Blaming people when physics runs the brain

HostWe all have those moments where we look back on a choice and wonder why we did what we did. Maybe it was what to have for breakfast or a big life move. We like to feel like we're the ones in the driver's seat. But if you look at how the world works at its most basic level, down to the tiny bits of matter, it starts to look like the script was written a long time ago. How does the way the physical world works change how we think about being a good or bad person?

GuestWell, think about a line of dominos. If you push the first one, the rest are going to fall. There's no way for the fifth domino to decide to stay standing. It has to fall because the fourth one hit it. Deep down, the world is a lot like those dominos. Every single thing that happens is just the result of something else that happened right before it. We call this cause and effect. Since our brains are part of the physical world, they follow those same rules. The atoms and chemicals in your head move because other things pushed them first. If every tiny movement in your brain is set by the laws of nature, then every thought you have and every choice you make was always going to happen exactly the way it did.

HostThat sounds like we're just puppets. I have a hard time thinking of myself that way. When I'm standing in the grocery store picking between two boxes of cereal, it really feels like I'm the one doing the work. It doesn't feel like dominos falling.

GuestIt feels that way because we don't see the dominos. We only see the end result. Think of your brain like a very complex weather system. A storm doesn't choose to rain. It happens because of heat, wind, and water moving in a certain way. Your brain is a storm of electricity and chemicals. When you pick that cereal box, your brain is weighing a thousand different things like how much sugar is in it, the bright colors on the box, or a commercial you saw when you were five years old. All of those are physical tracks that lead to one outcome. You feel like you're choosing, but you're really just watching the storm play out. If we could go back in time to that exact moment and keep everything the same, you would pick the same box every single time. There's no other path you could've taken.

HostBut if there's only one path, that seems to break the whole idea of right and wrong. If a person does something terrible, we usually blame them because we think they could've chosen to do something good instead. If physics says they had no choice, how can we say they're a bad person?

GuestThis is where it gets very tricky for how we run our world. If we truly believe that people are just physical systems, then blaming someone starts to look a bit like getting mad at a car because it won't start. The car isn't being mean or lazy. Something is just broken under the hood. When someone does something harmful, it's because their brain was in a state that led to that action. The chain of causes led there. However, that doesn't mean we just let people do whatever they want. If a car has no brakes, we don't let it stay on the road. We take it off the street so it doesn't hurt anyone. We might even try to fix the brakes. We can still have rules and laws to keep us safe, but the reason for them changes. Instead of punishing someone because they're evil, we're managing a physical system to prevent harm.

HostI don't think people will be okay with that. It feels way too cold. If you tell a victim of a crime that the person who hurt them is just a car with no brakes, it takes away the sense of justice. We want people to be responsible for their own hearts and minds. It feels like you're stripping away what makes us human.

GuestIt can feel that way, but looking at it through the lens of physics might actually make us more kind. If we see that people are shaped by things they can't control, like their genes or the way they were raised, we might be less quick to hate. We can still hold people accountable. Think of it like a dog that bites. We don't hate the dog for being a dog, but we still put a leash on it. We hold the person accountable because that very act of holding them accountable becomes a new cause that affects their future behavior. If I know there's a penalty for a certain action, that knowledge is a physical weight in my brain that might push the dominos in a better direction next time.

HostSo you're saying we're still just trying to nudge the machine. But if I'm just a machine, why should I even bother trying to be a good person? If it's all set in stone, my effort to be better is also just something that was going to happen or not happen anyway. It makes everything feel a bit pointless.

GuestThe feeling of pointlessness is just another state of the machine. The fact that the path is set doesn't make the walk any less real. If you watch a movie, the ending is already on the film, but you still feel the joy and the fear while you watch it. You still care about the characters. Our lives are the same. Even if our choices are the result of physics, we still experience them. We still feel love, we still feel pain, and we still want the world to be a better place. The meaning doesn't come from having some magical power to break the laws of physics. It comes from the fact that we're here, experiencing the story as it unfolds.

HostThe world still feels like a much heavier place if we're all just parts in a giant clock.

GuestThe beauty of it's that even if we're parts of a clock, we're the only parts that get to stop and wonder how the clock works.

HostThat cereal box on the shelf might have been waiting for me since the start of time, but the crunch still tastes just as good.