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'Aren't human beings the same way, programmed by our genes and our environment?'
'No.'
'What else, then?'
'Our connections say that we aren't.Because we're capable of connecting with each
other by act of will, which no other form of life on earth can doo.There's something we are, that wasn't caused by anything else.'
'what, our soul?'
'not even that, because the priests say that God created our souls, and that just puts us under the control of another puppeteer. If God created our will, then he's responsible for every choice we make. God, our genes, our environment, or some stupid programmer keying in code at an ancient terminal-- there's no way free will can ever exist if we as individuals are the result of some external cause.'
'so-- as i recall, the official philosophical answer is that free will doesn't exist. only the illusion of free will, because the causes of our behavior are so complex that we can't trace them back. if you've got one line of dominoes knocking each other down one by one, then you can say, look, this domino fell because that one pushed it. but when you have an infanite number of dominoes that can be traced back in an infinite number of directions, you can never find where the causal chain begins. so you think, that domino fell because it wanted to.'
'nonesense.'
'Well, i admit that it's a philosophy with no practical value. Even if there is no such thing as free will, we have to treat each other as if there were free will in order to live together in society. Because otherwise, every time somebody does something terrible, you can't punish him, because he can't help it, because his genes or his environment or god made him do it, and every time somebody does something good, you can't honor him, because he was a puppet, too. if you think that everybody around you is a puppet, why bother talking to them at all? Why even try to plan or create anything, since everything you plan or create or desire or dream of is just acting out the script your puppeteer built into you.'
'despair.'
'So we conceive of ourselves and everyone around us as volitional beings. we treat everyone as if they did things with purpose in mind, instead of because they're being pushed from behind. We punish criminals. we reward altruists. we plan things and build things together. we make promises and expect each other to keep them. it's all a made-up story, but when everybody believes thatevery body's actions are the result of free choice, and takes and gives responsibility accordingly,
the result is civilization.'

---XENOCIDe,
Orson Scott Card