A chap called George Ortega contacted me recently about a video of my free will talk to the South Hampshire Humanists. He runs a small local cable project about free will in the States. Anywho, he is planning on using the video as the backbone for four of his cable shows, which is great.

What is more impressive, is this quote from him:

 
This is far and away the best refutation of free will available anywhere! I'm only about 1/3rd of the way through it, and Johno Pearce wowed me so completely with his explorations of the theological implications of a "free" will that I find myself here at past 3am telling the facebook world about it. I'm planning to tape four episodes of my show that feature a video he did for You Tube recently, and I really hadn't planned to read his book anytime soon. (I just had no idea how good it is) So, the causal past had it rain day after day after day around here, and I found myself with more time for learning and reflection than I had counted on. Check out the cover he designed. The numerically increasing dominoes suggest not only the causality that governs everything, but the causal expansion of the universe since its beginning at the big bang. His placing a person in the middle suggests how we human beings are a part of, and inexorably bound by, this causality. I'm guessing he used a white domino at the beginning to suggest that we simply don't know what happened before the big bang. The only criticism I would have is that the title presents free will as a question, when Pearce humbly, yet devastatingly and unequivocally, provides us with the answer. I hope he'll follow up soon with a book that more comprehensively focuses on the harm the free will illusion causes, and how we could create a far more wonderful world by finally overcoming it. Jonathan M. S. Pearce is quite possibly, considering the importance of the question of human will to humanity's future, the quintessential genius not only of our time, but of all time. Anyone who doubts the importance of what he's done by explaining so completely and clearly why free will is an illusion might want to check out the quote by philosopher John Searle that I have as the opening of each of my show's episodes. And Pearce's book communicates engagingly and intelligently in a style that the public, and not just academics, can understand and fully appreciate. I'll post a link to his video, which is good, but not nearly as good as his book, in the comments. Hey, I absolutely wish I'd have been chosen to write this book, but am happy I've been chosen to understand it's significance, and help leads the world to it. He's from England. You know, that island Isaac Newton, the guy I guess now in second place among all-tme greats, came from. The Brits so rock!!!


Wow!

Check out his website:  http://causalconsciousness.com/