To Bang or Not to Bang...

[Nakosis]

So I have an unfinished Bang energy drink in front of me. About 2/3rds full.

I now have the free will? choice to finish it off or not.

Since I have not yet decided, how can the fate of my Bang energy drink be determined?
I don't really care either way. No desire, no wish for either out come.

Does cause and effect start with my decision?
Or, was the fate of my Bang determined before I was born?

 

[lewisnotmiller]

So...this thread wasn't asking what I THOUGHT it was asking.

Trying to change my assumed answer to one matching this thread. It would be something like 'It's fine as long as the drink is consenting...'
Ahem.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

On a more serious note, there isn't a straight binary choice between everything being 'cause and effect' or 'fated'.

 

[SigurdReginson]

What ever action you take, your life experiences, motivations, and limitations had ultimately guided you to make the decision that you "choose", it seems to me. The fact that "drinking" or "not drinking" are the options you present are examples of that.

Why isn't doing something like going to the store, buying a home enima kit, and flushing your bowels with it one of the "choices" you propose? I mean, you are free to do that, aren't you? You would be both drinking and not drinking the energy drink simultaneously.

 

[Stevicus]

So I have an unfinished Bang energy drink in front of me. About 2/3rds full.

I now have the free will? choice to finish it off or not.

Since I have not yet decided, how can the fate of my Bang energy drink be determined?
I don't really care either way. No desire, no wish for either out come.

Does cause and effect start with my decision?
Or, was the fate of my Bang determined before I was born?

I don't know. If you start drinking something and it doesn't taste good, is that a matter of a person choosing how it tastes? If I didn't like it, I would stop drinking it. Or if it causes stomach upset, then that would be a reason not to drink it, related to something involuntary and outside of free will.

Sometimes I'll have a cup of coffee and get involved in something else and forget that I had it. I didn't intend to forget; it just happened.

Do those energy drinks really give you energy? I just stick with coffee myself.

 

[dybmh]

I now have the free will? choice to finish it off or not.

My vote: you should totally chug it

 

[Shadow Wolf]

So I have an unfinished Bang energy drink in front of me. About 2/3rds full.

I now have the free will? choice to finish it off or not.

Since I have not yet decided, how can the fate of my Bang energy drink be determined?
I don't really care either way. No desire, no wish for either out come.

Does cause and effect start with my decision?
Or, was the fate of my Bang determined before I was born?

Your brain is way ahead of ya.
Your brain makes decisions before you even realize it

You make countless decisions every day that range from mundane to incredibly important, but what part of you is actually making those decisions? We all assume that our brains are focused on whatever task we’re tackling, but a new study suggests that your brain is usually working a few steps ahead all on its own and it makes your decisions long before you consciously think about them.

The study, which was published in Scientific Reports, reveals that what we often think of as free will and our ability to make decisions on the fly isn’t nearly as cut-and-dry. Your brain, it turns out, might be running the show largely in the background.

Brain Scanners Can See Your Decisions Before You Make Them

In a study published Sunday in Nature Neuroscience, researchers using brain scanners could predict people's decisions seven seconds before the test subjects were even aware of making them.

The decision studied -- whether to hit a button with one's left or right hand -- may not be representative of complicated choices that are more integrally tied to our sense of self-direction. Regardless, the findings raise profound questions about the nature of self and autonomy: How free is our will? Is conscious choice just an illusion?

"Your decisions are strongly prepared by brain activity. By the time consciousness kicks in, most of the work has already been done," said study co-author John-Dylan Haynes, a Max Planck Institute neuroscientist.

Brain makes decisions before you even know it - Nature

Your brain makes up its mind up to ten seconds before you realize it, according to researchers. By looking at brain activity while making a decision, the researchers could predict what choice people would make before they themselves were even aware of having made a decision.

The work calls into question the ‘consciousness’ of our decisions and may even challenge ideas about how ‘free’ we are to make a choice at a particular point in time.

 

[Jeremiah Ames]

I was going to answer but couldn’t do it.

I’m guessing the answer wasn’t predestined.

Sorry.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

So...this thread wasn't asking what I THOUGHT it was asking.

Trying to change my assumed answer to one matching this thread. It would be something like 'It's fine as long as the drink is consenting...'
Ahem.

Yeah. I had high hopes too.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

So I have an unfinished Bang energy drink in front of me. About 2/3rds full.

I now have the free will? choice to finish it off or not.

Since I have not yet decided, how can the fate of my Bang energy drink be determined?
I don't really care either way. No desire, no wish for either out come.

Does cause and effect start with my decision?
Or, was the fate of my Bang determined before I was born?

Where an event occurs in a series is an interest to me too. I created a thread on a specific example just recently. In fact, I was confused by your title and thought this thread may be along the same lines.

I can't offer much advice or knowledge on the ultimate determination of your Bang drink, but could it be in a superposition state at the moment? Caught between drunk and not drunk?

In any event, I am sure you will come up with whiz bang conclusion and do a bang up job of it.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

On a more serious note, there isn't a straight binary choice between everything being 'cause and effect' or 'fated'.

Personally, I think it is my destiny to refute fate. But I could be fated for some other destiny.

 

[Aupmanyav]

You have the energy drink before you. When you bought it, you had already made the decision. Act of buying was the decision, drinking it is only an aftermath.

 

[viole]

Or, was the fate of my Bang determined before I was born?

It was.

Ciao

- viole

 

[PureX]

Does cause and effect start with my decision?
Or, was the fate of my Bang determined before I was born?

Maybe both. Not being omniscient, there's no way for us to tell.

 

[Secret Chief]

So I have an unfinished Bang energy drink in front of me. About 2/3rds full.

I now have the free will? choice to finish it off or not.

Since I have not yet decided, how can the fate of my Bang energy drink be determined?
I don't really care either way. No desire, no wish for either out come.

Does cause and effect start with my decision?
Or, was the fate of my Bang determined before I was born?

I don't know, but you're younger than I imagined.

 

[Meow Mix]

So I have an unfinished Bang energy drink in front of me. About 2/3rds full.

I now have the free will? choice to finish it off or not.

Since I have not yet decided, how can the fate of my Bang energy drink be determined?
I don't really care either way. No desire, no wish for either out come.

Does cause and effect start with my decision?
Or, was the fate of my Bang determined before I was born?

First of all, phrasing! ( @lewisnotmiller )

Anyway, this reminds me of Buridan's *** (ok, seriously, are we not doing phrasing anymore?)

Buridan's *** is the donkey sort of *** (so I will say donkey from now on, now that I'm done giggling). The story goes that Buridan's donkey is thirsty, and there are two buckets of water equidistant from the donkey in front of it: one on the left, and one on the right.

The question is, does the donkey make a choice when it drinks from one of the buckets, or are they determined to? If they drink from the bucket on the left for instance, is it because they chose the left bucket, or was there perhaps a hair that was slightly different that made it slightly that much easier to turn to the left, or perhaps a breeze, etc.?

I'm not answering the problem of Buridan's ***, just pointing out that it's similar to your question, and you would likely be able to find a lot of scholarly articles and thoughts by looking up Buridan's ***. (Ok, last phrasing).

Edit: looks like *** gets edited out anyway.

 

[Hermit Philosopher]

May I be a complete fool and ask a silly question first…?

What exactly is a “Bang energy drink”?

 

[Brian2]

Brain makes decisions before you even know it - Nature
The work calls into question the ‘consciousness’ of our decisions and may even challenge ideas about how ‘free’ we are to make a choice at a particular point in time.

My understanding is that our brain develops neural pathways dependant on what we habitually decide.
I would say that if we want to we can go against those body decisions that are habitual. It is hard to stop smoking but it can be done.
Sometimes we can consciously choose one path and when the time comes to exercise that choice we go along with what our body decided for us. The body is definitely a weak link much of the time when it comes to actually making decisions consciously.
Or maybe I should say that the body is actually the strong one in our decision making.

 

[ChristineM]

So I have an unfinished Bang energy drink in front of me. About 2/3rds full.

I now have the free will? choice to finish it off or not.

Since I have not yet decided, how can the fate of my Bang energy drink be determined?
I don't really care either way. No desire, no wish for either out come.

Does cause and effect start with my decision?
Or, was the fate of my Bang determined before I was born?

Go for it. As they used to say in tricky situations like this 'close your eyes and think of England'

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Go for it. As they used to say in tricky situations like this 'close your eyes and think of England'

That's never quite done it for me, tbh. Still, I suspect there are many people's around the world who are used to having England in mind whilst getting....

Meh...not sure how to complete that without breaking a rule or two.