Fate Vs Free Will...

Right, first I've gotta put in a disclaimer that I know pretty much fuck all about philosophy and the intracacies of chaos theory and that most of what I say is based on basic knowledge of theories I've come across that I've effectively botched together to try and explain things...

Your probably thinking what the fuck is he on about now and please be assured your no the only one, many have been encumbered and by all means feel free to completely ignore what is said. Having gone through that let me begin to explain why Fate and free will are not mutually exclusive and can quite happily co-exist IMO...

First I'll start by giving you the skinny about what the general argument is and that you as a dedicated raver might even have pondered at 6 in the morning while waiting for a) the floor to stop warping b)the ringing in your ears to stop or c)the sun to come up. I add those examples in purely because they are specific trains of thought that lead me to ponder the very same question, which is....

DO WE HAVE FULL CONTROL OF OUR ACTIONS AND THEIR OUTCOME BY OUR OWN FREE WILL, OR ARE THEY PRE-DETERMINED BY FATE?

Well the argument goes something like, if we have full control over our actions, by the law of cause and effect (i.e any action will cause a reaction and nothing happens otherwise), any resulting consequences are solely due to the previous action. However if there is such a thing as fate, the action and consequence must be predetermined and so you can't have free will....

Of course if you don't believe in fate then this isn't much of a problem, but then the question of 'what if?' arises and the concept of infinite multiple dimensions which are formed at every decision point. Now my only problem with this is that theoretical physics suggests that the universl model can only work in either a 10 or 25 dimensional universe (roughly gleaned from the book entitled Hyperspace by some Japanese physicist whose name I've temporarily forgotten)...

ANyway if you do believe in fate, then it's a bit disturbing to have to think that your every move is pre-determined, especially since it seems so counter-intuitive. I mean it rules out the whole spontaneity side of things for a start...

You could argue for ages about whether fate exists or not and pretty much get nowhere. Personally I prefer to sidestep the issue entirely, with a little redefining of things and application of chaos theory mathematics...

The basic gist is that in chaos theory you can see patterns emerging from something that at first looks completley random and chaotic. THat is to say that small picture is a complete mess, but that mess repeats itself if you zoom in and out of things. THis is usually best illustrated with 'fractals'. Now most of these chaotic systems arise from a few set of simple rules that cannot be broken. If we apply this to the human condition then it begins to explain why fate and free will do not rule each other out...

Basically although we may have free will as individual entities, there are a couple of rules that we cannot break if we are to go on living (literally, cause once your dead the issue of free will, at least in the physical world, tends to become irrelevant). On the most basic level these include things like 'You must eat and drink' and 'You've gotta get rid of toxic waste produts from the body', then on a more social level, 'you must have a source of income to obtain food' etc etc (obviously these rules differs between different society's and cultures).

Now since everybody is bound by these rules, than while the individual course of each person through time is effectively random, their crossing of paths with others is pretty much a certain. These crossings of paths then have the potential for interaction and subsequent effects of actions may be highly influential.

To illustrate the point, think about those really strange experiences when you bump into peeps from your old school at a squat in a disused Nat West bank in Streatham having not had contact with them for a good couple of years and then again at the Hackney volcano festival three years later (for example). Now while we each have our own free will, the 'coincedence' that we meet up is actually quite high since we're from the same background, into similar music and enjoy getting trollied.

On a wider level, in depth astrology (as opposed to the sun signs, which are far too general to be of use)could be seen to be a way of studying this. In effect the stars are being used as a big clock to give a start point to the indivinduals entry into the human equation and predicitons of the future are crossing of paths which have the potential to lead to important actions and subsequent influential consequences...

Hmmm think I'd best stop rambling now, but well done if you've got this far!!!!