April 5, 2021
Things I did today
- Used focusmate to do a meditation story it was pretty good
- Getting more organized, combining school with todoist
- Did some biochem problems/lecture
- Did anki plus the shock collar — it worked surprisingly well honestly
- Listened to some of the happiness lab podcast
In the science of well-being course, there was a comment that stuck with me. Someone said that anything can be savored, no matter how small. Savoring is the act of stepping out of your experience and consciously focus on enjoying it. Lately I’ve been doing this with the smallest things, like eating gum, showering, or even the feel of my hand on the keyboard/mouse. Too much of life feels like it’s played on autopilot and we forget what made us happy before. For example, when I received my keyboard, monitor and mouse, I was ecstatic, but now that is a regular part of my life. Without stopping for a moment to savor, I might never even have remembered the joy of using these things for the first time.
Lately I’ve been wondering whether free will really existed. I’m convinced that there is zero free will going on but rather the illusion of free will. I believe that given a scenario revolving around a decision, if all of the atoms were perfectly replicated, the agents in that scenario could never make a different choice no matter how often it was replayed. I believe that our current thoughts and memories are stored as biochemical structures and currents going through my neurons. If we were to replicate those exactly, I don’t think anyone would be able to truly make a different decision if that makes sense.
