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Can't Stop Remix (feat. Mariella)

from See From Space by Baba Brinkman

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about

The philosophy of free will compatiblism set to a beat. Based on Dan Dennett's discussion with Sam Harris and his defense of freedom in the book "Freedom Evolves".

Further reading:
• www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-marionettes-lament
• www.theguardian.com/science/2013/may/22/daniel-dennett-aristotle-flaming-idiot

lyrics

Dan Dennett Voiceover:
Many people think the implications of this are dreadful
We don’t really have “free will”, and nothing really matters

Listen to this lyric, it isn’t freestyle, it’s written 
I wrote it of my own “free will” – it was my decision 
Every intimate constituent part of it was deliberate 
I considered how to script it and how to stand and deliver it 
Forethought, but that doesn't mean nothin’ comes before thought 
Take to look at the source of your thoughts, you might find the door's blocked 
If every decision is made in a part of my brain that's invisible to me 
That's “will”, but with a subliminal origin, I'm not thinkin' it's too “free” 
But if not me, who was it that chose to bust the rhyme? 
And if the clock was reset, I bet I could not have done otherwise
If every molecule and brain state was in the same place 
The same thing would happen, so what sense does blame make? 
Or praise make? I’m trainin’ to bring nothin’ but my game face 
Even if the outcome of the race goes back to big bang days 
In a deterministic universe that obeys the laws of physics 
It takes a magic wand to make a truly uncaused decision 
So there’s no such thing as absolute responsibility 
And the more we discover, the more we degrade culpability 
Every brain tumor found in someone who shoots up a playground
Tells us that we’re nothin’ but brain tumors all the way down

I can’t stop believin’ I can choose
I feel it in my molecules
Words and deeds, not wants and moods
Freedom is only strong when it’s used

I feel it in my molecules
Believin’ I can choose
Freedom
Is only strong when it’s used

Dennett Voiceover: 
People are surprisingly good 
At distracting themselves 
From ominous prospects 
But don’t give up hope 
Quantum physics to the rescue! 

But wait, what if a random quantum fluctuation
Breaks up the universe’s basic deterministic nature?
A swerve we can surf, a wave-particle duality
That puts a human agent back in the chain of causality?
Don’t waste my time with that quantum tomfoolery
If a swerve is truly random, it’s got nothin’ to do with me!
I want “free will” that puts me back in the drivers seat
And makes me the author of the rhymes I recite on beats
I spent a lot of time trainin’ my brain to rhyme
At the drop of a dime; that’s a kind of freedom I can claim as mine
Freedom isn’t a metaphysical state at the level of atoms
It’s a collection of talents that each of us can develop and manage
Freedom evolves, evolution gave us the building blocks
Absolute freedom? Maybe not, but more than a digger wasp
And more than prefrontal cortex lesion patients living today
I’ll take the freedom I’ve got over the non-freedom of Phineas Gage
Freedom is having a brain that can reject options
Detect imposters and dodge sucker punches like boxers
Freedom is having a brain that can navigate obstacles
In a continuous exploration of the adjacent possible
A brain that’s free enough to identify goals and pursue them
And recognize the reasons why, even if it’s prone to illusions
Freedom, it’s what you have to skip a song or rewind it
And it’s yours to lose, if you lack the will to find it

 

I can’t stop believin’ I can choose
I feel it in my molecules
Words and deeds, not wants and moods
Freedom is only strong when it’s used

I feel it in my molecules
Believin’ I can choose
Freedom
Is only strong when it’s used
 

Dennett Voiceover:
 
Free will is like the air we breath
We count on it, but it is neither a
Metaphysical background condition
Nor a fundamental physical condition 
It evolved, and is still evolving

Freedom
Is only strong when it’s used

credits

from See From Space, released July 11, 2019
Produced and Mixed by Lin G
Original Track Produced by Soulful Spider
Cuts by Mr. Simmonds

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Baba Brinkman New York, New York

Science rapper and inventor of several novel hip-hop variants. Canadian transplant to New York. Pathological optimist.

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