Art Without Free Will

No self to have free will, no self to not have free will.
inb4: Compatibilism (???), "I freely chose to watch this video about not having free will", and "Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills." -Schopenhauer
Here's better videos about free will, but mine's about art so gimmie a break:
Alex O'Connor's, who I agree with on finding compatibilism uncompelling: • Compatibilism Debunked...
Sam Harris sums up a no-free-will position from the ground up:
• Final Thoughts on Free...
His tiny book "Free Will" is also good.
Robert Sapolsky's book "Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will" is very good and has great examples of how our intuitions around what we're "responsible" for have shifted throughout history. Here's a clip of him discussing free will: • Do We Have Free Will? ...

[@Ascendingstorm]

I now choose to watch this video

[@kyokusei]

it's fascinating hearing these points and just nodding & agreeing, already having experiences that confirm these views for me. all the active efforts i have ever put towards art have only taught me that i was never in control in the first place. really appreciated a dedicated video on this (and the workshop!)

[@eldenbahni]

I really needed to hear this today. Lately, my mind has been pulling some mental gymnastics to convince me to feel a whole lot of worry and anxiety, and it has left me quite exhausted. Glad to be reminded that I have a say in how I feel about myself and about my practice. Thank you Steven

[@ScottHebertArt]

11:30 Steven: Nothing super unusal is going on over here Also Steven: There's no free will. You are not yourself. You've never seen yourself. There is no little man inside your head looking at a screen. You aren't in your visual field, There is no visual field. Color is a myth. AI sucks. Make art anyways

[@arashi.nakamura]

These videos always feel like a sigh of relief. Like a long needed exhale of the spirit if not but for a moment and many small moments to come. I was working on a project when I saw the notification for this video, and long after the 40 minutes were up, your talk rolled around my mind as I watched my hand make marks. Much thanks, as always, for covering the nature of topics you do

[@Ty6260]

The particles in my nervous system really gotta start practicing shading its getting embarrassing for them

[@yakguts008]

Basically… after you peel away all the the layers of bullshit. What you truly want to draw is either cute anime girls or goblins. There is no in between.

[@madrigal924]

the video quality/lighting is phenomenal on this one

[@aishaw132]

Watching you helped me create an environment for mindful motivational creation of art. I now protect my environment and schedule time for my art and have less frustration with my art. Thanks

[@eldenbahni]

"Happy Drawing" That simple statement really stands out to me in the context of this video. For years I've thought of it as a gentle phrase of encouragement from Steven at the end of a video, but suddenly it feels like a Mantra encompassing his whole philosophy of making art.

[@johnvickman]

27:31 I was resonating with so much of what was being said, but the devils advocate in me was like, “wait, then isn’t deciding to do all that ‘change’ free will? There’s gotta be something I’m missing.” And Steven immediately addressed that. He’s good…

[@FrilledMayfly_AmberlyFerrule]

This video really came at just the right time! Been on a wild spiritual journey for like two to three on the now, feels like all that was preparing me to accept this video

[@samankucher5117]

oh god its one of those videos that makes me unable to sleep out of fear .... i chose to watch this is the morning .

[@pedroassis4780]

i was watching some of your old videos today Steven, while asking myself when you would post again. pleasant surprise

[@AdamStrawberry]

wonderful video as always steven

[@Sarandosil]

I'm still early in the video so I'm committing the cardinal sin of commenting before finishing it, but I think it's appropriate the conversation turns towards definitions, tedious as it is. Because it helps to drill down to what phenomenon people are talking about when they argue about free will. The incredulity that a lot of people have about free will not existing is for a simple sense that they make decisions. It's important here to remember that information processing is a physical thing; you have a brain, it collects information, it makes decisions, and that process leaves an imprint in your consciousness. That's not an illusion, in the sense there's phenomenon to be noticed. The illusion is in how it works, which isn't introspectively available, any more than most of what our brain does. A sense of self seems to us to be at the nexus of the information processing, but that self reliably disappears when you go looking for it, and yet you still move through the world without it. Ok I will listen to the rest of this now

[@aishaw132]

❤ I've always felt that the idea that you have a cult is satirical and sarcasm at its foundation. Those who like your material is more relatable than influential. Most of us already have these thoughts and ideas, we just like that someone is expressing that it's okay to think about these things. Art as "struggling artists" mentality is referencing monetary struggling but also mental/emotional/psychological struggling artists and I love how you address that. A lot of drive for ppl is monetary, so connecting with the latter is important to me. ❤ One doesn't have to agree with all aspects with someone's ideas and foundations in order to have an intellectual conversation.

[@JeyRamm]

I wonder who was asking all these questions, someone from workshop tag Tarek and Maria LOL

[@Reaching_for_Divine]

Tarek and Maria can you hear me

[@MoyoWango]

If only Steven could tell me what to eat.

[@michaelvins3215]

The main takeaway for me is that, when I'm struggling to continue with something, it's not due to some inexorable weakness of "my will", but instead deleterious and often malleable habits (especially mental ones). I think that's part of what makes giving up the notion of free will so freeing, at least once you start taking it seriously like you said. Although, this concept of free will is rather culturally ingrained, and it certainly takes effort and a lot of reminding for many of us to avoid falling back into pointless agony over it.

[@michaelvins3215]

It's also so hard to talk about denying free will without using words that imply its existence, but I guess that's just how our language is designed...

[@daklr2501]

This video takes me back to my reading of Nietzsche, Carl Jung, and the whole idea of fate, or destiny which I've learned to love. There's a sense of inevitability and certainty that becomes extremely comforting when you no longer force yourself into this untennable position (in its causing decision paralysis anxiety) of "i have free will and can do anything at any time" which helps a lot with narrowing down the number of choices or compulsions you have in life. Or understand that there really aren't any other choices than what you are compelled to do. Just the whole concept of causality that comes along with it, understanding the causes and effects of certain actions you took wilfully or ones that were thrust upon you against your will. As much as i hate the medical terms for their overuse, seld-diagnosis, and in the context of people in their attempts to deny their own agency in a not a nihilistic, but an openly invested and pessimistic way: understanding *trauma* among other formative life experiences is to understand the cause and effect of your own life. *Not* an excuse so that you might indulge negative, maladaptive behaviors or to lie dejected, and surrendering yourself to all of life's cruelties; Conveniently and Exclusively taking negative interpretations from every oncoming situation (to act and believe things that are life denying instead of life affirming). No, you use trauma to understand and interpret your current motivations narratively, as if you yourself were a character. You know yourself when you know why you are the way you are and why you do the things you do. Again, it isnt permission to do ill to yourself or others, it isnt a crutch like the 'soul' or 'self' is, its knowledge that is practical and useful for all matters regarding you, and it simply is, with no magical or mystical properties about it. This whole idea of fate is like the ideas of both nature and nurture acting together to inform the current person's actions removed of self. This is my interpretation of the video and me fitting it within what I already understand. Amor fati.

[@bearmug]

i felt too dumb to understand the topic, but i managed to finish a drawing throughout the whole video

[@Bunuffin]

The only people without free will are the one without inner dialog and without imagination... I took a spiritual lens to it, some people have no soul, like a self driving car that is our body it needs that spark, the driver to make conscious decision in crucial situations when the cold hard machine would fail.

[@daklr2501]

Some people are just of weaker will by nature, of low ambition and conformist by inherent tendency. It isn't to be despised or anything, it just is.

[@jb-kx3rk]

when i close my eyes, everyone stops existing

[@daklr2501]

Really went "celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing" at the end there. Just like Parabola, parable, parabol... you know , the tool song.

[@damiene5360]

Gamers unite to show OldManSethus some love! Great guy. Funny, manly and humble. Recently battled the c and won.

[@tylersdadx]

Ohh hell yea, ive been waiting for this video

[@AhmedAldoori]

111

[@Reaching_for_Divine]

555

[@lakasilum]

Seeing Steven not drawing baffles me

[@draw_ki_]

Thank you for the great video Steven, I had an elaborate comment explaining my view but I accidentally deleted it and can't be bothered to write it again :/ I believe in free will but using a different definition (lol) similar to Sartre's Existentialism, tho I agree with everything you said.

[@salmadys]

My personal problem with this "spiritual" Type of shit is that, in this times of turmoil it is a great business move to turn into some kind of spiritual Guru. And every practice now has to add some sort of self help component as an added value: But in reality all these modern spiritual gurus just muddy the waters and cause more harm than good. From the Jordan Petersons to the Deepak Chopras; It's just selling a coping devices for the masses in the best of cases; And insidious ideologies in the worst.

[@OrangeGordon]

☮️ and ❤️

[@syntaxrigger]

Hell yeah! ❤❤

[@hatbox_the_empty]

Are we the AI of the Universe then?

[@average3970]

haven't watched yet, all I can say is the lighting is beautiful, and steven is also beautiful

[@thesunthrone]

Ah, guess youtube ate my comment. Alas.

[@projp9057]

Wow

[@MrAaaaazzzzz00009999]

do zen buddhists believe in god? It seems that theyre trying to connect to a creator but they just label it as "the universe" and say they dont believe in god, which imo is strange because i think god would be synonymous with 'all that there is'

[@telepathicfish1489]

yesssssss

[@talisperse]

I don’t know. I find compatibilism pretty compelling.