Believe

Free will is fascinating, especially from an engineering perspective. I have often wondered if it is possible to create an artificial free will. To learn more, I took the upper division theme course Minds, Brains, and Machines at California State University, Chico. During the course, Professor Daguerre introduced an interesting concept regarding our system of beliefs and how it directs our will. Basically, we do not choose our beliefs. We simply believe what we believe. We act on our beliefs and we are bound by our beliefs.

For the Multicultural Literature course at California State University, Chico, we are currently reading the novel Jasmine, by Bharati Mukherjee. The main character Jasmine is introduced as a “fast and venturesome” young woman fighting a culture bounded by predestination. In the opening sentence, “Under a banyan tree… an astrologer… foretold [of her] widowhood and exile” (p 3). To Jasmine’s disbelief, the astrologer continues on, “Fate is Fate. When Behula’s bridegroom was fated to die of a snakebite on their wedding night, did building a steel fortress prevent his death? A magic snake will penetrate solid walls when necessary” (p 4). The society she is raised in is fatalistic, and believes free will ultimately has no effect on destiny. While she fights it, her belief system must be, to one degree or another, shaped by it.

She is also a very bright student, and when asked by her father, “[Your teacher] is wanting you to work in a bank. You can be steno. You have my blessing,” she says no, "I don’t want to be a steno. I don’t want to be a teller, either. I want to be a doctor and set up my own clinic in a big town. Like the mustached doctor I the bazaar clinic, I want to scrape off cataracts, fit plastic legs on stumps, work miracles” (p 51). As she is given permission from her father to pursue a nontraditional gender role, a steno, she proclaims a desire to pursue another nontraditional gender role, a doctor. Since permission had already been granted, it is clear that she is running towards a dream rather than away from tradition. Even so, I do not think she would wait for permission, as her belief system is clearly different than her father’s.

She also demonstrates surprising fearlessness in the face of death. During a scene at the end of chapter eight, she is attacked by a rabid dog. She says, “I knew it had come for me, not for the other women. It had picked me as its enemy. I wasn’t ready to die… I let the dog inch so close I could feel a slimy vapor spray out of its muzzle. I let it crouch and growl its low, terrible, gullety growl. I took aim and waited for it to leap on me” (pp 56-57). Somehow, deep down, she knows she will not die in that moment, and simply lets the dog decide whether or not it will die. She does not actively try to scare the dog off, but she also does not passively react in fear like the women who are with her. Instead, with cool determination, she waits to enact one of any number of contingencies. It is only in fear that we do not act on our belief system. We surrender control of our own actions when we are overrun by fear.

There is also a moment during chapter two where the much older Jasmine, living in Iowa, eludes to a passive side of her personality. She says, “[My husband to be] is happy. And I am happy enough” (p21). While the situation is complicated by the fact she is expecting (his child), her acceptance of the fact she is not fully content with the situation demonstrates a subtle passiveness. Perhaps a threshold has not been reached, or perhaps she has decided it is not a battle to fight.

By the end of chapter eight, I believe Jasmine has demonstrated both active and passive moments. She has actively rebelled against a repressive status quo, demonstrated a brave and determined self-preservation, and passively accepted an imperfect world. She is an amazing character, and as all of her actions are shaped by her beliefs, a soft-determinist would say she demonstrates free will. She does not have a subaltern or oppressed spirit. What a far reaching goal for a roboticist.