Maëlys McArdle

Category: Life

Every other post.

  • The Myth of Free Will

    The Myth of Free Will

    The human mind is a complex biological machine. Much like its anthropogenic mechanical counterparts, if you reproduce it with infinite accuracy, the replica will be infinitely indistinguishable from the original.

    In the case of the human mind, if there was a machine to reproduce my body both perfectly and instantaneously, and in which our exit from it was at random ends of a symmetrical room, there would be nothing to distinguish me from my copy. He would be every bit me as I – identical childhood memories, identical views, identical fears, identical speech synchronicities. At that moment in time of our exit from this imaginary contraption, my will would be known in its entirety to the person at the other end of the room.

    Now imagine a computer simulation of a brain. My brain to be precise, with its exact genetic makeup stored in its vast data banks. Were you to simulate my life’s events with perfection to this virtual brain, including not just sensory inputs (sight, smells) but chemical influences as well (recreational drugs, hormones) you would also end up with a being that would be indistinguishable from myself in its thoughts. And were you to peek inside of it at any point in time, you would know exactly what I wanted at that time. My will. Were you to simulate all possible future outcomes, one simulated path would yield my will for the rest of my existence.

    In fact, were you able to simulate the universe with perfect precision, in its entirety, you would know the will of every individual that inhabits the Earth. Not only that, but you would predict correctly all of their decisions for the rest of their life. And those of their children. And those of their children.

    A device that could manage such a thing is impossible, as it would by definition require more matter than that which exists in the universe, but it does illustrate that your will is not open to independent choice. What you decide is entirely predictable and based on your history and those of your surroundings. Not a single person on this planet escapes this predictability, because they are the sum of their parts, organisms consisting of a series of interactions on a variety of scales.

    Interactions that are no different at its essence than the gravitational pull that one body exerts on another. The only reason we don’t predict our behaviour with the same ease is because we consist of trillions of interactions from processes not all so clearly understood.

    I’ve always defined free will as this idea that we had a choice that was up to us. That were you to relive the history of this planet, the outcome would change every time. This is just not so. And so if we are without a will that has no independence from our personal history, then ascribing a value to choice is futile, for the entirety of our life could be predicted with perfect precision from before its very inception.

    As you finish reading my thoughts on the matter, you might take this a number of ways. How you interpret it is going to be partly up to your genetics, upbringing, what you ate that day, and interactions with other people who are subject to the same factors. You may choose to see it as rubbish, but my point is that were I to know you perfectly, I would have been able to tell you that you’d see it that way ahead of time. That you’d see it any differently wasn’t ever truly an option to begin with – which is precisely my point.

  • England 2011

    England 2011

    What a great trip. Arrived in London from South Africa early on a Monday. I dropped off my bag at the hostel and started to explore. Bored after my first day, I asked my sister where I should go. She recommended Brighton. So off I went the following day. Arriving, I didn’t expect much. Brighton was in my mind this blue-collar town. Nope – I soon found myself in a sea of people, all going about their daily life in this most vibrant of shopping districts. And there was the sea. A beautiful long rocky beach nearby.

    From there I went up north near Liverpool, where my sister lives. I stayed with her family for a few days, and had a great time. It was the first opportunity since I was seven years old that I was able to be around her, alone, for more than an hour. She had moved out of the house when I was 7, and a country’s span away when I was 10. Every time I would see her thereafter was a family excursion, and so we never had alone time.  When I got older and she moved to England, I wasn’t able to afford to go alone. So on this time, where it was finally just us, we were able to connect in a way that I hadn’t been able to do at all in my life.

    I left Liverpool and stopped by a small town, where I met a wonderful couple I’ve known for a decade now through this warez bulletin board I was part of when I was a teen. We chatted and drank, and they made a wonderful wonderful meal. I ended up crashing on their couch. I left the following morning for York. Explored there for a day. Finally I took the train back to London where I left to go home.

    There was a small niggle on the way back – American security made me miss my connection, so I had to spend the night at a hotel in Washington, DC. They only had one flight a day to Ottawa. That bit was rather frustrating. But it doesn’t overshadow the rest of this superb adventure.

  • South Africa 2011

    South Africa 2011

    I’ve been in South Africa for the last week on business. I did have the opportunity yesterday, thanks to a kind co-worker at this office, to explore a bit outside the realm of my hotel and workplace.

    It’s been a very good trip. South Africa itself is very much a country of two worlds: the white elites, and the black underclass. The whites drive the cars, have the white collar jobs, afford the luxuries. They go from fortress to fortress, in their own mobile fortress. The blacks are relegated to the spaces in-between: walking the dusty streets or transiting in over-packed unpredictable minibuses, and work to serve the whites.

    It’s not that there is discrimination per se. The government has enacted policies to encourage greater diversity in workplaces. I’m guessing that though the segregationist policies of Apartheid ended, the socioeconomic impact of those years have too much momentum to be rid of so easily.

    I’ve been having a wonderful time. It’s a beautiful, raw, country.

  • Hit Weight Loss Goal

    Hit Weight Loss Goal

    After many months of work, I’ve finally reached my revised weight loss goal of 155 pounds. That’s a reduction of about fifty-five pounds from my peak, and twenty pounds since last writing about this in July. I’ve achieved this through tweaking my diet.

    No big changes. I tracked my daily intake and took away lessons whenever I greatly exceeded the amount of calories an adult of my size should have ingested in a day.

    One tactic I took was to combine foods. Instead of eating lots of pizza (bad), I’d have pizza with a side of something. Basically, I’d still get to eat what I like, but the side helped to moderate the calorie count without making me feel like I was missing out. Plus it added more diversity to my plate. I applied the same tactic to other foods like pasta and rice.

    My vegetable and to a lesser extent fruit consumption exploded as snack material. That of cheese and bread likewise went down. I started to eat breakfasts, which actually cut down my appetite for big lunches. So eating an extra meal meant I ate less.

    I took to drinking tea and coffee at work, which displaced my reliance on soda. Juice and the consumption of alcohol greatly decreased at home. I still drink it all, it’s just I’m more selective as to when.

    I never starved myself, or denied myself the foods I enjoyed. That would have ensured failure.

    I’m pretty happy with the results.

     

  • The Many Hands in the Pot of Ontario Schools

    The Many Hands in the Pot of Ontario Schools

     

    The picture of the television screen above was taken from my hotel room in Toronto a few weeks ago. The caption read “Forcing Liberal Agenda on Kids” and was referring to the new provisions in the Ontario curriculum that would make schools more inclusive for queer students. Naturally, the accompanying imagery wasn’t of children, but of a cross-dresser, and the guest invited on the show was homophobic.

    The above image, meanwhile, is a full-page advertisement that ran across the country in the National Post last month. It also speaks out against the new plans to make schools more welcoming. The Post would later apologize on the basis of the manipulative nature of the advertisement. The Toronto Sun, perhaps in reaction to this apology, decided to then run the advertisement themselves. The individual behind the ad campaign was Charles McVety, who had earlier asserted “that homosexuals prey on children.”

    During this past fall election in Ontario, the Progressive Conservatives, the official opposition party in this province, also took aim at the plans for more inclusive schools. Like the other ads, it was deeply misleading. Some of the quotes were fabrications not found in the material they cited. This is the party that came very close to being in charge of education in this province.

    In August, the Ottawa-Carleton School Board (OCSB) decided to march in Pride to show solidarity with its students. This was too much for the editors at the Ottawa Sun, which ran the news as a page 2 piece along with the above image to maximize impact. As expected, most of their readers were quite incensed and the paper was flooded with homophobic comments.

    The reality was of course quite a joyful matter, with teachers and staff showing their support for students. I took the photo above of them at Pride. Unfortunately, it isn’t just conservative media outlets and religious lobbies that have pushed against all forms of support for queer students. Some of the opposition has come from the school environment as well.

    One in three students in this province are in a school where Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) are banned. While much of the blame for this ban on support groups deservedly is directed towards the religious arm of this province’s education system, parents too bear some of the responsibility. As it was described of parents in a meeting at the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) debating the non-discrimination policies introduced by the Ontario government:

    Over the course of the evening, the TCDSB heard claims that GSAs “indoctrinate” and “confuse” youth by “normalizing” a “dangerous lifestyle.” Many others demanded that any reference to “sexual orientation” be removed from the document. The sense is that if students start talking about their identity, they will begin having sex.

    The crowd was distinctly divided by age. Most of those who stood to speak were adults who argued that allowing a GSA would open the door to “sexual promiscuity and disease.”

    One parent quoted the Catholic Catechism that says gays are “objectively disordered.”

    “There is nothing wrong with telling our kids [being gay] is a dangerous lifestyle,” said another parent, who refused to give her name.

    Whereas none of the aforementioned examples of prejudice would be deemed acceptable were it racist or antisemitic in nature, it is still far too often categorized as valid criticism on matters of young students and their orientation or gender identity.

    So to simply blame bullies and educators for the difficulties of students over their orientation or gender identity ignores a significant part of the problem. Schools do not operate in a void. There are a number of organizations and individuals that are successful in preventing initiatives to make schools a healthy environment for queer students. We must come to challenge these entities as we do the bullies.