Review Of The Movie ‘Signals Of The Future’: Explaining Determinism

Review of the movie ‘Signals of the future’: Explaining determinism

I chose a scene from the movie "Signals of the future" about an astrophysical professor named John. In the John scene he is dictating one of his classes and proposes a subject, chance and determinism, John asks one of his students the definition of determinism and this replies that determinism says that events in nature are caused by eventsprecedents or by natural laws. Everything that takes us to this point, goes through a reason. Everything has a purpose, everything has an order;is determined. Then take a scheme of the sun and places it next to the earth telling its students to analyze the perfect combination of circumstances that the sun put at the right distance of the earth to evolve life and there is the possibility of living, it ends by sayingthat everything has an order, a purpose, that everything is determined. Then he presents the chance theory that says that everything is simple coincidence. The mere fact that we exist is nothing, but the result of a complex but inevitable would be chemical accidents, and biological mutations. There is no great meaning and no purpose.  

It is possible to affirm that events in nature are caused by preceding events or by natural laws, does everything have an order?, Is everything simple coincidence? everything happens for a reason? There is no great meaning or any purpose? Are we able to act by our own will or are we determined? If we are determined then we are not responsible for our actions and everything that happened is before established and there is no way to change it.

Or if we have the ability to make our own decisions responsible for what we cause, there is this duality of two positions that try to justify how humans act and the question arises, to what extent can the human beings of our actions be responsible?  

To discuss and answer my question, I will focus on two philosophical concepts, determinism and the principle of responsibility, taking ideas from the philosophers Baruch Spinoza and Hans Jonas, the principle of responsibility opposes the ideals and thoughts of determinismAnd both have a different perspective about the established question. Both philosophical currents will be analyzed in order to know if the human being is responsible for their actions or are already determined several times after committing an incorrect action or simply doing something that I should not have to do I think, why I did it,It was wrong with what I just did and I end up concluding that I should never have performed that action that resulted in negative consequences. But in truth we are able to act for ourselves or we are simply determined, determinism says that every physical event, including human thinking and actions, is determined by the unbreakable chain cause-consequence. If we see things from this thought then humans are not able to think for themselves and take their actions, therefore, it can be concluded that all actions are good or bad are justified and man is not responsible for their actions.  Determinism expresses that all events are inevitable results of previous causes, that everything that happens has a reason for being. With this I agree enough but not totally, I do believe that all the actions are connected and that an action depends on a previous since events influence the thoughts of individuals and these make people act in a different way, for example, the case of Jack Andraka, a 13 -year -old boy after losing a close friend of pancreas cancer family, decides to investigate and try to find a solution to pancreatic cancer. (ABC.is) use knowledge in response to pain and learning as a cure and thanks to this it will help save many lives in the future. For that reason I think that all actions are connected, but I refuse to the thought that everything that happens happens because it is already determined. 

There is a level of determinism but it is not absolute, influence but not destiny Hans Jonas said that humans deliberately choose, being aware of what they do and that the human being is the only being that has responsibility, alone humans can consciously choose between alternatives between alternativesof action and that choice brings consequences. His ideal was that each human must act in order to ensure the survival of future generations and that for more than being tempted to do something that is not right to refrain so that it does not harm society. Jonas always believed that you have to think first and then act because each action brings a consequence. There is definitely a relationship between man and action, the human being if he is able to take his own actions and at the same time is responsible for the consequences that are linked to that action, there is a responsibility with the future.  Many harmful events for society may occur because they have a reason, but as events such as the Holocaust are justified where millions of Jews died innocently because of an ideology that believed that this was the right thing to. A good example that contradicts the deterministic ideology are environmental disasters, not inevitable as earthquakes, but those caused by the misuse of natural resources such as global warming. 

Global warming is the product of the same man, the bad decisions that have been made by humans have led to great consequences such as droughts or heavy rains that affect a large percentage of the population in the world and animals. So when they say “everything that happens has a reason for being” I think they are incorrect and I think that everything that happens is because we make it happen.  Baruch Spinoza The Dutch philosopher wrote in ethics the following: ‘The decisions of the mind are nothing except desires, which vary according to several specific provisions’. ‘There is no absolute free will in mind, but the mind is determined by wishing this or that, by a caused in turn for another cause, and this in turn for another cause, and so on the infinity.’Baruch Spinoza has several points that are correct and are worth taking into account, he believes that the mind is determined by wishing this or that and may be true since man makes decisions regarding what he wants and forHe is determined. Spinoza also says that men believe they are free because they are aware of their wills and desires, but they are ignorant of the causes for which they are taken to desire.  

Baruch may be right, we believe that we are able to make our own decisions and that is why we believe that we are free at the time of acting, but we really do not know why we act that way and why we make those decisions, because each human wishesin a certain way and think differently. For example, there are people with different reasons in life, different thoughts, but we are all aware of our desires and we act in the way we can achieve what we want and seek to fulfill those desires, but we do not really know because we like those things, because we want to be in a way or get certain things, so we are determined, we were born with our tastes and desires and we did not have the option to choose them. That is the point of view closer to the determination of our actions that Baruch has and in that part I agree with him.  

I deny all the thoughts that our world is determined, that things happen by happening and it is not possible to avoid certain things. An example is all theories that propose a date of the moment where the world will end, such as the Maya, but it is impossible to predict when it will occur, depending on the actions taken, a date can be defined, for example, if we decide to take care ofOur planet may follow humanity for more years or simply an individual with a lotdetermined. Our own decisions are those that create the consequences, no consequence is already determined and we are responsible for those actions.   If we are determined, how were our actions determined?, Why are there events or actions from humans themselves that are so destructive to the rest of society?, These are questions that arise in my head that make no sense if everything is determined. I do not think it is possible that other humans are determined to kill, torture or destroy others, it is something of each individual that can be avoided in most cases. If I managed to harm another being, it is not because I am determined to do it and I cannot avoid it, it is because I decided to do it and because my goal was to hurt either for happiness, pleasure or the fact that it is not very mentally. Each human is able to choose their own actions, whether to achieve good or evil, although these actions can be influenced by past facts by economic, social, religious, geographical, genetic or environmental factors.  

I do not consider that some humans are able to cause so much destruction and less if the responsibility of these actions is removed by the fact that they are determined, it is not correct. In my opinion, n is possible to believe that a person is determined to cause pain in others, it is something that each person chooses to do. It makes no sense that there is a world where beings live in order to destroy, in my opinion it is a decision that the human being makes and he himself is the one who decides to cause harm for pleasure or desire. The actions of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State or the Al Shabaab are not allowed by the simple fact that we are determined, they choose to cause destruction, they were not born to do so and are responsible for those actions, determinism does not justify these actions.  I do not completely agree with Amabas theories (determinism and principle of responsibility), although I do believe that the principle of responsibility is the most correct in defining and explaining how humans’s actions occur, in my opinion, there is an intermediate point,since past conditions could have influence, but they are not those that determine future actions. 

Individual decisions are the result of many possible results, which are caused, but not determined by the past, as in the case of Jack Andraka. Some may manage to choose the actions, but he is not responsible for the cause of that action. The actions can initiate or limit the future elections of the individual himself or others, such as Adolf Hitler with the Nazi movement, but not determine them and if someone takes an action he has all the responsibility of which he brought.  Returning to the question raised, to what extent can human beings be responsible for their actions I think that we are responsible for human beings about our actions since we are not determined until the opposite is demonstrated scientifically, so, ourActions are only from us and only we are the ones indicated in choosing what we do, for that reason, we must take absolute responsibility of our decisions and for that reason we must know the consequences that these decisions carry and act ethically in order to achieve thecommon well -being, as Hans Jonas said.

 There is no justification for the wrong actions that man chooses, such as death or torture is physical or emotional. The future depends on the actions we take. So we are responsible for how everything develops and we must act as Hans would say, thinking about the well -being of future generations.