facts do not have feelings (or do they?)

In a lecture to University of California Yuval Noah Harari stated that “There is no such thing as free will . . . freedom has absolutely no meaning from a physical or biological perspective, it’s just another myth another empty term that humans have invented.  Feelings are just biochemical algorithms” Speaks of computers creating algorithms that know your feelings better than you know yourself.  These are external algorithms.  This is where we lose free will, it has become subject to the whim of machines and algorithms, as well as media (in my estimation).  I agree that feelings are arbitrary or more made-up than we think. We may feel it though impossible for an external algorithm could know us better than we know ourselves, as Harari understands. This throws a wrench in the idea that we choose, but rather that something external decides things for us. Let’s face it though our decisions are largely prompted by algorithms in advertising.  I would say that to a greater degree algorithms choose for us, once we are engaged with media of all sorts. Evidence requires the burden of proof and facts remain the winners of the day, for us, but facts are based of feelings in a humanistic world, at least according to Harari. Where do you stand on these matters?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Harari makes a technologically informed rework of B. F. Skinner. Your book "Pixilated Practices" makes an elegant argument for our manipulation by media, which I think speaks to Harari's statement.
24 August 2022 at 11:23
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