[MD] "Could have acted differently" v. "the extent to which we perceive DQ"

[X Acto]

Arlo as usual, sums it up alittle better than I.
 
tanks!

From: ARLO J BENSINGER JR <ajb102 at psu.edu>
To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2011 9:49 AM
Subject: Re: [MD] "Could have acted differently" v. "the extent to which we perceive DQ"

[Dan]
Yes, I would say that free will and "could have acted differently" are both
static quality illusions in the MOQ.

[Arlo]
I don't think they are illusions, I'd say they are patterns of value by which
we understand and mediate experience.

[Dan]
You seem to be asking if there is some way of going back for a re-do. There
isn't.

[Arlo]
I agree, but I think "could've" is a bit more powerful than after-the-fact
poetic rumination. What temporal abstraction allows us to do is to coordinate
our activity in the face of an oncoming stream of experience that we often
perceive as markedly similar to our catalog of symbolically represented
"history".

"Could've" is a focal word with which we mediate our immediate experience by
contemplating past experiences. "Could've" gives us the power to anticipate and
adapt, in ways many species lacking a temporal symbology cannot.

In other words, "could've" does not just look "back", it looks "forward". 

[Dan]
Could have beens are truth for old men and old women sorrowing over their
drinks in the tavern of broken dreams.

[Arlo]
And artists, where would art (music, painting, dance, literature, poetry, etc.)
be without "could've" induced sorrow?

[Dan]
Please make mine a double...

[Arlo]
I'll have what he's having...


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