation?
Consumption is everything you can perceive through your human senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
Observation is everything that enters your mind after an internal or external trigger. Most commonly, your own thoughts trigger new thoughts. It is not free will, but a chain of observations.
The only way I can explain it right now is this:
The possibility that you can think about changing what you consume and observe is itself only the result of past consumption and observations.
So you did not decide by yourself to think about this topic. It is the result of a chain reaction of your personal experiences, your past consumption and observations.
For example, the idea that you can actively change your surroundings is not truly your own discovery. It is the result of a past trigger. In my case, it was most likely a book I read, articles about the brain, and a discussion with ChatGPT that led to an understanding of the brain and then to conclusions about free will.
With that conclusion, new neurons fired and brought from the unconscious into consciousness the thought:
“I can only change my surroundings to change what I think and who I am.”
But do I have free will to decide how I will change my surroundings? Not really.
All your thoughts about how and why to change your surroundings are also just a conglomerate of your past experiences.
It feels like you have the free will to change your surroundings, but in reality, you do not.
Does this mean your entire life is predetermined because you cannot change anything through actual willpower?
You could say yes. There is no way to change your intentions by your own will.
However, there are infinitely many possibilities, so it is not possible to predict your life precisely. There is also great uncertainty about which other people will trigger which forms of consumption and observation in you.
The most predictable impact on your life likely comes from the people you interact with. All of them shape your personality by triggering neurons to fire.
So you do not have free will to change things unless you are triggered from the outside. You must observe or consume something that creates change.
It is like this paper. You would not be thinking about why and how to change who you interact with without the trigger of reading this page right now.
You could argue that once you understand this, it is an advantage. More importantly, it may be a duty to spread it. Because the moment someone else reads it, they have the possibility of being triggered and therefore of changing something in their life.
I believe it is a positive trigger. A trigger that can help people move forward in life. Because they can then change what they observe and consume, ideally toward better influences.
It is not their free will that creates change. It is the trigger combined with their past experiences.
You could say that the moment you enter the world, your life is already framed. Every thought after your first neuron fires is connected to and shaped by what came before.
Your first neurons begin firing around week five of pregnancy as an embryo. From that point on, you are exposed to what you consume and observe.
That leads to your thoughts.
Your thoughts lead to your personality.
We are simply the accumulation of past experiences combined with current triggers.