Dumaguete Info Search


Is life really a Lottery?

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Forum' started by john boy, Jun 3, 2021.

  1. john boy

    john boy DI Forum Luminary Highly Rated Poster

    Messages:
    2,685
    Trophy Points:
    376
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Wirral near Liverpool UK
    Ratings:
    +1,151 / 230
    Which ever way you look at it Lifes a gamble.
    For many it is survival at any cost, while others just accept what life throws at them.
    Some try to beat the system by protest, others by cheating.
    Many work hard all their lives for very little reward while others become mega rich or successful by using their educational skills.
    But is there a certain amount of luck involved, that propels people, not necessarily clever into the realms of the super rich!
    The Worldwide Lottery's for most people is the only way they would ever be able to escape their situation or be lifted out of the mire they find themselves in.
    So is life what you make it- are some people more gifted than others- is it the genes you were born with or is it all down to Lady Luck?
    Contentment is a wonderful thing, health is more important than money, but I will still buy my ticket for the next big jackpot payout, how about you?
     
    • Like Like x 1
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2021
  2. Crystalhead

    Crystalhead ADMIN Admin ★ Forum Moderator ★ ★ Global Mod ★ ★ Moderator ★ ★★ Forum Sponsor ★★ ★ No Ads ★ Highly Rated Poster Showcase Reviewer Veteran Army

    Messages:
    1,889
    Trophy Points:
    371
    Occupation:
    retired
    Location:
    Canada and Neg. OR.
    Ratings:
    +1,977 / 1,087
    Sure life's like a lotto. My numbers always been 666. Worked out awesome for me. Cheers!
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
  3. Ozzyguy

    Ozzyguy DI Forum Adept

    Messages:
    322
    Trophy Points:
    141
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Philippines for now
    Ratings:
    +364 / 182
    Blood Type:
    I don't know.
    Interesting subject for sure.

    I know a fair few people that have done really well without much of a education. I wouldn't say mega rich but well off. One brought a 7m boat last year, I guess that's well off.
     
    • Like Like x 1
    • Genius Genius x 1
  4. Rye83

    Rye83 with pastrami Admin Secured Account Highly Rated Poster SC Connoisseur Veteran Army

    Messages:
    13,106
    Trophy Points:
    451
    Occupation:
    FIRE
    Location:
    Valencia
    Ratings:
    +16,069 / 3,795
    Blood Type:
    O+
    I'm not sure believe in free will any longer. There may moments of something resembling freewill sprinkled throughout life where you get to bump or nudge your life in a certain direction but the vast majority of decisions you make and how you interpret the world is already predetermined by your past experiences.

    Everyone is a victim of their circumstances and the starting point is pure luck. What your life turns out to be depends heavily on where you were born, who your parents are, and what they did to you (which was also predetermined by where they were born, who they were born to, and what their parents did to them). You couldn't have been anything other than what you are.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  5. OP
    OP
    john boy

    john boy DI Forum Luminary Highly Rated Poster

    Messages:
    2,685
    Trophy Points:
    376
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Wirral near Liverpool UK
    Ratings:
    +1,151 / 230
    Wow that's strange by coincidence mine are 777 !
     
    • Funny Funny x 1
  6. danbandanna

    danbandanna DI Forum Patron Highly Rated Poster Showcase Reviewer Veteran Marines

    Messages:
    1,012
    Trophy Points:
    356
    Ratings:
    +1,482 / 300
    Blood Type:
    A+

    Many scientists think that free-will is an illusion. That is, intentions, choices, and decisions are made by subconscious mind, which only lets the conscious mind know what was willed after the fact. This argument was promoted long ago by scholars like Darwin, Huxley, and Einstein
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
    • Like Like x 1
    • Informative Informative x 1
  7. SkipJack

    SkipJack DI Senior Member

    Messages:
    877
    Trophy Points:
    246
    Ratings:
    +1,160 / 79
    Blood Type:
    I don't know.
    I think they meant that there are no choices made at the time of reaction. What we perceive as free-will is only our ascertaining of the situation. Once we perceive inputs our reaction is preprogrammed.
    and genes.

    A computer program evaluates the inputs and appears to make a choice. But it is not making a choice, it is simply ascertaining the inputs. Once the input is known it applies a preprogrammed reaction.
     
  8. Notmyrealname

    Notmyrealname DI Forum Luminary Highly Rated Poster Showcase Reviewer

    Messages:
    4,920
    Trophy Points:
    386
    Ratings:
    +5,591 / 2,888
    That reaction would vary depending on our experiences - it is not fixed at birth. Our genes will mostly have expressed themselves by older age but, in some circumstances they may not - I think that certain genes may express themselves only according to the experiences we confront (and perhaps how we deal with them) and this can be at any point in a lifetime. So our reaction would not be the same if we had previous experiences XYZ instead of WXY, for example, or even ZYX (the same experiences as XYZ but in a different order). Perhaps at the moment we are experiencing something that is in itself feeding back into a network (including, crucially, the subconscious as @danbandanna stated) that changes the reaction, or outcome. Free Will depends on experiences and so cannot be free unless we can choose every experience - and even then it depends on making the right decisions and experiencing them in the right order (and no one does that). But I don't agree that early life experiences fix everything for us - some people climb from poverty to wealth and some descend from wealth to poverty. Often there are so many factors involved in those processes that it is like unravelling a millions pieces of string to find the real reasons - a wealthy person could lose everything by gambling and so raise the question 'why did he gamble?' and a poor person could launch a business that makes a billion. Which life experiences led to it? Which ones carried more weight? And many other questions.
     
    • Like Like x 6
  9. Toto

    Toto DI Senior Member

    Messages:
    749
    Trophy Points:
    251
    Ratings:
    +666 / 205
    More of our reactions are innate than we care to think about. We like to think of ourselves as having free will 100% of the time, but probably not. It can be overcome I think, if you are aware of it.
     
  10. PatO

    PatO DI Forum Luminary Highly Rated Poster Showcase Reviewer Veteran Marines

    Messages:
    6,071
    Trophy Points:
    451
    Ratings:
    +4,532 / 1,016
    My personal interpretation is the central nervous system is the controller and if any nerves get zapped you lose control.
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
Loading...