I discovered the Stanford University course too.  I went on a Sapolsky viewing binge when I found it.  I read CHAOS on Robert's recommendation.



After reading the book I realized the whole free will / determinism argument was ridiculous.  Reality folds back on itself so much that puny attempts to guide reality are quite effective in altering the flow away from what it would have been.

We don't change the flow of reality the way we wish in the long term, but change reality we certainly do.

*  Finishing the video

"I pontificate out the wazoo.  I'm insufferable. And most of them appropriately glaze over at that point, what would I tell them?  What do I tell them? It looks really tough to make a change, but by definition, because of my privilege in life, I've wound up spending my career interacting with students who are uber-privileged.  So if anyone's going to do it, it's you guys because not only did you get to go to one of the best universities on Earth, you almost certainly don't have horrible gut parasites because you are one of the lucky ones.  Maybe the next thing is this thing that fascinates me trying to make sense of in terms of making the world whole and one of the completely irrational things we're capable of doing as humans and have to do, the more hopeless the problem seems, the  more you have to decide that you're one of the ones who can solve the problem, which is a version of this impossible religious stance of the less lovable the person, the more you have to find the means to love them. You are one of the lucky ones. Go and do it. And keep in mind, it's not going to come cheap and you're going to have to make a lot of personal choices as to what you're willing to give up along the way. No one said this is going to be easy."