Is There Really Free-Will and Can Human Psychologists One Day Predict Human Behavior?

Is it possible that someday a supercomputer can predict all of your choices that you will make from the time you are born until the time you die based on your genetic code and DNA? And if so how close can they actually get, and how much random chance will shake up that prediction. Is it impossible to know - or is it possible that someone's entire life could be foretold? And with that said if you can predict the life of one individual, could you indeed predict the life of 7 billion humans on the planet?

That is to say predict how they will interact, and all the events that could possibly occur? Theoretically, and here is where we get into a bit of philosophy, the answer is probably yes. Now that's certainly going to bother a good number of people who believe in free will, and it bothers me even bringing up the topic. You see I believe in freedom and liberty, and I intend to live my life as if I am free. But am I? Are you?

It might sound a bit cliche'ish to invoke the example of the Hollywood Movie "Minority Report" as it seems someone always is, but indeed, it was a very decent movie with an on-going moral dilemma of free-will versus a Calvanistic view of the world. Nevertheless, last week I was having an interesting dialogue with an overseas acquaintance about the ability of modern day psychologists predicting future behavior.

We do it all the time in our society, we call it profiling. We do it at our airports, and our State Department, Military, CIA, etc, does it in sizing up those individuals we must deal with. It seems quite possible that our ability to predict the weather is getting much better with supercomputers, so indeed at sometime in the future we should be able to predict human behavior, and human choices based on the individual in certain circumstances. And we should be up to do this somewhere within the 99.99 percentile.

Does that mean we should?

After all, there could be some serious benefits if we can predict such things, and we would be able to prevent terrorism, and violent acts. We could use this to protect the American people, and prevent or reduce crime. However if we do this, what will we give up? Will we give up our freedom and liberty in the process? Will we dismiss free will as an underlining principle which guides our system of laws and society?

Yes, this is all just philosophy, but in the end we will have choices to make as our artificially intelligent supercomputer systems become more robust and our understanding of algorithmic prediction and mathematical proximity reaches that ultimate plateau. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it. If you'd like discussing such matters then please shoot me an e-mail, my line is always open.

Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank, a diverse group of achievers, experts, innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, academics, dreamers, leaders, and general all around brilliant minds. Lance Winslow hopes you've enjoyed today's discussion and topic. http://www.worldthinktank.net/ - Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance Winslow.

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Are Humans and Chimpanzees Really the Same Species But Different Breeds? Be Honest Now

Humans are upright walking primates right? Yes, that's true, but who is to say that Chimpanzees which share 98.7% of human DNA aren't actually a breed of humans? Scary thought, okay, but hear me out, even though you don't care to think here because it very well might humble you from your species-centric attitude. Now then, since the DNA is so close, it is quite possible that humans and Chimpanzees can inter-breed, thus, they are by human definition - the same species. Of course, this is easily proven right?

Last week, I was discussing this with an overseas acquaintance, someone with a 150+ IQ and they said "yes I guess it is. But there will probably be a lot of people whom are against it. Do you know if there has been any serious discussion about trying this?" Well, actually, and this will shock you, yes, it has been done. I do not know if the offspring was viable (able to reproduce). There is an old case in the 1950s -1960s and I do not know which breed of chimpanzee, I think it was a Bonobo.

The person who did it, didn't admit they had sex with a chimpanzee, the offspring was used in the circus for a while, died early, chimpanzees don't live as long as humans, probably other issues too, psychological, sociological, disease, and dietary. I agreed with my acquaintance; "That is a horrible environment and way to do the experiment."

Yes, but when we outlaw experiments, they happen anyway, with the less-than-ethical folks running the show. Also, humans don't really want to know the truth - they can't handle it with all their religion, instead of amazement and a leap in knowledge, the individual was treated like a freak in a side-show. No one could handle the truth of what happened.

Humans think they are special, but how much more special than any evolved life carving out a niche? Perhaps more successful as mammals go, and a large number of higher order attributes, reasoning capabilities, and sensors to match, but not so special they should be mislead into denial. It's a pretty mean thing to do, "a circus" freak show, pretty cruel - humans?

My acquaintance stated upon hearing this that; "I do not think that breeding will lead to anything positive, except proving the similarity of the DNA." Right, the case yielded a more upright walking, looking little less harry chimpanzee, with lighter skin, very strong, and larger than a Chimpanzee, but smaller than the average human. It was said to be smarter than that of a normal Chimpanzee, but that could have been due to the fact it was cared for better by its human friends, since it grew up around humans, not chimpanzees.

Indeed, I hope you will please consider all this and think on it, and as always you may email me about any concerns, comments, or questions, but I will not entertain religious fever or damnation for discussing this issue.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 22,700 articles was a lot of work - because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off..

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